May 2021 tasting report: Our biggest month ever!

We are tasting between 400 and 700 wines every week at the moment, which we publish every Tuesday as a ‘Weekly Tasting Report’. We don’t think any other wine media organization is publishing so many new tasting notes in such quick time. Many of the ratings we publish are for wines tasted just the previous day! And because so many of the wines we taste are latest releases often not yet in the market, this ensures that all Premium Subscribers to JamesSuckling.com (who get access to the latest wine scores and tastings notes) are among the first to learn about the newest wines coming to market.

We are now also collating all the ratings published in a month in one large single report for your convenience, too. You can read about the wines below, and then subscribers can access the scores and tasting notes in the ratings list at the bottom of this article.

We published over 2,700 wine ratings in May 2021, the most monthly tastings we have done since this report began, from 15 different 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 – 9
Australia – 4
Austria – 296
Chile – 693
China – 7
France – 793 (Alsace: 7; Bordeaux: 721; Champagne: 7; and others)
Germany – 19
Italy – 606 (Northeast: 185; Piedmont: 389; Tuscany: 62; Veneto: 29; and others)
Portugal – 12
Slovenia – 4
South Africa – 8
Spain – 10
Switzerland – 6
United States – 217
Uruguay - 36

This was also the month James completed his Bordeaux 2020 en primeur tastings and published the report, with all 1,302 ratings. Not surprisingly these Bordeaux wines took the majority of the plaudits this month. “The 2020 vintage will be memorable for us because of the pandemic, but the vintage in Bordeaux will also be remembered because it produced so many outstanding wines under such challenging circumstances – from logistical shortages to severe drought conditions,” wrote James.

Ten wines scored 99-100 points, including Château Haut-Bailly Pessac-Léognan 2020, Château La Fleur-Pétrus Pomerol 2020, Château Lafite Rothschild Pauillac 2020, Château Mouton Rothschild Pauillac 2020, and Château Trotanoy Pomerol 2020.

As the third great vintage in a row from the region, “the question now is if 2020 is better than 2019 or 2018,” James wrote. “My impression after tasting so many barrel samples is that it is certainly better than 2018 and at least at the same level as 2019 in quality.”

Also this month, three perfect 100-point Napa Valley 2018 wines really shone a light on the quality coming out of the region that year. The Bond Napa Valley Vecina 2018 was “really incredible ... with such verticality, depth and brightness.” The Harlan Estate Napa Valley 2018 was “sophisticated and seductive." And the Dominus Napa Valley 2018 was “one of the reference points for the vintage,” with notes of “hot stones, blackcurrants, iodine and wet earth.”

“What I like about 2018 is I think that there is even more transparency than 2016,” Cory Empting, the winemaker of Harlan, Bond and Promontory, said during an interview with James. “I think they both are going to have an extremely long life, but I think ‘18 is going to be more svelte, with more length and focus, and the ‘16 will have a little bit more fuzziness in its early youth. But the aging potential of both those wines [is] extremely long.”

We also discovered a 100-point Chianti Classico wine this month, the first time we have given that rating to a Chianti Classico wine. “I have never tasted such an incredible Chianti Classico from the region ... even though I have been tasting and visiting the area since 1983,” James wrote in the Weekly Tasting Report. He went on to compare the finesse and intensity of the pure sangiovese Barone Ricasoli Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Ceniprimo 2018 to a great Barolo, Brunello, or even a Burgundy.

Many of the wines tasted in May will also feature in upcoming regional tasting reports including those from Austria, Chile, Barolo, and Washington.

Schloss Gobelsburg provided the 99-point Austrian highlight in May, while Rudi Pichler, Proidl and Fritz Salomon also came through with some excellent bottles. The Chilean winemakers Emiliana, Montes, Baron Philippe de Rothschild Chile, Almaviva and Neyen all came through with stellar examples of how this country is going through such an exciting time, especially at the top levels. From Barolo, Roberto Voerzio was the standout, with a 99-point 2017 wine that was rich, chewy and so finely integrated, while Giacomo Borgogno & Figli and Renato Ratti also rated very well. And from Washington, K Vintners, Quilceda Creek, Cayuse Vineyards and Sixto were the highlights, showing how the 2018 vintage produced such depth.

You can read the full tasting notes for all these wines and many more in the list below.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score, and alphabetically by winery name, and can search for specific wines in the search bar.