Kumeu River Strikes Again, Plus Schwegler’s Powerful Reds: Weekly Tasting Report (Nov 2-8)

The JamesSuckling.com team, which included James and Associate Editors Claire Nesbitt and Nathan Slone, racked up some frequent flyer miles to get to New Zealand and Australia in late September, and tasted more than 800 wines in New Zealand alone. James later headed off with one of his buddies from Hong Kong, John Dibble, and visited almost two dozen wineries and many of the key wine regions in New Zealand, including Matakana, Waikehe Island, Nelson, Marlborough, Martinborough and Central Otago. They found some fantastic wines and rated more than 140 95 points or more. They’re some of the best wines we have ever tasted from the country, and the great potential of pinot noir was especially evident. James will have his full report on New Zealand out soon, and it’s going to be a beaut.

One of those great pinots is the Bell Hill Pinot Noir Wakari 2018, which hails from the South Island's Canterbury region. It has fantastic complexity, depth, power and texture, with aromas ranging from black and red fruit to thyme, porcini and cracked pepper. The Prophet’s Rock 2017, from Central Otago, is more compact and muscular, with savory, firm and focused layers.

Contrast these to Ata Rangi’s Martinborough pinot noirs from the North Island, the 2020 Masters and 2020 McCrone Vineyard. These are new single-vineyard bottlings, with exciting aromas ranging from green strawberry and hibiscus tea (Masters) to rose and negroni (McCrone Vineyard), with silky, velvety tannins. Both are truly exciting wines. There are many other fantastic pinots in the tasting notes below, including from Mount Edward, Dry River, Escarpment, Greystone and Pyramid Valley, just to name a few.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF 2021

As for syrah and Bordeaux varietals, check out the wines from Hawke’s Bay, such as the Bilancia Syrah Hawkes Bay La Collina 2020. It’s beautifully perfumed with an incredible amount of spicy complexity - think pepper, paprika, clove and coriander - with a tight structure. The Trinity Hill Syrah Hawkes Bay Homage 2019 is another top example, with delicious savoriness and meaty quality. And don’t miss the flagship wines from Te Mata (Coleraine 2020) and Stonyridge in Waiheke (Larose 2021), both of which are incredibly structured and classy.

But our highest scoring New Zealand wine was the Kumeu River Chardonnay Kumeu Maté's Vineyard 2021, the previous vintage of which we named our 2021 Wine of the Year. James has called this wine the “Montrachet of New Zealand.” It’s made from a 2.6-hectare single vineyard named after the Brajkovich brothers’ late father, Maté.

As with all the chardonnays from the estate, it is whole-cluster pressed, wild-fermented and matured with limited new oak. The 2021 is fantastically mineral, compact and phenolic, with a mind-blowing intensity lasting for minutes. It follows on as the third in a trio of great vintages in New Zealand and leads the charge for the impressive chardonnay offerings of the country. Look out for more stellar chardonnays too from Bell Hill, Neudorf, Pegasus Bay and Trinity Hill.

SCHWEGLER'S POWERFUL REDS

Meanwhile, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was busy wrapping up his tastings for our annual report on Germany, which will be out on Friday. “Most of  them are dry whites from 2021, which are a mixed bag due to the challenging vintage, then along came a trio of powerful, tannic reds from the 2018 vintage that blew me away,” Stuart said.

They were produced by Weingut Albrecht Schwegler in the village of Korb, in the Wurttemberg region and close to Stuttgart, home to the headquarters of Mercedes Benz. “Although they are all based on the Austrian zweigelt grape, they actually taste much more like modern-style red Bordeaux," Stuart said.

The best of them is the stunning Albrecht Schwegler Württemberg Granat 2018, a cuvee of 51 percent  zweigelt plus 26 percent merlot, 17 percent cabernet sauvignon and 6 percent cabertin (a new fungal-resistant crossing from Switzerland). It was matured in 100 percent new oak.

The cuvee for the silky and floral Albrecht Schwegler Württemberg Saphir 2018 includes merlot, cabernet sauvignon and franc, plus a little cabertin. "It reminded me of Pomerol!" Stuart said. The more robust Albrecht Schwegler Würtemberg Beryll 2018 is almost 80 percent Zweigelt, with some cabertin and lemberger.

“Of course, this means they are all totally untypical German reds,” Stuart said. “It was also completely untypical how Albrecht Schwegler made his first wine, the 1990 Granat, in his garage. It was a game-changer for the region and the beginning of the modern age of tannic, structured reds in Germany.“

Today, Albrecht’s son Aaron is the winemaker and he runs the company with his wife, Julia. Back in 1990 the vineyard area was less than one hectare, and that first wine was just 5,000 bottles. Today the vineyard area is around 12 hectares and production is correspondingly greater.

“The Albrecht Schwegler Württemberg Pinot Noir Reserve 2019 is also a great wine, then there’s their chardonnay, dry riesling and sparkling, but that’s another story!“ Stuart added.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF GERMANY 2021

And more than half the wines we tasted over the past week were from South Africa, where Associate Editors Nathan Slone and Andrii Stetsiuk powered through more than 800 wines for our biggest ever annual report on the country. The pair moved on from Stellenbosch last week to the Swartland region, an hour’s drive north of Cape Town. Although Stellenbosch has been perhaps more well-regarded for its quality Bordeaux blends as well as chardonnay, Swartland has the greater proportion of great wines (95-plus points).

David & Nadia’s Skaliekap 2021, for example, shined amid a trio of their single-vineyard chenin blancs, showing seamless balance, complexity, freshness and concentration all rolled into a medium body and silky texture. The Platbos 2021 and Hoe-Steen 2021 also impressed, but all three are worth seeking out and have excellent potential for cellaring. Also check out Mullineux’s Granite 2021 – another highly structured chenin that is mineral, driven and full of clarity – as well as their sweet straw wine.

The reds from Swartland clearly rival those of Stellenbosch. Porseleinberg, a boutique project from the same people behind Boekenhoutskloof, makes a fantastic syrah from a small hill in the middle of the region. Nathan and Andrii tasted a mini-vertical from 2016 to 2020, with 2018 being the highlight: it was savory and textural, with silky, fruit-soaked tannins ­– perhaps accounted for by winemaker Callie Louw’s 100 percent whole-bunch winemaking – and wonderful depth.

Another fantastic syrah-based red, with a sprinkle of other Rhone varietals, is the Sadie Family Columella 2020, which marks the 20th vintage of the wine produced by revolutionary winemaker Eben Sadie. With ever-evolving savory complexity, it shows tension and intensity and will take a couple more years to open up. Swartland’s potential for the grape shows through, too, in Mullineux’s 2020 Iron and Schist syrahs – the former an herbal expression showing beautiful transparency; the latter more brooding, dense and deep. Our two editors also enjoyed tasting a gracefully aging Granite Syrah 2011, 11 years on. The names reflect the varied soils in the Swartland – mostly decomposed granite and schist with pockets of iron and quartz.

One more not to miss is our highest-ever rated South African pinot noir from Bouchard Finlayson, which makes consistently excellent pinot noir and chardonnay in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. The Tete de Cuvee Pinot Noir 2020 is a particular stunner, with an array of red and black berries accompanied by complex, savory mushroom and moss undertones. Only 1,824 bottles made, though, so get one where you can.

– Claire Nesbitt, Associate Editor, and Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.