Momentous Mementos and Old-Vine Whispers from the Santa Cruz Mountains

Napa Valley’s sterling 2023 vintage gave us two more perfect-scoring wines and an abundance of other outstanding offerings in our latest Weekly Tasting Report, led by the releases of consulting winemakers Sam Kaplan and Thomas Rivers Brown.

Kaplan, of Memento Mori and Vida Valiente, is responsible for the 100-point beauties at the top of this report. What stood out for Staff Writer and Critic Ryan Montgomery when tasting his releases was Kaplan’s management of tannins and mouthfeel, with both the Memento Mori Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2023 and Vida Valiente Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Beckstoffer To Kalon 2023 showing a clear sense of precision, harmony and seamlessness.

Kaplan navigated both his vineyard sources and the cooler 2023 vintage with confidence, bringing freshness, tension and generosity, with tannins that melt across the palate to create balance and poise at the highest level. Both wines also show a slight reductive edge and floral undertone, remaining tightly wound and discreet. This marks the second 100-point wine from Beckstoffer To Kalon in the 2023 vintage. The Memento Mori Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard 2023 (99 points) also impressed, sitting just below the two perfect-scoring wines, though the margin is narrow, with the site's prestige fully on display.

Similarly, at Arkenstone, tucked high in the Howell Mountain AVA, Kaplan farms 14 acres meticulously, mainly cabernet sauvignon alongside other red Bordeaux varieties, as well as sauvignon blanc and small amounts of syrah. The Arkenstone Napa Valley Howell Mountain Estate 2023 (98), made from 82 percent cabernet sauvignon, 8 percent cabernet franc, 7 percent petit verdot and 3 percent malbec, shows both grace and power with tension and nerve, coupled with the softening the Howell Mountain tannins. This wine is drinking well now, while holding a long life ahead in bottle.

Thomas Rivers Brown is another highly regarded Napa Valley consultant featured in this week’s report. He cut his teeth at Shafer Vineyards in the early 2000s, helping define their style before establishing his own consulting path. He has since been involved in numerous projects, bringing a charismatic winemaking approach that delivers wines of density, power and generosity with ageability. Ryan tasted with Brown at Mending Wall Winery, where he produces many wines for clients alongside his own labels.

One of Brown's most impressive wines is from Detert Vineyard, located behind To Kalon next to MacDonald Ranch. Detert is a highly regarded site, with a reputation for producing some of the finest cabernet franc in North America.

The Mending Wall Cabernet Franc Napa Valley Oakville Detert Vineyard 2023 (97) is a strong example of the site, where Brown co-fermented the franc with 20 percent cabernet sauvignon, bringing layers of black, red and blue fruit, spice, dried flowers, graphite, bay laurel and licorice root. The palate is silken and rounded, with melting tannins, bright acidity and a long, mineral, tense and salivating finish that shows the class of the vineyard.

Brown has also been working with the family-owned Revana winery, situated just north of St. Helena on Highway 29, where winemaker Rose Ballantine has worked closely with him for the past six years. Ryan tasted with Ballantine the day after tasting Brown’s portfolio at Mending Wall, where again To Kalon showed its presence in the glass with harmony and grace. The Revana Cabernet sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Beckstoffer To Kalon 2023 (98) includes old vine plantings up to 30 years and highlights the quality of the cooler 2023 vintage.

Another of Brown’s labels, Rivers-Marie, also impressed. The Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley St Helena Vidovich Lane Vineyard 2023 (98), grown just 10 yards from Beckstoffer Dr Crane, shows the quality of site even without the same name recognition. The palate is silken with a luscious mouthfeel, melting tannins and bright acidity, combining power, length and a seamless structure.

In the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, meanwhile, Ridge Vineyards produced a brilliant, classic red from an elegant vintage at their home vineyard. Old vines growing at 1,300 to 2,700 feet elevation yielded a wine that harks back to the lean, sinewy American cabernets that were common in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Editor-at-Large Jim Gordon.

The Ridge Vineyards Santa Cruz Mountains Monte Bello 2023 (98) has only 13.2 percent alcohol yet it tastes vivid, concentrated and complex, offering black olive, black cherry, wild sage and cocoa flavors on tight tannins. It’s closed right now but bursting with potential.

Two of Ridge’s best zinfandel-based wines from Sonoma County are among the week’s top scorers. Check out the trim, raspberry scented Ridge Vineyards Alexander Valley Geyserville 2024 (95) and Ridge Vineyards Sonoma County Dry Creek Valley Lytton Springs 2024 (95), which is more enticingly earthy in flavor and structured in tannins.

READ MORE LONG-LIVED APPEAL: DO OLD-VINE WINES REALLY TASTE BETTER?

Several wines from the Sonoma-based Martin Ray winery also stood out, including its recently acquired De Negoce brand. These vary in vineyard source and grape variety year to year, but the current crop of De Negoce reds is particularly good. They are offered direct to consumers at as low as one third the price of comparable wines.

Most notable among these are De Négoce Pinot Noir West Sonoma Coast Lot 583 2024 (97) and De Négoce Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County Moon Mountain District Lot 601 2023 (96).

Outside of the standout California bottles in this report – there are a lot to check out below, and the vast majority are cabernet sauvignons – Italy gave us a few Chianti Classico offerings worth trying. Among these, the highest-scoring is the multilayered Villa Trasqua Chianti Classico Fanatico Riserva 2021 (96), with the perfumed and transparent Cigliano di Sopra Chianti Classico Vigneto Branca Riserva 2023 (95) and intense Renieri Chianti Classico Tenuta di Renieri 2024 (95) also worth seeking out.

– Ryan Montgomery and Jim Gordon 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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