March 2025 Tasting Report: Weightless Chards, Tuscan Stunners and a Chacra Surprise

Although our March tastings didn’t uncover any perfect-scoring wines, they did underline that exceptional examples can always be found from a broad array of wine countries and regions, and spring from an equally effusive mixture of varietals and blends.

Right at the top was a chardonnay from hard-charging Oregon, the full-bodied yet “weightless” Antica Terra Chardonnay Willamette Valley Aurata 2022. Antica Terra owner-winemaker Maggie Harrison and assistant winemaker Mimi Adams poured their current range of wines at a new, contemporary-style barrel cellar and hospitality center in Amity, Oregon, during a visit by Executive Editor Jim Gordon and Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk.

Also included at the tasting was another top chard, the Antica Terra Chardonnay Willamette Valley Abeona 2022, which is a product of their “no rules” winemaking, showing richness and complex oak character and lavish marzipan, poached pear, toasted almond and honey flavors.

In fact, multiple winemakers from the state declared the 2022 vintage a “miracle” during the visit by Jim and Andrii. A heavy frost in the spring delayed the growing season and, ultimately, picking, but the warm, dry Indian summer that extended into October resulted in good maturity at lower temperatures than usual, with lighter, more ethereal wines.

Jim said that wines like the perennially outstanding Soter Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton Mineral Springs are exceptional in 2022 and balanced for further aging, with the fresh, vivid fruit flavors of this particular pinot “riding an electric wave of bracing acidity from the first whiff to the long, lingering finish.” Antica Terra’s 2022 pinot, the Antica Terra Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Botanica, was equally astounding.

From Oregon’s 2023 vintage, Domaine Drouhin’s Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Laurène 2023, with 3,600 cases made, and the smaller-production Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Edition Limitée 2023 took top honors, with the former a gorgeous, powerful and deep offering while the Limitée is more fragrant, floral, fresh and pretty.

California also offered a bounty of terrific wines in March, starting with Grace Family Vineyards, who showed that good grape-growing practices and skillful winemaking employed during a 2022 season plagued by record-breaking heat could still  result in totally enjoyable cabernet sauvignons and other wines.

For the last two vintages, their Cornelius Grove wines have earned slightly higher ratings from our tasting team, which is a high bar to clear given that Grace Family is perhaps the original cult cabernet from Napa Valley. The Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley St. Helena Cornelius Grove 2022 is brilliant, balanced and gorgeous, emphasizing red fruits and mineral, iron-like flavors, while the original Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley from 2022 is a touch more lush and resembles creme de cassis in flavor.

Jim also tasted at Tor Wines, where founder Tor Kenward and winemaker Jeff Ames brought out their 2023 whites. Two Tor chardonnays from the Napa side of the Carneros AVA are ready to rock, although we slightly preferred the Tor Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Hyde Vineyard Cuvée Susan 2023 over the Carneros Chardonnay Beresini Vineyard Torchiana 2023. The former shows the famous, ethereal yet rich concentration of Hyde, and the latter offers wonderful creaminess along with freshness and linearity.

And James was at Tim Mondavi’s Continuum Estate in March to taste the gorgeous and graceful flagship red wine, the Bordeaux-style blend Continuum Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Sage Mountain Vineyard 2022, which was among the top-scoring cabernet sauvignons we rated during the month.

Stunning Cepparello

Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli retasted the 2021 vintage of the Isole e Olena Toscana Cepparello and agreed that it had earned its 99-point rating, tying for the top rating among all the wines we tasted in March, while the 2022 iteration of the 100 percent sangiovese also stunned. The higher scores came in the wake of Isole e Olena introducing in 2021 large casks alongside the traditional tonneaux and barriques, moving the aging process toward a more restrained and traditional approach.

In 2022, the use of these large casks increased, and while the 2022 vintage doesn’t deliver the same instant “wow” factor as the 2021, it remains a precise and layered wine, offering smoky and straw-like aromas, intense violets and bright red cherries alongside cherry stones and cedarwood.

Aldo also visited Italy’s renowned Barolo region, where he found the 2021 vintage impressive for its aromatic richness, refined tannins and remarkable depth. Standing out as “extraordinary,” he said, was the deep, multidimensional Palladino Barolo Parafada 2021 – one of the “grand crus” of Serralunga d’Alba. A few other noteworthy Barolos were the fresh and perfumed Bricco Ambrogio by Negretti and the precise and complex Produttori di Clavesana's Barolo Terra 2021, which also offers great value for money.

Aldo’s tastings of the latest Amarone della Valpolicella vintages also did not disappoint, with the 2018 vintage showing remarkable results. This was led by the Corte Sant'Alda Amarone della Valpolicella Mithas 2018, a super deep, full-bodied and complex wine, as well as the Ca’ Rugate Amarone della Valpolicella Cima Caponiera Riserva 2018, which Aldo said offers a transparent, fragrant expression, with aromas of red cherries, red currants, roses, black pepper and spices.

Clos des Lambrays' Beautiful Year

Senior Editor Zekun Shuai attended a special tasting in Hong Kong of the 2022 vintage wines of renowned Burgundy producer Domaine des Lambrays as well as a mini-vertical of their Clos des Lambrays pinot noir grand cru wines from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 1938, and found that 2022 for Clos des Lambrays was a beautiful year after the lighter but supremely delicate 2021. The 2022 was at the top of our ratings for March, and that vintage also marked the release of four new cuvees for Domaine des Lambrays from recently acquired vineyards: the Morey St Denis 1er Cru Clos Sorbé, the Clos Baulet, the Vosne Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts and the Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru La Richemone. The latter, from a tiny plot on a mild slope, transcends its premier cru status.

Also in Hong Kong, Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt tasted Philipponnat Champagne's latest L.V. (“long vieillissement”) rendition of their top wine, Clos des Goisses and found an offering with fantastic complexity that shows aromas ranging from figs, pears and honeycomb to oyster shells, aniseed and white truffles.

In addition, she tasted Christophe Baron Champagnes from the warm and dry 2020 vintage and found them to be racy and full of tension. Out of the four bottles she tried, she was most impressed with the Champagne Christophe Baron Les Alouettes Brut Nature 2020, which is restrained, tightly wound and minerally and is made from a plot of pinot meunier vines planted in 1968.

And Claire had a Zoom interview and tasting session with Champagne Billecart-Salmon CEO Mathieu Roland-Billecart and found their latest release, the Billecart-Salmon Champagne Le Clos St.-Hilaire 2009 to be wonderfully rich and generous, seducing with aromas of yellow nectarine fruit, sourdough, toast and white truffles. The Le Clos St.-Hilaire was  closely followed by the tense, very long and structured Champagne Cuvée Nicolas François 2012, which is a pinot noir-chardonnay blend from a challenging, cold season that ultimately produced powerful vintage wines.

Chacra Surprise

We have also been tasting Argentine wines, with Chacra’s soon-to-be released pinot noirs among the highest-rated. These single-vineyard bottlings surprise with their low alcohol levels – some close to 11 degrees – and yet James found them to still be fresh and vibrant. These ranged from the linear and racy (and also hard-to-find) Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Treinta y Dos 2024, which is from vines planted in 1932, to the Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Treinta y Dos Sin Azufre 2024 as well as the well-priced Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Barda 2024.

And from Argentina’s neighbor, Chile, we tasted two standouts from the Ritual winery in the cool, foggy Casablanca Valley, which has been battling drought issues over the last couple of years. But tastings of the Ritual Chardonnay Valle de Casablanca Supertuga Block 2023 and Ritual Syrah Valle de Casablanca Alcaparral Block 2022 defied expectations, with the former offering showing formidable intensity and mouthwatering acidity, with rich, saline notes and savoriness, and the latter drawing attention for its depth and complexity, presenting a spicy, meaty yet floral profile complemented by ripe yet fresh dark fruit.

And the freshness and energy of Chilean wines from Maule and Itata were showcased in the Matetic Syrah Valle de San Antonio 2020, Carmen Valle de Maule Matorral Chileno Mezcla Tinta 2023 and Carmen Carignan Maule Viñedo Melozal Vigno 2023.

A Wild Sea Horse

Finally, Stuart also met up with Ze’ev Dunie from Sea Horse Winery in Israel for a tasting of Dunie's wines in Hattenheim, Germany, and he found Dunie’s wines to be as daring and even eccentric as ever, starting with the Sea Horse Winery Wild Antoine 2022 – a GSM (grenache, syrah and mourvedre) blend with counoise and cinsault thrown in for good measure. This is the first vintage Dunie has wild-fermented, and the result is an “amazingly graceful” with super-fine tannins, richness and a kaleidoscopic aromatic spectrum that ranges from red cherry to candied orange peel and allspice.

Two other of Dunie’s wines to check out is the Sea Horse Winery Lennon 2019, a cuvee of 80 percent zinfandel, 10 percent mourvedre and 10 percent petite sirah that is “very powerful and structured on the full-bodied palate and has amazing energy,” and the Sea Horse Winery Israel White Labyrinth 2023 – Dunie’s first white Chateauneuf-du-Pape-inspired wine that is at once rich and tensile, with fine tannins and a compact, salty finish.

– Vince Morkri, Editor-in-Chief

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated 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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