Pahlmeyer’s Powerhouse Trio, Plus Eva Fricke Meets the Challenge: Weekly Tasting Report

Three powerhouse wines from Napa’s Pahlmeyer winery topped the 170 California tasting notes in this week’s report. And they had plenty of company in the top-scoring band from other Napa brands including Kerry, Louis M. Martini, Pine Ridge and Ovid, offering a mix of great wines from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 vintages.

Executive Editor Jim Gordon, who tasted dozens of wines from the Gallo family’s luxury portfolio, was the most excited about the Pahlmeyer Chardonnay Napa Valley Savoir Faire 2023. He called out the wine’s quiet intensity that will help it age for years. Priced at $125, it is almost sweet in vanilla bean, butterscotch and creme brulee flavors, yet backed by vivid acidity for balance.

Only one step down in score were two even more pricey Pahlmeyer reds, among the first releases of high-end Bordeaux-style bottlings from the almost flawless, even-keeled 2023 vintage.

The Pahlmeyer Napa Valley Piece de Resistance 2023 is a 100 percent cabernet sauvignon that impresses with its super-sleek yet intense structure and mountain-grown intensity. Equally high scoring is the Pahlmeyer Napa Valley Proprietary Red 2023, a full-bodied, tannic and deep wine that is primal in meaty, mineral and blackcurrant flavors. Winemaker Katie Vogt bottled 3,133 cases of it, so it’s not too hard to find a bottle or two.

Another Gallo property that made a big impression was Louis M. Martini, where for the second vintage in a row, the fine-grained, ultraconcentrated Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Mount Veeder (2023, in this case) was the highest-scoring among several outstanding Martini reds.

The brand and property are evolving to be smaller in case production, focusing more tightly on high-quality from Napa Valley sites, plus the Monte Rosso vineyard in Sonoma that the Martini family had bought in the mid-20^th century.

Winemaker Zach Watkins also introduced a new red to Jim – the Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Gryphon 2021, a relatively large-production item retailing at $100, which is reasonable these days for a layered and sophisticated wine like this from Napa.

Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery gave very high marks to two wines from Kerr Cellars owner Cristie Kerr and winemaker Helen Keplinger. The Kerr Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Wappo Vineyard 2022 is silky and refined, and in contrast, the Kerr Cellars Napa Valley Helicon 2022 is deep and brooding, laced with cedary, savory flavors on a full body.

Meanwhille, a couple of older vintages of Ovid Hexameter, 2019 and 2012, show the fine potential for aging that these cabernet franc-based wines from the Silver Oak family can achieve. In fact, Jim also tasted a pre-release bottle of the iconic Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley from 2021, which he deemed as good as, if different stylistically from, the Ovids.

This report boasts a tremendously diverse and rich collection of Napa Valley reds, including classic wineries and new faces. So if you’re a fan of Inglenook, Heitz, Burgess, Pine Ridge, Memento Mori, Arkenstone, Rutledge & Vine, St. Supery and others, you’ll find plenty of inspiration in the tasting notes below.

Eva Fricke Meets the Challenge

In Germany, large numbers of 2024 vintage dry whites below the level of the high-end GGs are coming onto the market right now, with releases from Eva Fricke in the Rheingau leading the way.

A wet, late September and early October of 2024 created a challenging harvest, and the riesling grape often had much higher acidity than in the previous couple of vintages. “I realized that I would have to go with that, because I always go with the personality of the vintage,“ Fricke told Senior Editor Stuart Pigott. The results conclusively confirmed the rightness of her daring.

The most amazing of the wines Stuart tasted with Fricke was a very limited production off-dry riesling that has not yet been released. The Eva Fricke Riesling Rheingau Eltville Collection Spätlese 2024 has kaleidoscopic complexity and comes close to having the maximum of finesse. In spite of the high acidity, the texture is totally silky.

Almost as amazing is the Eva Fricke Riesling Rheingau Schlossberg Spätlese 2024. Its electric energy on the sleek and dynamic palate may be too much for some but should delight anyone who enjoys the acidity of Champagne (which is analytically very similar). Stuart loved the lemon balm and wildflower aromas.

The most remarkable of the dry wines was the Eva Fricke Riesling Rheingau Seligmacher 2024, which is at once juicy, concentrated and dangerously vibrant, with great salty minerality at the extremely long finish. Scroll down for Eva Fricke’s other 2024 vintage wines, including a remarkable pinot noir rosé.

For anyone looking for a dry riesling with less acidity and more textural richness, the Heymann-Löwenstein Riesling Mosel Schieferterrassen 2023 is amazingly complete and deeply structured for what on paper is an entry-level wine. See Stuart’s recent Wine Crush video to learn more.

Yarra Valley's Stylistic Strength

Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery was in Australia recently, where he tasted a large range of Yarra Valley samples, predominantly from the 2023 vintage. What stood out wasn’t just the quality of the pinot noir and chardonnay, which is what the region is most renowned for, but the strength and appeal of styles that often fly under the radar: cabernet-based blends, shiraz and even viognier.

The cooler, slower-growing 2023 season gave producers the opportunity to craft wines with greater finesse, allowing both red and white varieties to ripen fully without excess weight. At Yarra Yering, the highlights showed real precision and texture across the board. The Yarra Yering Viognier Yarra Valley Carrodus 2023 was a particular surprise – aromatic and complex without being heavy and cloying, with a creamy texture and subtle grip that give it shape and drive. Ryan was struck by the purity and tension while experiencing all the classical viognier characters.

This was also the case for the Yarra Yering Yarra Valley Dry Red Wine No. 1 2023, a cabernet-dominant blend with merlot, malbec and petit verdot, which was one of the most complete wines in the tasting. It’s built with detail and polish, combining ripe fruit, energy and refined tannins in a way that feels seamless. There’s a classical structure here, but nothing about it feels stiff or austere. This is a wine with approachability and longevity in equal measure.

Yarra shiraz continues to be a quiet achiever, and the Yarra Yering Yarra Valley Underhill 2023 reinforced that impression. It’s not about weight or power, but purity and precision. The floral lift, the vibrant fruit, the peppery edge and finely tuned acidity all speak to a wine that’s been guided rather than pushed. It’s elegant and expressive, and offers something quite different from shiraz grown in warmer regions – something cooler and more transparent.

From Yeringberg, the Yerrringberg Yarra Valley 2023 estate blend is a cabernet sauvignon-based mix with merlot, cabernet franc, and petit Verdot. It’s bright and softer-edged, not chasing power. Instead, it’s built around flow and aromatic clarity, showcasing a more restrained and savoury character that will appeal to those seeking finesse over flamboyance.

Sardinia's Potential

There was a time not too long ago when Sardinia’s red wines struggled to command serious attention. Aside from iconic bottlings like Cantina Argiolas' Turriga, consistency was elusive, and finesse even rarer. But today, a quiet transformation is under way. Sardinian reds have found a level of precision, cleanliness, and contemporary edge that would have seemed far-fetched just a decade ago. And yet, they haven’t lost their wild, Mediterranean personality. Quite the opposite – they’ve sharpened it.

This island in the heart of the Mediterranean is a textbook example of the climate that shares its name: warm, dry and sun-drenched. And its primary red grape – grenache, known locally as cannonau – is a Mediterranean globetrotter, thriving from Spain’s Priorat to France’s Roussillon and Chateauneuf-du-Pape. In Sardinia, it’s not just an import, it’s a calling card.

Cannonau is a grape of restraint. It offers subdued aromatics, a soft fruit sweetness, moderate acidity and a hue that rarely goes inky. It thrives in warm, arid soils but remains surprisingly adaptable. And perhaps more than most varieties, it is shaped profoundly by place.

In the Sardinian town of Oliena, where the famed Nepente di Oliena originates, the wines tend to be light, rounded, and translucent – delicious in their ease. But it’s the elevated zone of Mamoiada that’s drawing the most attention in Sardinia from critics and producers alike. Here, the road weaves through vineyards perched between 800 and 900 meters above sea level. The soils are sandy and decomposed from ancient granite, and many of the vines are over a century old.

What distinguishes Mamoiada’s wines is their phenolic concentration – a result of higher solar radiation – along with vivid aromatics from dramatic diurnal shifts and a textural depth that only truly old vines can deliver. These are wines with gravity and soul.

That sense of purpose is amplified by a wave of forward-thinking producers. Marco Bacci of Blue Zone has brought pruning expert Marco Simonit to consult in the area, and has also begun using drones to manage vineyard treatments in otherwise inaccessible plots. Among the emerging names, Dario Gungui is one to watch, while Antichi Poderi Jerzu continues to demonstrate rock-solid consistency across its range.

At the top of the list from Mamoiada this year is indeed the Argiolas Isola dei Nuraghi Turriga 2021 – a wine of precision, completeness and deep complexity. It’s a hymn to Sardinia's Mediterranean scrub, with aromas of bark, cassis, milk chocolate, graphite, black cherries and oranges. Full-bodied, it delivers quality tannins, a velvety texture and flavors of citrus and dark chocolate. The acidity is refreshing and precise, with a toasted, elegant finish.

Also worth noting is the Dario Gungui Cannonau di Sardegna Barallibus 2020, a wine that shows unusual transparency and spice for the vintage. Full of licorice, fresh black pepper, raspberries and Mediterranean herbs, it is full-bodied and vibrant and offers a crunchy palate with crisp acidity and a tight yet ripe structure.

The silky Antichi Poderi Jerzu Cannonau di Sardegna Baccu Is Baus Riserva 2020, meanwhile, captures the essence of Sardinia’s coast in a single glass, with aromatic herbs, eucalyptus, myrtle and helichrysum weaving through vibrant notes of red cherries and oranges. Finally, the Argiolas Cannonau di Sardegna Senes Riserva 2021 is a forthright expression of Sardinia’s cannonau identity. It's rich with myrtle, lavender and red fruit; assertively deep with notes of white pepper and oranges. It's a full-bodied offering, with silky tannins and a finish that’s both warming and precise.

– Jim Gordon, Stuart Pigott, Ryan Montgomery and Aldo Fiordelli 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.