March 2022 Tasting Report: California’s Wine Edge, and Argentina Blends in the Malbec

We published 2,591 wine ratings in March, from 15 countries. Here’s how the tastings broke down (you can click “sort by” in the notes search engine below to search by each individual country): Argentina, 1,146 (Mendoza, 980); Australia, 141; Canada, 1; China, 12; France, 583 (Beaujolais, 227); Hungary, 44; Italy, 59; Lebanon, 2; New Zealand, 3; Poland, 5; Portugal, 16; South Africa, 10; Spain, 3; U.S., 565 (California, 381); Uruguay 1.

Our cascade of wine ratings from March tells the tale of unique varietals, idiosyncratic blends and breakthrough vintages from popular wine regions such as California, Argentina and France to up-and-coming players like Hungary. But it was Napa, Sonoma and the Central Coast of the Sunshine State that really caught James’ attention during the month.

Using his house in St. Helena as a base, James road-tripped his way up and down the Pacific Coast Highway (and less historic but more convenient roads) to visit some of the leading producers in the U.S., whom he hadn’t seen in person in two years. One of his first stops was Paso Robles, where he tasted fresh and edgy wines of producers like Saxum, L’Aventure, Alban Vineyards, Denner Vineyards, The Royal Nonesuch Farm and Torrin Wines. Many of the bottlings came from Rhone Valley grape types, such as syrah and grenache, blended to make everything from Chateauneuf-inspired pours to new-world creations.

But it's Napa and Sonoma that are really rocking with creative action on the wine front, with many of the bottlings from the two regions showing incredible energy and verve, partly owing to the large difference in temperatures from day to night in these areas, which allows the grapes to ripen beautifully while keeping high natural acidities.

Carlo Mondavi of Raen Winery (left, in an interview with James) is one of the leaders on this front, and he agreed that the region's climate gives an edge to his pinot noirs and tiny-production chardonnay, saying, “The West Sonoma Coast has a unique climate that can’t be compared to anywhere else.”

Several of Raen’s wines came shining through in our tastings, including the Raen Chardonnay Sonoma Coast Fort Ross-SeaView Charles Ranch 2019 and the Raen Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Fort Ross-SeaView Sea Field Vineyard 2020.

But the mountain reds of Napa also dazzled. James said the 2019 vintage has “established a new yardstick for the genre,” as evidenced in the wines of Howell Mountain, Mount Veeder, La Jota, Mount Brave and elsewhere. These are firm and succulent offerings, with all the polished and tender tannins that make for drinkable wines. In fact, James said, 2019 was great all around in Napa, and together with 2018 and 2021 can be seen as a “new era” for great wines in California.

Two wineries that best express this evolution are Bryant Family Vineyard and Screaming Eagle, with their pristine cellars and cool vibes a reflection of the forward-thinking winemakers at each place, Kathryn Carothers of Bryant and Nick Gislason of Screaming Eagle.

The positive energy and serenity of the aging room at Bryant was so great, in fact, that James said it  was “as if the wines in barrel were immersed in the music of a Mozart opera.” James tasted at least one 2021 from Bryant that had the potential to be a 100-point wine, but there were offerings from both that James were “stupendous.” Included among these were Screaming Eagle's two vintage 2018 wines, especially “The Flight,” which James said “must be the greatest merlot-based wine ever made in America."

And if malbec is your thing, Napa’s got that, too. The Hess Collection’s Small Block Series show a “striking earth and fruit character with firm and linear tannins” that James said he had not seen anywhere, including in Argentina, malbec’s spiritual home.

James also traveled south of Napa and Sonoma into California’s Central Coast, where he visited an old friend from Hong Kong, Christian Pillsbury, who runs Eden Rift winery in Hollister and is making terrific young chardonnays and pinot noirs like the Eden Rift Vineyards Chardonnay Cienega Valley Terraces 2018 and the Eden Rift Vineyards Pinot Noir Cienega Valley Palmtag Block 2018.

Farther down the road in the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Rita Hills, James tasted the wines at Jonata Estate and The Hilt winery, which share the same owner as Screaming Eagle, Stan Kroenke. “I found the Rhone-inspired wines of Jonata to be of extremely high quality, but it was the chardonnays of The Hilt that were really superb” and showed a rich fruit character with a steely yet vibrant acidity at the finish, James said.

We also tasted our way through more than 1,000 Argentine wines during the month, with Senior Editor Zekun Shuai and Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt doing the heavy lifting in our Hong Kong office. A standout was the Catena Zapata Chardonnay Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard White Bones 2020, which continues to amaze us with every vintage. Argentina’s greatest wine, however, could be the pure malbec Viña Cobos Malbec Mendoza Cobos. It’s the most consistently highly rated wine from Argentina since JamesSuckling.com began in December 2010, topping out at 100 points on three occasions. This one “has everything in the right place,” according to James, with just the correct amount of intensity, structure and precision to edge it into the sphere of perfection.

But that’s not surprising, considering that the owner of Viña Cobos is the renowned California winemaker Paul Hobbs, whom James visited in Sonoma. “We think these wines play in the world-class league and we compare them to the very best,” Hobbs said during a tasting session with James.

There were dozens of other superb Argentine malbecs, though – both in their purest form and in blends such as the Pionero offering of Bemberg Estate Wines. Both the 2017 and 2018 Pionero vintages have enough of the supreme-quality malbec to go with cabernet sauvignon and cab franc to make for a wonderful caliber of wines.

We also had 583 ratings of French wines during the month, with Senior Editor Stuart Pigott doing the lion’s share of the tasting and much of it focused on Rhone. Stuart made a trip to talk with producers in Rhone and wrote up a special report, and he was impressed with the 2019 and 2020 vintages despite the drought and hot weather during the grape-growing seasons there. Among the names that shined in Rhone were Beaucastel, Domaine du Pegau, Domaine Clape and Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe.

The 2020 Bojos, meanwhile, are a slight step down from the great 2019 and 2018, but there are some wonderful wines made for earlier drinking. Stuart’s special report on Beaujolais will be out next week.

There was also one Italian wine of note that we tasted during the month: the magnum-only release of the Zodiac bottling of Brunello from Castiglion del Bosco: the Castiglion del Bosco Brunello di Montalcino Zodiac Riserva 2015. James called it a “fabulous wine that highlights the intensity and balance of the vintage.”

Finally, Senior Editor Nick Stock found his usual assortment of great bottles during his Australia tastings, featuring such names as Yarra Yering, Nocturne and Aphelion and with an emphasis on grenache and cabernet sauvignon. Nick also dipped into the Aussie riesling scene for a special report on our top picks in the category from recent tastings, dating back to 2021.

There was so much to enjoy in March, and from all over the globe. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

– Vince Morkri, Managing Editor