Making the Most of Nebbiolo, More 2023 Napa Hits and a Stunning Chilean Syrah

The JamesSuckling.com tasting team rated 467 wines over the past week, with Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli leading the charge in Italy, where he tasted Luca Roagna’s latest releases as Roagna showed him around the new wing of his cellar in Castiglione Falleto, in the heart of the Langhe wine area. Once a storage warehouse, the space now houses concrete vats used for the long aging of Roagna’s wines.

Among the striking examples from his bottlings was the perfect-scoring Barbaresco Crichët Pajé Riserva 2004, the latest riserva to hit the market after it spent eight years in large oak vessels followed by 10 years in concrete. Just 300 bottles, along with a handful of large formats, were produced of this extraordinary wine

It’s a complex and fully savory wine with vibrant aromas of minerals, orange zest, earth, meat, umami and more alongside velvety and condensed tannins. The salted chocolate and rhubarb finish seems endless.

The Pajé Riserva, Roagna explained, "requires the longest wait" of any of their wines "and is the least ready to drink, but over time it has no equal and ultimately becomes the most rewarding wine I produce.”

Beyond his flagship bottling, the rest of Roagna’s production is also released later than the average timing for both Barolo and Barbaresco, and later than the requirements set by appellation rules. In recent months, Roagna has been releasing the 2020 vintage for all of his wines.

We had already noted the fleshy, mature character of 2020, a vintage marked by early approachability yet capable of notable depth in the more ambitious wines conceived as the estate’s qualitative peaks.

For Roagna, 2020 was nearly a record year, defined by “one of the longest growing seasons ever” he said. “Harvest itself was classic, from early to mid-October, but vegetative growth began roughly 20 days earlier than usual.”

The potential weakness is slightly lower levels of acidity – around 5.6 to 5.8 grams per liter– and yet the resulting wines strike a delicate balance between ripeness and longevity.

Another defining element of his production is the focus on old vines. Each cru is divided between a classic bottling and a “vecchie viti” version sourced from the oldest vines.

The Roagna Barolo Pira Vecchie Viti 2020 (98 points), from vines planted in 1937, is a very classic Barolo with an old-fashioned style that nonetheless retains freshness and elegance, offering aromas of watermelon, wild strawberries, licorice, lemon leaves and quinine. Full-bodied, firm and velvety, with dense yet integrated tannins, it offers refreshing acidity and a savory finish.

The Roagna Barbaresco Pajé Vecchie Viti 2020 (99) is a stunning Barbaresco, super complex and elegant with aromas of embers, wild strawberries, savory dried flowers, angelica, wet slate and lemon leaves. Vibrant and zesty, full-bodied with firm, dusty yet ripe tannins, juicy and meaty with a chewy finish, it is built to last for decades. The Roagna Barbaresco Asili Vecchie Viti 2020 (99) comes from a tiny 0.22-hectare selection yielding roughly a thousand bottles.

Moving against the trend, Roagna’s Nebbiolo Langhe (94) – also released as a 2020 – is mostly entirely made as a by-product of Barolo and Barbaresco, using pressed wines and young vines.

Roagna ultimately pursues wines that are both classical and austere in conception, shaped by long macerations and extended aging, released only when ready to drink, and in their finest expressions capable of a haunting elegance and enduring freshness.

More Napa 2023 Perfection

The rollout of perfect-scoring wines from Napa’s 2023 vintage continued in our past week of tastings, with the Bond winery adding to their bevy of 100-pointers released this year with their Bond Napa Valley Vecina 2023. But what really stood out for Staff Writer and Critic Ryan Montgomery was the Lithology Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard 2023 (100) – a release from one of California’s, if not the world’s, most celebrated vineyards.

This is a stunning bottling from To Kalon, with so much refinement and perfume, carrying an understated sense of beauty and nuance that can only be described when tasting wines from great vintages and vineyards. Aromas of wild blackberries and currants unfold with layers of wet stone, cedar, bay laurel, fresh liquorice, graphite and spice. The palate is seamlessly integrated with great depth yet no heaviness, with tannins that melt in the mouth and excellent mineral tension that carries a very long finish.

“This is perhaps the best To Kalon I’ve ever made,” Lithology winemaker Matt Sands said while tasting the wine alongside his consultant, Phillipe Melka, who are ecstatic with what the winery produced in the 2023 vintage. The tasting also featured the premiere release of the Lithology Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2023 (98), from a small new planting right next to the winery in St Helena. This release is part of the new wave of Napa sauvignon blancs, showing great tension, purity and a reduction driven style with minerality and freshness.

Many other 2023 Napa cabernet sauvignons scored highly in this report, including the Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville 2023 (97), which has aromas of dark fruit, graphite, potpourri, black olives and spice alongside a full-bodied palate, firmly framed tannins and bright acidity. The Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Benson Vale 2023 (97) – a barrel selection from the best parcels next to To Kalon – is also exceptional.

Ryan also tasted Joe Harden and Phil Holbrook, the winemaking team at Nickel & Nickel who also produce their own label, Salty Goats, which focuses on Napa cabernet sauvignon and coastal pinot noir from Sonoma. The pair met working at Robert Mondavi years ago and have set out to make wines that are not only stylistic and delicious, but affordable for the new generation of wine drinkers.

Their Salty Goats Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Howell Mountain 2023 (96) is a bold, undoubtedly Howell Mountain cabernet with plenty of polish. Aromas of black currants, black olives, graphite and violets lead to a full bodied palate with firmly framed tannins and bright acidity, showing great balance and texture, powerful yet precise.

James, meanwhile, tasted a stunning syrah from Clos du Lican, a project of Chile's Domaines Bournet-Lapostolle, which also operates Lapostolle and Clos Apalta. The Clos du Lican 2023 (98) comes from a high, steep hillside vineyard in the Apalta wine region that is protected by a small forest. Coming from a hot year with moderate rainfall and an average temperature of just 15.4 degrees Celsius in Apalta, the wine is fresh, perfumed and nicely fruity, with a meaty character and ultra-fine tannins.

Nestling on top of the syrah vineyard are two small parcels of viognier, which produces a few thousand bottles of the Clos du Lican Apalta Côte de Madame. The 2025 vintage (97) is a tangy and vibrant expression of pure viognier, delivering lemons, acacia and some honey. It is likely less unctuous than the 2024 (rated last year), with a medium body cut through by bright acidity and plenty of sliced green apple and green melon.

Clos du Lican’s winemaker, the “Rhone-esque” Andrea Leon, as she describes herself, also made some terrific grenache-syrah-mouvedre (GSM) blends. The 2023 vintage saw great success in the Clos du Lican Apalta Côte de Monsieur 2023 (97), which shows its Mediterranean class with bay leaves, rocks, blue fruit and white pepper spices. This wine, along with the Clos du Lican 2023 and Cote de Madame 2024, are being released this week through La Place de Bordeaux.

– Aldo Fiordelli, Ryan Montgomery and Zekun Shuai contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. 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.

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