Napa’s Big Freakin’ Deal, Plus Rediscovering Timorasso

The JamesSuckling.com tasting team rated 764 wines this week, with Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli checking out the best new timorasso releases in Italy and Senior Editor Jacobo García Andrade tasting Galicia's finest offerings from 2022 and 2023. But it was Executive Editor Jim Gordon and Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery who tapped into more of Napa Valley's excellent 2023 vintage and hit the motherlode, with Jim uncovering three perfect-scoring cabernet sauvignons – two from the boutique winery Tor Wines and one from the renowned winemaker Paul Hobbs.

Tor Wines, which is based in St. Helena, specializes in vineyard-designated cabs and chardonnays from proven first-class vineyards and a few practically irresistible red blends made in very small quantities. Jim tasted the 2023 reds with owner Tor Kenward and winemaker Jeff Ames, and he came away impressed with all of them, but especially the 100-pointers.

The Tor Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard BFD 2023 is amazingly powerful but sleek, almost effusive in its ripeness without being overly rich. Jim called it well balanced and easy to enjoy now, but memorable and built for longer-term aging. While BFD could be interpreted as “big freakin' deal,” the initials actually stand for three vineyard blocks in Andy Beckstoffer’s To Kalon acreage.

Equally spectacular but more structured and tauter is the Tor Napa Valley Black Magic 2023. This is the most concentrated, muscular and robust of Tor's lineup in 2023, tasting almost as tightly wound as a top 2021, and effusive in black fruit, minerals and cocoa. Kenward sourced it from Beckstoffer To Kalon, Vine Hill Ranch and, for the first time, some Pritchard Hill grapes. It is cabernet sauvignon with 12 percent cabernet franc.

Also in the perfect-scoring category this week is the Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Coombsville Nathan Coombs Estate 2023. This quietly powerful, elegant and plush wine is one of the greats of Napa Valley and vividly brings out the character of 2023.

It was a long, cool, growing season in 2023 with a late harvest and no major weather drama to mar it, so the top wines are incredibly fresh in terms of acidity and pH, concentrated due to the long hang time that ripened the grape skins as well as the juice, and muscular in tannins without excessive alcohol in most cases.

The Paul Hobbs lineup also now includes the first wine conceived by Paul’s daughter, Agustina Hobbs. It is a relative bargain for Napa at about one-fourth the price of the Nathan Coombs bottling. She bottled 3,450 cases of the ALH Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Coombsville 2022 from the family vineyard, so it is widely available. It tastes cool and composed, lacy in texture and complex on the palate.

Agustina Hobbs has gone through an extensive apprenticeship with Hobbs cellarmaster Robert Ruiz, as well as working in sales, marketing and research roles at other companies. “I wanted to make something consistent with the Paul Hobbs winery ethos, but different,” she said. “I find the Paul Hobbs wines delicious so I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel but wanted to create a cabernet sauvignon that’s bright, fresh and approachable.”

And she has!

Ryan, meantime, was tasting 2023 releases with the talented Treasury Wine Estates winemaking team for Beaulieu Vineyard, Etude and Beringer at the Beringer Estate in St. Helena. Beaulieu Vineyard is in the midst of a generational facelift of its cellars in Rutherford, which are set to reopen in the summer of 2026. It’s an exciting period for this storied estate, culminating with the release of their nearly perfect Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Georges de Latour Private Reserve 2023. The level of refinement and purity here is immense, with the flashy profile and balanced palate offering a silken mouthfeel, as well as fine-boned tannins that lead to a refined, pure and succulent finish.

Similarly, the Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Private Reserve 2023 is a very exciting release from this great year. The nose is quite reserved, detailed and refined, giving black-fruited aromas of graphite with a savory edge. The palate is tightly wound, with fine-grained tannins and taut mineral tension, showing underlying power that will unravel for decades to come.

Rediscovering Timorasso 

When a major producer invests in a new territory, it usually sparks curiosity; when a dozen top estates arrive all at once, it signals something far more significant – a genuine rediscovery of a wine region. That is what is happening in the Colli Tortonesi, in Piedmont near the Ligurian and Lombard borders, thanks to Derthona wines and the native white grape used in their making, timorasso.

In 1987, barely half a hectare of timorasso remained. By 2000, that figure had grown to three hectares, then to 40 in 2008. At harvest time in 2019, 100 hectares were in production; today, 350 of the 500 planted hectares are bearing fruit. In just under 40 years, the vineyards have increased a hundredfold.

New energy arrived with the great producers of the Langhe – Roagna, Vietti, La Spinetta, Accornero, Sordo, Fontanafredda, Borgogno, Pio Cesare, Damilano, Ratti, Braida and Maria Cristina Oddero. Luca Roagna was the first to arrive, almost by accident, to take care of a cousin’s vineyard after his untimely passing.

Luca Currado of Vietti – whose family estate later passed into American hands – was the second. But by all accounts, he was also the most influential, widely recognized and respected abroad and in the United States. His arrival is considered the turning point, the moment when the spotlight definitively swung toward the area.

The others followed, including the Pio Cesare winery, which this year officially presents its first timorasso vintage (though the Alba estate has been experimenting for at least a couple of harvests without releasing a wine). Yet this rediscovery would never have happened without the determination of local producers such as Walter Massa. As he himself recalls, “In the days of big, concentrated red wines and barrique aging, we kept working on timorasso and on its purity.”

The timorasso grape is not an easy variety to handle, either in the vineyard or in the cellar. It was once nicknamed torbolino – meaning “cloudy” – for its opaque, dark must. Yet it produces a powerful white wine, markedly phenolic if overextracted, sharply acidic, aromatic and often touched by smoky notes.

Because of its hints reminiscent of kerosene – largely the result of sun exposure and berry sunburn – its cutting acidity and its poor affinity for malolactic fermentation and oak aging, timorasso is often compared to riesling. In reality, its DNA shares some traits with sauvignon blanc. This becomes evident in tastings, where the more mature samples show gooseberry aromas, while the more evolved wines pick up pineapple notes.

The quality of the 2023 vintage deserves emphasis here: superior to the austere and drought-affected 2022, though the 2021s remain unmatched for concentration. And anticipation is high for 2025, expected to be the best harvest in recent years.

The key to understanding such a structured, powerful grape lies in vineyard management, harvesting decisions and aging on fine lees, which lends greater fleshiness, better integration of acidity and a more harmonious balance in the wine. In this regard, the purely Burgundian style of Sassaia stands out, thanks to the involvement of Pierre Naigeon, a winemaker from the Cote de Nuits. His Sassaia Timorasso Colli Tortonesi Derthona 2023 is an outsider but a remarkable, finely crafted wine. A toasty wine that’s classy and ambitious, with vibrant aromas of pink grapefruit, lemon peel, lemon leaves, rice and chalky minerality. It’s a wine not to miss.

Among the top tastings was Vietti’s newest release, the Vietti Timorasso Colli Tortonesi Derthona 2023, a wine that marries extraordinary precision with all the typicity and power of Derthona. It’s a very citrusy and finely etched wine, with spring flowers, green apples and chalky minerality. Silky and zesty, it displays a bright, savory finish.

Among the outsiders, the Tenuta Cascinassa Timorasso Colli Tortonesi Derthona 2023 made an impressive showing: a complex Derthona with aromas of white peaches, crayons, wax, assertive lees and lemons. There is notable weight and concentration, with a medium to full body, sharp acidity and a precise, lemony finish.

La Colombera is one of the region’s historic estates. Here we had the opportunity to taste older vintages. The La Colombera Timorasso Colli Tortonesi Derthona 2006 is full of tertiary aromas of caramelized nuts, flint, pineapple, mangoes, ferns and peat. Full-bodied, it shows density, weight and zesty acidity. Savory and extracted, then polished and elegant on the finish. Impressive structure and tension.

Vigneti Repetto’s Timorasso Colli Tortonesi Derthona Origo 2021 also underscores the grape’s longevity. It’s a multilayered wine with aromas of lemon peel, chalk, ferns, lanolin, white pepper and mirabelle plums. Finally, Pio Cesare’s Timorasso Colli Tortonesi Derthona 2023 is their debut timorasso vintage, which will be released only in 2026. A fresh wine with striking aromas of lemon peel, chalky minerality and hints of leaves and mint, it’s polished, focused and very elegant. The palate is silky and refined, with a medium body, integrated acidity and a tight-knit, lemony finish touched by a whisper of smoke.

Distinctly Galician

Galicia remains one of the most fascinating wine-growing regions in Spain, and while a cool, Atlantic-influenced climate defines areas in Galicia like Rías Baixas, this doesn’t apply uniformly across the region, as Senior Editor Jacobo García Andrade found in his recent tastings of the latest Galician releases.

Valdeorras, Ribeira Sacra, Ribeiro, and Monterrei each shows its own distinct climatic nuances. Monterrei is the warmest, with a markedly continental climate, while Ribeira Sacra and Ribeiro sit in a transitional zone between Atlantic and continental influences, benefiting from the cooling effect of their river valleys. 

Galicia’s viticulture is also deeply shaped by its fragmentation. Historically built on small landholdings, this structure persists today: there are 229,000 registered growers in Galicia – nearly 40 percent of Spain’s total – yet the region represents only 3.35 percent of the country’s vineyard surface area. 

Rias Baixas produced some exceptional wines from 2022. Among the highlights are Forjas del Salnés’s single-vineyard O Pradiño 2022, which, despite coming from a relatively young site, shows remarkably well. Their Goliardo A Telleira 2022 and Finca Genoveva Tinto 2022 are outstanding reds – the former being rounder and slightly broader due to its two-stage harvest and discreet use of new, well-integrated oak, while the Finca Genoveva Tinto is more incisive, herbal and deeply expressive. 

Albamar also remains one of the top producers in the region, with a diverse portfolio where vineyards, styles, varieties and subregions converge. The Bodegas Albamar Rías Baixas Pepe Luis 2013 is always exceptional, and tasting it with some bottle age was a reminder of how beautifully these wines evolve. Also worth mentioning are the wines from Bodegas Fulcro, where Manuel Moldes continues to craft some of the most characterful and best-value albariños in the region.

From Ribeiro, the new project Adega A Barouta is finding its voice under the direction of Roberto Núñez in collaboration with Javier Alen, who is a Madird-based attorney, as well as  Daniel Landi and Fernando García, the founders of Sierra de Gredos winery Comando G. The results are wines of purity and nerve, bringing cohesion to the region’s complexity. Equally compelling are the wines of Iago Garrido at Augalevada, whose thoughtful vineyard work and sensitive winemaking yield energetic, characterful whites. His Augalevada Albariño Ribeiro Eira Vedra 2023 is an exceptional example of a variety that defies convention.

– Jim Gordon, Aldo Fiordelli  and Jacobo García Andrade contributed reporting.

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