Napa 2022’s Mountain Edge and Uniquely German Pinots: Weekly Tasting Report

It’s been just over a week since James returned to Napa Valley, where he has been tasting with his local team of editors, Jim Gordon and Ryan Montgomery, focusing primarily on the 2022 cabernet sauvignons.

James approached the vintage with tempered expectations, given the punishing heat dome that descended just as harvest began for many wineries that year. Temperatures soared past 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 Celsius) in some valley-floor vineyards, with the heat spike lasting 10 days, from Aug. 31 through Sept. 9, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Many vineyards essentially flatlined under the stress, halting ripening altogether. But those managed with precision – particularly through well-timed irrigation – endured, producing surprisingly good fruit. Meticulous selection during harvest remained critical to keep dehydrated grapes out of the fermentation tanks.

Mountain vineyards seemed to hold an edge over some valley-floor sites. While still subjected to extreme heat, higher-altitude vineyards experienced slightly lower temperatures. Cabernet sauvignon berries were thick-skinned and high in potential alcohol, yet some winemakers managed to craft balanced wines with freshness and serious structure.

One standout was the Colgin Cellars Napa Valley IX Estate 2022, a cabernet sauvignon-based red from Pritchard Hill. James compared it to legendary Bordeaux cabernets from extreme vintages, like the iconic 1961 Chateau Latour. The wine is strikingly structured and tannic, yet light on its feet, with captivating complexity in both aroma and flavor. It left James momentarily speechless.

A similar impression came from the Futo Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Stags Leap District 5500 Estate 2022. Its aromatic vibrancy and layered flavors defy expectations for the vintage.

Readers will find many 2022 Napa cabernets in this week’s report that show unexpected brightness and approachability for such a challenging growing season.

All three tasters agreed: the 2022 vintage is no 2017. While the latter produced many monolithic, chunky and often jammy wines, most of the 2022s are anything but. Instead, they offer an appealing, early-drinking charm that’s likely to delight many consumers.

UNIQUELY GERMAN PINOTS

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott attended a remarkable vertical tasting of pinot noirs from Solveigs, an under-the-radar producer from the Rheingau region of Germany. Stuart first met winemaker Jens Heinemeyer back in 1986 when he was completing his studies at the Geisenheim Wine University. In 1995, Heinemeyer and his wife, Gaby, acquired two hectares of steep vineyards with red slate soil planted with pinot noir around Assmannshausen and Lorch in the Rheingau and founded Solveigs.

The tasting at the Kronnenschlosschen restaurant in the town of Eltville am Rhein featured wines from almost every vintage since 1995, and they displayed an extraordinary stylistic homogeneity.

Most leading red wine producers in Germany have made massive changes in cellar techniques during the last decades, so such consistency is unusual. The hallmarks of the Solveigs style are gentle extraction and very discreet oak character. The wines are self-confidently dry with a pronounced stony minerality.

Stuart is convinced that 2020 is the best ever vintage for Solveigs, but even the wines of this powerful and concentrated vintage are in no way flashy. The spectacularly floral and super-focused Solveigs Pinot Noir Rheingau Present 2020  pushes this unique style to the limit. “Present” is the name of the vineyard plot where Solveigs' top pinot noir grows.

The Solveigs Pinot Noir Rheingau Present 1998, with its exciting interplay of crunchy tannins, mineral acidity, sour cherry fruit and savory complexity, shows how long-living these idiosyncratic beauties are. These wines often need a full decade of aging in bottle before they taste mature.

“We have a boring style of vinification,” Jens Heinemeyer explained. “Our methods in the cellar have barely changed in 30 years. However, the way we work in the vineyard has changed enormously. I trained during the cool-climate period and had to rethink almost everything.“

Heinemeyer is also a winemaking consultant in Denmark, where he is a leading figure in the development of the leading Nordic winemaking country. “Of course, the climate there is still very much cool climate,“ he said. “In spite of that, the white grape variety that was most important for Denmark in the beginning, Solaris, can now sometimes gets too ripe. Grape growers everywhere have to change.“

BRUNELLO SYNERGY

The enduring synergy between Brunello di Montalcino and its 2019 riservas continues to impress, marked by remarkable quality and consistency. These wines exhibit a striking transparency, free from overt ripeness in the form of exuberant fruit or excessive alcohol. Instead, most samples reveal a lean, almost sinewy character – structured yet never austere – with a balance that verges on perfection.

What is particularly noteworthy is how this level of quality remains consistent across Montalcino’s diverse terroirs, from the higher, typically more restrained elevations to the lower, southern zones known for their approachability.

Yet, among this already outstanding vintage, one wine deserves special recognition: the Tassi Brunello di Montalcino Franci Riserva 2019. Traditional in style, it is both full and concentrated, yet so impeccably balanced that its power is almost imperceptible.

A multilayered Brunello, it offers restrained smoky wood aromas, alongside licorice root and fruit notes, spanning from strawberries to red cherries, and deepened by a subtle, gamey complexity.

Full-bodied, it impresses with its weight and density, supported by firm, fine-grained tannins and a long, refreshing acidity. While already showing remarkable drinkability, it will reach its peak complexity in five to 10 years.

Perhaps the era of ultra-minimalist wines has passed, and we are now witnessing a return to wines of equilibrium – ones that are precisely poised yet endowed with great aging potential.

In our Hong Kong tastings, Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk came across a couple of notable wines from Tokaj-Hétszőlő, a renowned winery in Hungary’s Tokaj region that’s famous for its well-crafted expressions in both sweet and dry styles.

The Tokaj-Hétszőlő Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos Nagyszölö-Dülö 1er Cru 2017 stood out with its deep botrytis complexity and concentrated dried fruit character while showing all the elegance of the 2017 vintage.

The Tokaj-Hétszőlő Tokaji Eszencia 2010 also left a particularly strong impression, as the freshness of the 2010 vintage delivered stunning acidity, beautifully balancing the wine’s super-rich, almost syrupy texture. Eszencia wines are incredibly rare, made exclusively from the free-run juice of hand-selected botrytized aszu berries, and traditionally served by spoon due to their extraordinary richness and concentration.

– James Suckling, Stuart Pigott, Aldo Fiordelli and Andrii Stetsiuk contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. 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.

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