January 2024 Tasting Report: Nature’s Best from Napa, Balanced Barolos and Germany’s Stunning Whites

We rated 2,298 wines to kick off the first month of 2024, and came away with five perfect-scoring wines – four from Napa Valley’s 2021 vintage and one from Hungary. And among the 19 wines that we scored 99 or 100 points, nine were Napa Valley 2021s, four were from Barolo’s 2020 vintage and three were from Sonoma’s 2022.

Why all the top scorers from Napa? According to Colgin winemaker Allison Tauzier, who received two perfect ratings from us with her Colgin Cellars Napa Valley Cariad 2021 and Colgin Cellars Syrah Napa Valley IX Estate 2021, it was all down to nature. “It was an early season and an early opportunity to retain a lot of great flavor,” she said in a chat with James (below left). “It has a real natural concentration.”

According to James, this means the wines are more aromatic and denser in body than some past recent top vintages, but not heavy or too high in alcohol. He called the Harlan Estate 2021 the “freshest and greatest red so far in our tastings of 2021 California,” and described the Promontory 2021 as “energized with pure, airy, bright fruit.” Together, he said, they define the new “3.0 rendition of great Napa Valley reds.”

James also thinks it’s a “golden moment” for Sonoma, and that shows in the three top-scoring 2022 wines from RAEN – the RAEN Chardonnay Sonoma Coast Fort Ross-SeaView Charles Ranch 2022, RAEN Chardonnay Sonoma Coast Lady Marjorie 2022 and RAEN Pinot Noir Sonoma County Sonoma Coast Freestone Occidental Bodega Vineyard 2022.

And the Sterling Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Mt. Veeder Yates Vineyard 2021, Faust Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Coombsville The Pact 2021 and Hewitt Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Rutherford Double Plus 2021 are all representative of the delicious, moderately tannic and not overly alcoholic wines from the 2021 vintage that are now filling the gap in the marketplace left by the paucity of 2020 releases – a year that was troubled by smoke effects from wildfires that raged through Napa and Sonoma and resulted in a high percentage of wineries releasing few or no 2020 red wines.

We also tasted some excellent wines from Virginia during the month, with the offerings of Barboursville Vineyards highlighting the rising quality of the state’s wines. Their Barboursville Vineyards Nebbiolo Virginia Reserve 2020 is a firm and deep red that is best approached in a few years but already exudes beautiful red fruit, orange and tar notes, while their Cabernet Franc Virginia Goodlow Mountain 2021 captures the essence of cabernet franc with fine tannins, bright acidity and black fruit laced with cedar and iron.

For a top East Coast chardonnay, Early Mountain makes one of the best in the Early Mountain Chardonnay Virginia Quaker Run Vineyard 2021, which is wonderfully fresh and elegant with a delicious combination of lemon, cream and cashew running throughout. Check out the chardonnays from Linden and Ankida Ridge, too.

BALANCED BAROLOS

We started our annual tastings of Barolos and Barbarescos in January, diving deep into Barolo’s 2020 vintage and getting our first glimpse of the 2021 Barbarescos. 2020 was another excellent year for Barolo, with a very balanced growing season featuring sunshine, warmth and ample water.

James talked with Pio Cesare winemaker Cesare Benvenuto (above left) about the 2020 Barolos, who called the wines from the vintage “elegant” and comparable to such classically balanced years of the past as 1998, which are drinking beautifully at the moment but gave pleasure early in their evolution. James agreed, saying just about everyone made outstanding wines. It was also an appealing year for both Barolos and Barbarescos because it showed the distinct differences of vineyard sites throughout the two regions.

Among the top Barolos we tasted were the Pio Cesare Barolo Mosconi 2021, the Roberto Voerzio Barolo Fossati 2020 and the Vietti Barolo Monvigliero 2020, with the latter capturing our attention with its elegance, fragrance and idiosyncratic character. Vietti’s winemaker, Eugenio Palumbo, said the distinctively Mediterranean character of the wine was the result of various factors, including the use of 60 percent whole-cluster fermentation and the influence of the terroir.

There were plenty of other outstanding-quality newly released Barolos and Barbarescos we tasted, from key names including Azelia, Ceretto, Elvio Cogno, Damilano, Giacomo Borgogno, La Spinetta, Moccagata and Oderro, among others.

An additional bottle James rated from Italy was this year’s release of Sassicaia, the 2021, and it “was clear a step up from the 2020,” James said, with more structure and freshness and a quality level “up there with some of the best of recent years.”

James also managed to spend some time at his vineyard in Martinborough, New Zealand, where he visited some wineries in the area, with one of the top tastings coming at Martinborough Vineyard. Their Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Martinborough Marie Zelie Reserve 2019 and Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Martinborough 40th Anniversary Special Release 2018 are both “classic Martinborough pinots in character,” with the 2018 Special Release “a little less flashy than the Zelie,” with plenty of ripeness as well as structure, James said.

He also tasted Te Mata’s famous Bordeaux blend, the Te Mata Hawkes Bay Coleraine 2022. James said it isn’t on the same level as the “fabulous” 2021 but is very close in quality to 2020, showing beautiful aromatics and a fresh and vivid palate, as well as a sleek structure.

STUNNING WHITES AND MORE FROM GERMANY

In Germany, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott tasted an intoxicating slew of wines in southern Baden and Wurttemberg. Despite the difficult growing season in 2021, Martin Wassmer in southern Baden made a trio of stunning wines from the Castellberg site, with the  Martin Wassmer Chardonnay Dottinger Castellberg GC 2021 “the most remarkable of them,” Stuart said.

“The pronounced acidity typical of the vintage is a very positive feature of the wine, giving it great brilliance and vitality to balance the excellent concentration and chalky minerality,” Stuart said, adding that the Martin Wassmer Pinot Noir Baden Dottinger Castellberg GC 2021, with its deep nose of cassis and wild blackberry plus notes of roasted meat and rosemary, is a pinot to look for if you want “great energy and drive.

Stuart said he was also impressed by all the wines southern Baden winemaker Johannes Landerer sent him to taste, with the standout being the Landerer Spätburgunder Baden Eichberg 2022. Its “stunning nose of sour cherries and violets with discreet vanilla oak leads into a very sensual palate with tannins that are wonderfully silky in spite of the wine’s youth,” Stuart said, adding that the wine strongly suggested that German’s 2022 will turn out to be an excellent vintage.

Stuart found a wealth of winemaking ambition and innovation in the underrated Wurttemberg region. There, the “almost perfect Graf Neipperg Muskateller Württemberg Schlossberg Trockenbeerenauslese 2018 “was as surprisingly fresh as it was concentrated and full-bodied, with an exotic fruit coulis character (think passion fruit, mangosteen and mango) and the almost endless finish super-precise and totally brilliant,” Stuart said.

The same vintner gave us the "stunning" Graf Neipperg Syrah Württemberg S.E. 2019, and the Graf Neipperg Spätburgunder Württemberg Ruthe GG 2020, with its bold character and abundant tannins on an expansive palate. Stuart’s favorite red from Wurttemberg, however, was the Albrecht Schwegler Württemberg Granat 2019 – an “enormously structured red with an imposing and plush tannin structure, or exactly the type of wine the world least expects from Germany!”

Stuart also said he was “just wowed” by a row of silvaner wines from the Luckert winery, with the Luckert Silvaner Franken Creutz Trocken *** 2022, at the top of his list. Stuart said it “has enormous concentration and textural complexity with an aroma of orange blossom. The mind-glowingly long finish has extraordinary vitality and precision.”

DANGEROUSLY DRINKABLE

In Australia, Ned Goodwin MW tasted the blended wines of Brash Higgins in McLaren Vale. One that stood out was the Brash Higgins Riesling Semillon McLaren Vale RSM Saddlebags Hill Vineyard 2022, which mixes 70 per cent riesling with 30 per cent semillon. Ned called it  “among the more intriguing white wines of Australia and almost subliminal in terms of refinement,” making it “dangerously easy to drink.” An equally good cabernet sauvignon was the Brash Higgins Cabernet Sauvignon McLaren Vale CBSV Omensetter Vineyard 2021, which “rides a prodigious licorice strap finale to the effect of a powerful wine that is moreish and nourishing.”

From the region of Beechworth, Ned found “the finest New World nebbiolo” he has ever tasted in the Domenica Nebbiolo Beechworth 2021, saying that “it attests to the notion that in the very best hands, nebbiolo can be akin to pinot noir from another mother.”

“Nudging the Domenica as the gatekeeper to the firmament was the Sentio Nebbiolo Beechworth 2021, which was just a little more bumptious of fruit than Domenica’s frisky iteration,” Ned added. Ned said he was also smitten by the Domenica Chardonnay Beechworth 2022, which is “nervous in the mouth while suitably open-knit enough to breach already.

In Hong Kong, Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk had an exclusive vertical tasting of the various cuvees of Hungarian winery Disznoko Tokaji via a Zoom call with Disznoko winemaker Laszlo Meszaros. The lineup of more than 30 wines highlighted the diversity of their offerings, but the standouts were from Disznoko’s Eszencia bottlings, which we tasted back to 2009. Try the perfect-scoring 2013 Eszencia to see what an extraordinary wine this can be. There are no extreme edges in it, and it’s beautiful and delicate, combining aromas from all spectrums, including dried stone and tropical fruit, floral fragrance, notes of oolong tea, bergamot, cardamom and turmeric.

Finally, Stuart Pigott set aside some time to finally taste the wines of Israel’s Odem Mountain Winery, which he didn’t have the opportunity to do when he was in the country last year. Odem Mountain’s cabernet sauvignons were especially impressive, with Stuart likening the Odem Mountain Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Galilee Alfasi Special Edition 2015 to serious Napa cabernet, “thanks to its generous cassis and elderberry aromas with a touch of bitter chocolate.”

The Odem Mountain Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Galilee 1060 Estate 2018 was even more elegant, he said, and there was even a standout nebbiolo – the Odem Mountain Winery Nebbiolo Israel Reserve 2019, which Stuart said “has an excellent combination of floral delicacy, plum and rosemary aromas plus a firm tannin structure,” leading him to believe that Nebbiolo “has a bright future” in the country.

– Vince Morkri, Managing Editor

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