Napa Cabs, Rhone Reds and Slovenian Soul, Plus More Bordeaux 2019: Weekly Tasting Report (Jan 25-31)

This report on the past week’s tastings is a real mix of wines from popular bottlings including Napa Valley cabernets, Bordeaux 2019, Rhone Valley reds and German rieslings to lesser-known wines from Virginia, Lebanon, Slovenia and Switzerland.

What it highlights, and what we don’t talk about enough, is how much outstanding wine is being made at the moment in the world – it’s a real boom time to drink excellent quality wines at every price level.

Definitely check out the wines from Virginia. We have enjoyed the best wines from the state for a long time and we see a marked improvement in quality as more producers take their viticulture and winemaking more seriously each vintage. The top wines – the handful we rated 95 points or more in our tastings late last year – are still made by the key wineries, including Barboursville, Early Mountain and RdV, but we see more wineries coming online. And we are excited.

As Associate Editor Nathan Slone wrote, “Although Virginia didn’t give us a flood of high-scoring wines, with only five rated 95 points or above, our tastings did underscore that the state’s 400-year quest to make great wine is at a high point today. It’s a long and colorful story whose success dates from the 1970s and 1980s and the rise of influential wineries like Barboursville and Linden, who established benchmarks for quality vinifera wine.” Check out his full report on the region.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF THE USA 2021

Associate Editor Claire Nesbit tasted a few wines from Lebanon on the market from Ixsir, and both the reds and whites were outstanding quality. I have fond memories of a couple of trips to Beirut in the last 10 years when I drank wines from this country. Despite the current problems with the economy and social unrest, Lebanon has a real wine culture and produces soulful and delicious wines in general, even with such obstacles.

Soulful is a word I would also use to describe winemaker Marjan Simcic of  Goriska Brda, Slovenia, which is just across the border from Collio in northeastern Italy’s Friuli region. I have been to his winery two or three times, and he shows impressive dedication and intensity in making energetic reds and whites.

His top ribolla gialla and pinot grigios verge on being orange wine, with their intense grape skin and phenolic character leaving them dark-colored for young wine but also slight chewy and dense with tannins. They offer a unique drinking experience. His merlots are more mainstream, with a lovely balance of ripe fruit and tannins. I am ready to taste more Slovenian wines this year!

'ONE OF THE GREAT VINTAGES': James and Lynch-Bages owner Jean-Charles Cazes discuss Bordeaux 2019.

CHATEAU PAVIE: James and Olivier Gailly of Chateau Pavie talk more about Bordeaux 2019's appeal.

Meanwhile, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott continues to taste some Swiss wines at his office near Frankfurt, Germany. And he found some excellent Swiss pinot noir chardonnays from Weingut Eichholz – Irene Grunenfelder. Switzerland really excels with the two grape types and we really enjoy drinking them. We only wish we could find more in the global marketplace.

Finding wines that Stuart is spending most of his time now on rating – popular appellations from the Rhone Valley – may be easier. He’s been impressed over the past week with reds from Gigondas and Cairanne, with the latter representing very good value, showing balance and authenticity in their blend of grenache, syrah and mourvedre. The best wines from Cairanne combine the richness and power we associate with the Southern Rhone with a mineral freshness that makes them very exciting.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF FRANCE 2021

HARMONY AND FOCUS

You will see at the top of the list that I finally tasted the Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Stags Leap District Hillside Select 2018, which is incredibly gorgeous to drink now and suggests wonderful balance for long-term aging. It has a fantastic harmony and focus compared with other recent vintages. I could also say the same about the Outpost Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Howell Mountain True Vineyard 2019. The vintage seems to have given the wine a softness and agility that I haven’t seen in the past from these mountainside vineyards. The wine is tame and subtle in 2019.

Subtle is not the word I would use to describe the whites I rated from Canada’s Checkmate, a winery in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. The chardonnays (I haven’t tried their reds yet) are full-throttle wines with lots of fruit and ambitious new wood, but there’s still a freshness and verve to them. It was fun to taste some Canadian wines again.

I also bought and tasted a bottle of chardonnay from New Zealand’s Millton Vineyards, a dedicated biodynamic producer making fresh and vivid reds and whites. I really enjoyed the tangy and energetic vibe of the Millton Chardonnay Gisborne Clos de St. Anne Naboth's Vineyard 2019, with its center palate full of fruit in a composed and deliberate way.

Most of my tastings over the last week were Bordeaux 2019, a vintage that continues to impress me with the cool character and more typical personality of the wines. I plan to post a full report at the end of next week. Check out my conversation on Zoom with Lynch-Bages owner Jean-Charles Cazes. He, like so many other winemakers and winery owners I spoke to about the vintage, is impressed with the drinkability of the wines at this stage and believes they will stay open and beautiful through their lifetime, just like some recent vintages such as 2009 and 2015.

This report really is a potpourri of wines with all of the above as well as various regions in Italy, including Tuscany and Abruzzo, as well as Germany’s Baden, South Africa’s Coastal Region, Australia’s Margaret River, France’s Loire Valley and many more. Spend some time checking out the list and finding some buried treasures.

– James Suckling, Chairman/Editor