October 2021 Tasting Report: Australia, Napa and Brunello Rule (and Don’t Forget the Rieslings)

We are tasting between 500 and 800 wines every week at the moment, and we compile our findings into a Weekly Tasting Report. We don’t think any other wine media organization is publishing so many new tasting notes so quickly. Many of the ratings we publish are for wines tasted just the previous day! And because so many of the wines we taste are the latest releases, often not yet available in the market, this ensures that all Premium Subscribers of JamesSuckling.com (who get access to the latest wine scores and tastings notes) are among the first to learn about the newest wines.

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 subscribers can access the scores and tasting notes in the ratings list at the bottom of this article.

We published 2,626 wine ratings in October, from 14 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):

Australia – 908 (New South Wales, 16; South Australia, 608; Tasmania, 34; Victoria, 29; Western Australia, 216; Other, 5)
Austria – 96
China – 19
France – 42
Germany – 159
Hungary – 4
Israel – 16
Italy – 517 (Abruzzo, 35; Basilicata, 3; Campania, 9; Emilia-Romagna 2; Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 9; Lazio, 12; Liguria, 3; Lombardy, 1; Marche, 7; Northeast, 29; Piedmont, 23; Puglia, 7; Sicily, 13; Tuscany, 287; Valle d’Aosta, 2; Veneto, 60; Other, 15)
Portugal – 1
New Zealand – 244
Russia – 3
South Africa – 4
Spain – 65
United States – 548 (California, 509; North Carolina, 33; Oregon, 1; Virginia, 2, Washington, 2)

The JamesSuckling.com Tasting Team is well on its way to meeting its goal of rating 25,000 wines by the end of this year, adding another 2,626 to the tote board in October. Although that number fell short of the monthly record of 2,919, the 14 countries we covered offered up a broad swath of the world’s finest bottles.

Our tastings during the month focused heavily on Australia, the United States and Italy, but perfection sprang up in several places. Senior Editor Stuart Pigott started October by giving our highest score to a dry riesling from one of Germany’s great historical vineyards, the von Oetinger brothers’ Marcobrunn. The von Oetingers also scored well with a few other wines, while August Kesseler made an exceptional pinot noir (or spatburgunder, as it is known in Germany) from the Hollenburg vineyard in 2020 that Stuart said was “the best wine I ever encountered from this underrated top site.”

Another white wine Stuart raved about was Immich-Batterieberg’s dry riesling from the 2020 vintage. “The incredible wet-stone finish just doesn’t want to stop!” Stuart wrote of it. Some other German bottles that got his attention were the Jakob Schneider Riesling Nahe Niederhäuser Klamm Eiswein 2020 (“finally, a great ice wine that reminds me of the best from the 1990s”), the Ökonomierat Rebholz Spätburgunder Pfalz Im Sonnenschein GG 2019 and the Riffel Riesling Rheinhessen Scharlachberg Trockenbeerenauslese 2019.

Stuart also tasted 24 vintages of Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Kamptal Ried Heiligenstein EL from Austria, and he rated the 2001 as “an almost timeless masterpiece.”

NEAR-PERFECT CHAMPAGNE: Lucie Pereyre de Nonancourt and Edouard Cossy of Laurent-Perrier discuss their latest offering.

Australia offered up the largest number of bottles during the month, though, with our tasters getting through a whopping 908 wines from Down Under alone. One of Contributing Editor Nick Stock’s top Aussie wines was the Mount Mary Yarra Valley Quintet 2019. Nick rated the 2018 a 99, but the 2019 went to another level, with Nick calling it “the perfect version.”

Nick was also deep into South Australia and the Barossa Valley, where he uncovered Yalumba’s Tri-Centenary Grenache 2019, which he enjoyed for its “striking aromas” and “scintillatingly pure and fresh” quality. A few other top bottles from South Australia were the Hentley Farm Shiraz Barossa Valley E Block 2019, which Nick described as “concentrated and intense, dense and layered with an exotic edge of peach and mango,” and the Hewitson Barossa Valley 1853 Barrel 2019.

READ MORE: OLD BASTARD RUMBLES ON WITH A FRESH VINEYARD TWIST

Some real gems also came out of New South Wales, with Mount Pleasant’s Old Paddock & Old Hill Shiraz, a 2019, clearly shining thanks to its impressive depth and richness. And two Aussie “great whites” of note were the Alkoomi Riesling Frankland River Heritage Series Hail 2015, and the Dandelion Vineyards Riesling Eden Valley Wonderland of the Eden Valley 2021, which both showed wonderful freshness and intensity.

From Australia’s neighbor, New Zealand, came a steady flow of pinot noir. James loved  the intensity of fruit combined with a firmness and dryness in the best examples, including from Rippon, Dry River and Felton Road. “It changes all the time!” he wrote of Rippon’s 2018 pinot, in which he found notes of dried strawberries, mushrooms, bark and flowers, as well as an “endless finish.”

The Kiwi pinots are showing a Burgundian sensibility in the mouth these days, with 2020 following 2019 as another great vintage. The country’s chardonnays also offer unique richness and freshness, with James describing the Chardonnay Waipara Valley Virtuoso 2019 as an exciting example of a “dense and layered, yet fresh and vivid” wine.

NAPA REDS, CLASSY BRUNELLOS

We also hit California hard during October, with Napa reds the standouts from the 547 wines we tried from the Golden State. The 2019 vintage is turning out to be another superb one, with the Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Pritchard Hill a great reflection of the vintage –  it’s one of the best ever from Chapellet, and shows superb depth, firmness and great length.

Another top bottle was the Hudson Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Seashell 2019, which has a fascinating nose with notes of lemon, praline, salted caramel and crushed shells, along with the Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley St. Helena 2019, which is compact with firm tannins and a broad, muscular palate.

James was also impressed with new releases from Heitz Cellar, which continued to produce classic-style Napa wines with low alcohol and firm tannins. Their Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Martha’s Vineyard 2015 was a revelation for James, harking back to greats such as 1968 and 1974 with its impeccable structure, focus and character.

Brunello di Montalcinos were in a class all their own in October, and from our tastings we can assure you that 2016 was a great vintage, following the superb 2015. They are more structured and tannic than the 2015s and are built for long aging – but they’re also wonderful to drink now.

Two of our top picks were the Eredi Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2016 and Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Brunello di Montalcino Vigna di Pianrosso Santa Caterina d’Oro Riserva 2016 – both ethereal in their presence, with sleek and intense tannins and diverse and complex character. Another must-get bottle is the Renieri Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2016, which was a captivating rendition that just went “on and on” according to James. Staying in Italy, Tuscany’s 2019 vintage, like Napa Valley’s, appears to be superb, and is well represented in the bottle by Fattoria Le Pupille Maremma Toscana Saffredi 2019, which showed incredible tannin backbone and depth of fruit.

Spain, South Africa and Russia also figured in our ratings, and as usual France landed a solid winner: the soon-to-be-released Laurent-Perrier Champagne Grand Siècle Grande Cuvée N.25 NV, which James tasted by Zoom with two Laurent-Perrier team members. Although James didn’t quite give it a perfect score, he said its intense aromas of pure apple and mineral fruit together with a palate of fantastic depth and power added up to a “great Champagne.”

We’ll toast to that.

– Vincent Morkri