November Tasting Report: California’s Roaring 2021, Plus Striking Gold with Germany’s 2022

Our ratings in November included a relative bonanza of perfect-scoring bottles – five from California and one from Germany – as we tasted more than 1,800 wines from 17 countries. Of the total, 518 came from Italy, 482 were from the United States and 340 were Australian offerings.

But it was California, specifically Napa and Sonoma, that gave the most bang for the buck. James was back in Northern California earlier than normal this year to test the quality of the 2021 vintage, and he found many exceptional wines from the year that may end up surpassing the 2018 and 2019 vintages in quality. This was especially true of pinot noirs, especially from Sonoma County. One that stood out was the Hirsch Vineyards Pinot Noir Sonoma County Sonoma Coast Raschen Ridge 2021, which James called “superlative at all levels, with fantastic precision and depth.”

There were plenty of other pinot noirs as well as chardonnays from 2021 that James tasted along with winemakers from the West Sonoma Coast Vintners association (WSCV) These included offerings from Ernest Vineyards, Red Car, Flowers, Senses, Wayfarer, Freeman and Whistler, among others, The general consensus is that 2021, is all about structure, with impressive harmony to boot.

Dana Estates winemaker Chris Cooney said the vintage reminded him of the movie Spinal Tap, where “It’s like going to 11. Everything is intense.” This was reflected in their Dana Estates Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Rutherford Helms Vineyard 2021 and Dana Estates Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley Howell Mountain Hershey Vineyard 2021.

And wines from single vineyards really showed their unique character in 2021 – an indication that the 2021 vintage was not an exaggerated growing season except for the lack of water during the summer. Our other perfect-scoring wines from the vintage were the Futo Napa Valley Oakville 2021,  the Tor Napa Valley Black Magic 2021, the Haynes Vineyard Chardonnay Napa Valley Coombsville Corazon 2021 and the Lokoya Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Mount Veeder 2021.

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott, meanwhile, tasted some exciting wines from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada – a cool desert area whose climate is greatly influenced by the water from Okanagan Lake. It is here that Martin’s Lane winery is making a distinctive range of pinot noirs and rieslings.  Try their Martin’s Lane Pinot Noir Okanagan Valley Naramata Ranch Vineyard 2020 for its terrific mineral freshness with notes of smoked bacon and grilled red pepper plus stacks of red berry aromas, as well as their Martin’s Lane Riesling Okanagan Valley Simes Vineyard 2022, whose pineapple-like acidity blasts through the touch of grape sweetness to give an astonishingly dry finish.

STRIKING GOLD WITH GERMANY'S 2022

Stuart also tasted nearly a hundred wines from Germany, some of the most remarkable of which were from the Prinz winery in the Rheingau. One, the Riesling Rheingau Jungfer Kabinett (Auction Wine) 2022, is “breathtakingly refreshing,” with the concentration and wet stone minerality on the barely medium-bodied palate both “off the scale,” while the other, the Prinz Riesling Rheingau Marcobrunn GG 2022, is “enormously compact,” with a sensational mouthfeel and length.

In the Mosel region, Egon Muller IV made some tremendous wines from the 2022 vintage, the best of which was the Egon Müller-Scharzhof Riesling Mosel Scharzhofberger Auslese 2022 – a “seriously concentrated wine but in a self-confidently relaxed way, with fabulous textural complexity at the finely-nuanced finish,” Stuart said.

Katharina Prum of the  Joh. Jos. Prum winery in the Mosel also struck gold in 2022, producing a string of remarkable Auslese wines. The most astonishing of these is the limited-production Joh. Jos. Prüm Riesling Mosel Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese Long Gold Cap 2022, which is very lush and creams with a tropical fruit coulis character. It also has decades of aging potential.

READ MORE GERMANY ANNUAL REPORT: AFTER FLYING BLIND, A SMOOTH LANDING

But it’s the Immich-Batterieberg winery further downstream on the Middle Mosel that made one of the best single-vineyard dry wines in 2022: the perfect-scoring Immich-Batterieberg Riesling Mosel Zeppwingert Reserve 2022, which “marries off-the-scale concentration and minerality with an extraordinary delicacy and light-footedness, making it as charming as it is monumental,” Stuart said.

And from the Nahe, one of Germany’s  top under-the-radar winemakers, Jakob Schneider of the eponymous winery, churned out a few pure, elegant wines from the challenging 2022 vintage there, which combined a searing summer drought with a wet fall – not a great combination for Schneider’s steep and stony-soiled vineyards.

The very best of his wines, the dry Jakob Schneider Riesling Nahe Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Über’m Häuschen Trocken 2022, is a single-barrel bottling that reminded Stuart of “an Alpine meadow on a summer’s day, while the Jakob Schneider Riesling Nahe Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Magnus Trocken 2022 shows ripe yellow fruits and fantastic freshness plus great spicy and mineral complexity.

In our Hong Kong office, Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt tasted some new releases from Champagne Billecart-Salmon, including  the Le Clos St.-Hilaire Brut 2007, which is “tight and structured, with complex aromas ranging from pink flowers and fruit to spices and chalk,” as well as from Taittinger, including its top rosé, the Comtes de Champagne Brut Rosé 2011, which is “more open compared with their stunning 2007, 2008 and 2009 vintages, but while the 2011 is a little less structured, it’s lovely to drink now or in the next few years.”

Finally from Europe, Swiss winery Soledi also landed at the top of our tastings during November, with their terraced vineyards in Ticino giving us the Soledi Rosso del Ticino Nik1 2020, a polished and tight Bordeaux-style blend showing fantastic freshness and a citrus edge, and the Soledi Rosso del Ticino Emiole 2020, a cabernet franc-led blend with beautifully fragrant aromas, depth and focus. 2020 was only Soledi’s fourth vintage, but these wines were their best yet.

HEATHCOTE'S PROMISE

Senior Editor Ned Goodwin MW visited a number of regions in Australia, starting with a comprehensive tasting in Heathcote, an area in central Victoria largely known for its ancient, red Cambrian soils of decomposed volcanic basalt.

Among the standouts there were Tellurian Wines’ carignan, grenache gris and grenache offerings from 2022, as well as the stellar Wild Duck Creek Estate Roussanne Spruce 2022.

But it was during a blind tasting with some of the region’s top winemakers that he saw the promise of the many Italianate wines being produced there, the most impressive being the Condie Mataro Heathcote School House Lane 2021, Silver Spoon’s Grenache The Stirling 2022, Chalmers’ lip-smacking Falanghina 2022, “the textural tour de force” that is Lo Stesso Fiano 2023, from Emily McNally at Jasper Hill, and the Heathcote 2 Grenache 2021, with its “paradoxical freshness and power that it sears itself into the memory bank.”

In the southernmost part of Heathcote, punctuated by large, gray granitic boulders that make it look like “a vinous Stonehenge,” more savory notes can be found, especially in the shiraz, as exhibited in the Wild Duck Creek Estate Springflat Shiraz 2021. Ned also said that the Jasper Hill Shiraz  Heathcote Georgia’s Paddock “is archetypal for 2021, a riveting example from a cooler, attenuated vintage.” And from the Heathcote’s Camel Ranges, whose warmer western side delivers greater concentration to wines, came the brilliant Tellurian Shiraz Heathcote Sommet 2021.

If it’s “artful timepieces” you’re after from Australia, look no further than Lake’s Folly in Pokolbin, about 170 kilometers northwest of Sydney. Ned was there during the month to celebrate its 60th anniversary, and he tasted a judicious selection of new and aged wines with winemaker Rodney Kempe. The standouts were two chardonnays: the Hill Block Chardonnay 2011, which Kempe called “the finest white I’ve crafted,” as well as the Hill Block Chardonnay 2021, whose aromas of pistachio, sea salt and nectarine make for real intrigue.

However, it was the blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot and shiraz, known for whatever idiosyncratic reason as ‘The Cabernets,” that was the real drawcard at Lake’s Folly. Of these, The Cabernets 1997 stole the show, “going beyond even Pauillacs in terms of its iodine quotient, and brimming with marine essences and dried kelp. It was like being belted by rain and wash on a seashore,” Ned said.

And Ned said Crittenden Estate’s Cri de Coeur savagnin wines are “redefining what constitutes great wine, glimpsed through a more contemporary viewfinder.” Ned’s near-vertical tasting of Cri de Couer started with the inaugural 2011, hit a groove of cool climate fidelity in 2013 and saw a peak in 2015 with “perhaps the greatest triumph to date,” Ned said. “Coming from a warmer year, the wine boasts a panoply of mushroom broth, washed rind and curry powder, held together by what feels like a highly strung bow of freshness despite the wine’s obvious heft. Umami in spades!”

OLD-SCHOOL FROM HUAILAI

Senior Editor Zekun Shuai was in Hebei’s Huailai region, where he visited two of the region’s leading producers, Canaan Winery and Domaine Franco-Chinois, and tasted a few dozen wines.

Canaan’s 2020 chardonnays exhibit freshness from the cooler year, plus purity and precision with a less leesy character, giving them an old-school feel, with the sharp, reductive and austere Chapter and Verse Chardonnay Huailai Reserve 诗百篇珍藏霞多丽 2020 perhaps the best example.

The top-rated wine from Domaine Franco-Chinois was the Domaine Franco Chinois Marselan Huailai Reserve 中法庄园珍藏马瑟兰 2018, which Zekun said “is a little closed now, but the complexity from the fruit and the finesse make it a compelling marselan, epitomizing the controlled allure – some would say flamboyance – of the grape."

Of course, all the wines from above are just a sampling of the excellence that came during November, so parse through the notes below to find your particular varietal or vintage favorites from across the globe. We'll wrap up all of our 2023 tastings in a few weeks (we expect to hit around 40,000 wines for the year – a record), but in the meantime enjoy all our Top 100 wine reports, with China, the United States, Germany and Portugal all coming out soon.

– Vince Morkri, Managing Editor

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