March 2023 Tasting Report: Argentine Perfection, Bojo Stunners and Opulent American Chardonnay

The March tastings at JamesSuckling.com were heavy on Argentina and Beaujolais in conjunction with our annual reports on the two wine hotspots. In all during the month we rated nearly 3,000 wines from 13 countries, including outliers like Israel and even Brazil. It was Argentina, though, that really popped our corks, not just for the sheer amount of wines we tasted (1,286) but for their quality: five of the 11 wines we gave scores of 100 or 99 points to were from the Andean nation.

Right at the top of our ratings was a rare semillon from Bodega Norton that Senior Editor Zekun Shuai said left him with goosebumps. Zekun shared a bottle of the Bodega Norton Semillón Argentina Vino Fino Blanco 1959 with Norton winemaker David Bonomi, who said it was an “epiphanic wine” that steered him down the path of making wines from the low-profile varietal. Yes, it’s an older wine, and no, it isn’t available on the market, but this beautiful, long-lived and nectar-like semillon shows why more producers and growers in Argentina have been planting semillon over the past few years as they try to revive its glory days.

Another Mendoza winery, El Enemigo, gave us our second Argentine 100-pointer with its Cabernet Franc Gualtallary Gran Enemigo Single Vineyard 2019 – the first cabernet franc from South America to receive a perfect score from us. According to Zekun, it’s a wine that delivers nervy freshness and mineral tension and is deliciously austere and textured with mealy, chalky tannins that dissolve on the palate. It also highlights the purity of the 2019 vintage, which many Mendoza winemakers believe is one of the top ones over the last decade.

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF ARGENTINA 2022

Catena Zapata gave us two more of our top scorers for the month from its “grand cru” Adrianne vineyard in the Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae 2021 and that Catena Zapata’s Adrianna Vineyard White Stones 2021. The first is one of the best malbecs ever from the 1.4-hectare parcel, showing impressive depth, concentration and finesse, while the White Stones resembles the finest Chablis with its wet-stone minerals and tension. Catena Zapata’s Adrianna Vineyard White Bones 2021 is even more of a standout, though, with its wild thyme, rosemary, ginger and spice notes.

Argentina’s challenging 2020 vintage also delivered some spectacular wines, and two from the Uco Valley really shined: The Terrazas de los Andes Malbec Gualtallary Valle de Uco El Espinillo Parcel N 1E 2020 is one of this vintage’s freshest offerings, taking you straight to the vineyard with its exotic aromas of wild herbs, grilled tarragon and depth of fruit, while the Terrazas de los Andes Malbec Los Chacayes Valle de Uco Lican Parcel N 12S 2020 is a truly harmonious wine with remarkable depth of complexity and plenty of melted, powdery tannins.

Another splendid red from 2020 is from Paul Hobb’s Viña Cobos winery in Mendoza, the Viña Cobos Malbec Mendoza Cobos 2020. It’s a malbec that combines pure ripeness and freshness, and it captures aromas of sage, garrigue, jarilla and spices that bring more layers of the vivid and exotic herbs found in the vineyard.

Argentina’s 2022 vintage is on its way to becoming memorable in its own way, especially for pinot noirs. The Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Treinta y Dos 2022 is the best example of wines that stand at the crossroads of Burgundy and Beaujolais, bringing a combination of grace, vivacity and drinkability. Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, Chacra’s founder and owner, thinks 2022 may turn out to be his best vintage ever, highlighted by its exceptional balance.

Staying in the Southern Hemisphere, Zekun also held a Zoom tasting interview with the renowned winemaking family from Australia’s Barossa Valley, the Henschkes, to talk about their 2018 releases. Stephen Henschke, the family winemaker, described 2018 as “wonderful” and “classic,” as proven by their superb Henschke Shiraz Eden Valley Hill of Grace Vineyard 2018, which “has great complexity that unfurls on the nose and builds on an intense, lush, concentrated palate without any heaviness,” according to Zekun, as well as their Henschke Shiraz Eden Valley Mount Edelstone Vineyard 2018, “which screams freshness and elegance with an aromatic, almost ethereal complexity.”

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was in his old stomping grounds in Beaujolais visiting and tasting with a dozen of the region’s leading winemakers and found some stunning wines from 2021. His big moment of revelation came at Domaine Anita in the commune of Chenas, where Anita Neveu, who we have acclaimed as one of the most dynamic new winemakers in Beaujolais, made some remarkable wines from the 2021 vintage. Stuart said his heart “skipped a beat” when he tried the Domaine Anita Moulin-à-Vent Coeur de Vigneronne 2021. He proclaimed it “the most extraordinary wine I have ever encountered from Beaujolais and a high point of my 40 years of wine tasting,” praising its “totally breathtaking interplay of mineral freshness, a small ocean of berry fruit and super-fine tannins.”

Stuart also found a “rockstar” among the new generation of Bojo winemaker in J.B. Bachevillier of Domaine de Mont Joly. Two of Bachevillier’s most impressive wines are the  Domaine de Mont Joly Beaujolais Blacé 85.45 2020, with its “fjord of berry fruits,” and the Domaine de Mont Joly Beaujolais-Blacé Blanc Les Blancs 2021, which is one of the highest-rated whites from the region.

In Alsace, Stuart was able to get his first serious impression of the 2021 vintage, and he discovered that for those producers who were uncompromising in the winemaking process, 2021 turned out excellent, especially for pinot gris. “The decisive proof for all this came when I tasted the Domaine Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Alsace Grand Cru Rangen de Thann Clos Saint Urbain 2021,” Stuart said. “It has an overwhelming smoky and salty minerality that’s married to a brilliance this grape rarely achieves anywhere on earth. It’s an absolutely unique wine!”

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF FRANCE 2022

Domaine Barmes-Buecher also produced an amazing range of wines from 2021, with the highest-rated of these the Domaine Barmès-Buecher Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Hengst 2021, which Stuart described as having “giant concentration, but also astonishing subtlety and delicacy.”

At his tasting base in Germany, Stuart took his first dip in Rhone and found the remarkable Domaine La Florane Côtes-du-Rhône St.-Maurice Guillaume de Rouville 2021, which has “stunning perfume and is super-concentrated and super-elegant,” and he was also impressed by the range of barrel-fermented whites and pinot noir reds from Martin Wassmer in the Markgraflerland sub-region of Baden close to where southwest Germany, France and Switzerland meet. The Martin Wassmer Chardonnay Baden Dottinger Castellberg GC 2020, a combination of concentration and energy that screams grand cru, is “one of the best chardonnays ever made in Germany,” in Stuart’s mind, while the Martin Wassmer Pinot Noir Baden Dottinger Castellberg GC 2020 stands apart with its amazing tannin structure.”

Meanwhile, a weeklong side trip to Israel brought Stuart face-to-face with some exciting Medterranean reds, most notably the Chateauneuf-du-Pape inspired Seahorse Winery Antoine Tête de Cuvée 2020 and its endless black fruit and spicy nuances, and the graceful and concentrated Razi’el Haute Judée 2020.

From his base in Italy, Tastings Editor Jo Cooke was rating the wines of Veneto, and he uncovered two standout Amarones from Zenato, one of the region’s top producers: the Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2018 and Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Sergio Zenato Riserva 2017. Jo praised the Amarone 2018 for being a “standard-bearer for quality” and an example of “superb winemaking, exuding harmony, character and warmth,” while the Riserva 2017, he said, “is a stunning wine, offering a wide array of aromas that seem to grow and grow in the glass followed by a superbly structured palate and endless length.”

And a few of our tasting team were in the United States, led by James himself, who was tapping into more of California’s rich 2021 vintage. The Kistler Chardonnay Sonoma County Sonoma Valley Kistler Vineyard Cuvée Cathleen 2021 was right at the top of James’ list of the best wines from the vintage, so much so that he questioned whether chardonnay might now be the most exciting variety in the U.S. James said it showed great opulence and richness with incredible structure and verve, and is “complex with a capital C.”

In Oregon, Associate Editors Claire Nesbitt and Andrii Stetsiuk visited the Willamette Valley and tasted hundreds of wines mainly from 2021 and 2019, with fewer 2020s produced because of wildfire smoke that affected many vineyards around harvest. Again, a chardonnay popped out: the Domaine Serene Chardonnay Dundee Hills Récolte Grand Cru 2019, Claire said, "is intense, layered and powerful, made from a selection of the best chardonnay parcels from Domaine Serene’s estate vineyards in Dundee Hills.”

Two pinot noirs from 2021 also caught their attention. Domaine Drouhin’s Dundee Hills Édition Limitée 2021 is a spicy, earthy and tense wine made from a selection of parcels on the Drouhin estate, while the Eola-Amity Hills Roserock Zéphirine 2021 is a beautifully fragrant, delicate yet powerful wine that comes from the cooler, windier Roserock vineyard farther south in the valley

Finally, out of the fabled city of Shangri-La in Yunnan province, China, came the Ao Yun Shangri-La 敖云云南香格里拉 2019, which, according to Zekun, is “more refined and layered than ever.” A complex blend of 67 percent cabernet sauvignon, 17 percent cabernet franc, 10 percent syrah and 6 percent petit verdot, it is already approachable at this early stage, with incredibly complex layers, pedigree and restraint on the nose, followed by a full but super-polished palate and a persistent finish.

Zekun talked with Ao Yun winemaker Maxence Dulou in our Hong Kong tasting office about the wine, and Dulou said the way the wine was made, using a 100 percent gravity-fed method instead of pumping, gave it even more  texture than usual. “Year after year we get more color and concentration, but we need to find finesse and elegance and only extract the best tannins by keeping the seeds inside the skins during fermentation,” Dulou said.

It’s a great wine to put at the top of your wine list, and an even better one to top off our Monthly Tasting Report.

– Vince Morkri, Managing Editor