Penfolds Strikes Again, Tuscan Wonders and Game-Changers from Alsace: Weekly Tasting Report (July 13-19)

This weekly tasting report highlights new releases from Australia’s eminent winery, Penfolds, including what may be one of its greatest new wines in years, Penfolds Shiraz South Australia Bin 95 Grange 2018. It is one of Penfolds’ more polished and sophisticated Granges in decades and highlights the incredible quality of the 2018 vintage in Australia. The Penfolds Shiraz Barossa Valley Bin 798 RWT 2020 and Penfolds Shiraz South Australia St Henri 2019 were not far behind. There are 15 releases in total in this report from Penfolds.

A couple of highlights from Tuscany in this report are two new releases from the Chianti Classico region: the Barone Ricasoli Toscana Casalferro 2019 and the Bibi Graetz Toscana Colore 2020. The former shows the excellent work Francesco Ricasoli and his team have done to fine-tune the merlot-based red of Casalferro, which now comes from three specific vineyards on his estate about a half-hour’s drive from Siena. Ricasoli said that he was looking for “more finesse and drinkability” in the red and he certainly achieved that. Meanwhile, the pure sangiovese of Bibi Graetz, primarily from the Chianti Classico region of Lamole, shined in the 2020 vintage with a polish and subtlety that focuses on why this continues to be his best wine.

I also tasted and rated a new sangiovese, merlot and petit verdot blend from Podernuovo a Palazzone, the south Tuscan wine estate of Giovanni Bulgari. The 1,000-bottle, limited release Podernuovo a Palazzone Toscana G33 2018 is pretty sensational.

Most of the production of Colore, like a number of other top Tuscan wines, is now sold almost entirely through the wine merchant system in Bordeaux to wine trade around the world, and the trend is growing. The Place de Bordeaux, what the trade calls it there, acts like a stock market for wine merchants around the world, selling new and old bottles from Bordeaux chateaux and other wineries outside of the region – from Tuscany’s Solaia to Napa’s Promontory.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF ITALY 2021

In fact, two of the other top-scoring wines in this report are also sold through Bordeaux to parts of the world: the Joseph Phelps Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Insignia 2019 and Joseph Phelps Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019. I tasted these wines last spring, but we haven’t posted them until now.

As you probably know, the 2019 was a beautiful vintage for the valley, producing slightly richer and more fruit-forward wines than the fresh and tannic-driven 2018. I found the Phelps Insignia 2019 a worthy follow-up to the 99-point 2018, with much of the same tension and focus but perhaps with a tiny bit less length. In any case, both the 2019 and 2018 are great wines.

I also want to point out the second release of Nama from the Alto Adige winery of Nals Margreid. Last year was the first release of the Nals Margreid Alto Adige Nama, a small-production offering from one of the best grape growers in the region.

The 2018 was a blend of mostly chardonnay with a touch of pinot blanc and sauvignon blanc. The 2019 is pure chardonnay and highlights the freshness and purity of the 2019 vintage in Alto Adige.

CONTRASTING GAME-CHANGERS

Meanwhile, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott is currently in Burgundy and in a week’s time a slew of notes and his first impressions of the 2020 vintage will appear here. But just before he left Alsace he tasted some revolutionary wines that are quite Burgundian in type. “I really didn’t see it coming, because most pinot blanc from Alsace is round, fruity and dry,” he commented, “but the 2020 pinot blancs from Barmes-Buecher are game-changing wines for the region.”

Mostly when we encounter a game-changer, it's a single wine that stands out in the crowd due to a radical change of style and quality. “In this case there are two contrasting game-changers,”  Stuart said – something he had never encountered before. “In one vintage the brother and sister team of Maxime and Sophie Barmes have reinvented the wines of this grape at the Grand Cru level, even though the wine law does not allow them to put that designation on the label.”

The Domaine Barmes-Buecher Pinot Blanc Alsace Rosenberg 2020 is a great dry white wine that’s brimming with super-ripe pear, orange and honeysuckle, is full-bodied and rich, but also has a ton of chalky minerality at the very long and complete finish.

In contrast, the Domaine Barmes-Buecher Alsace Sand 2020 has a more Burgundian personality with an intense saline quality Pigott never encountered in this grape before. “It’s got mind-bending originality,” Stuart said. “Pinot blanc originates from Burgundy, but planting it there is effectively banned by law. How amazing that somebody should reinvent it far from home. It’s like something out of an old Hollywood movie!”

In our Hong Kong office, we had a fruitful week tasting outstanding to great wines we rated from 93 to 95 points from Spain, Italy, France, Argentina, Chile and even China. At the top of the list were the wines of Faustino, from Rioja, and Portia, from Ribeira del Duero. Both are part of Familia Martinez Zabala. As one the largest landowners in Rioja with over 150 years of history, Faustino continues to make high-quality but affordable Reserva and Gran Reserva wines that are widely exported around the world. We appreciated the traditional taste of the nuanced, aged complexity of their Gran Reserva wines, which comes in frosted bottles coated with resin, which enhances the sturdiness of the bottle and protects the wine from UV light.

Faustino has stepped up its game with the Faustino Rioja Gran Faustino I Gran Reserva 2004, which shows the effortless ageability of a top Rioja vintage through not just concentration and tannins, but balance and freshness, too. If you’re seeking more restrained plushness and richness from savory, traditional Riojas, the eclectic Faustino Rioja Icon Edition Reserva Especial 2017 is an excellent choice. This cherry selection of around 90 percent tempranillo and 10 percent graciano from the estate vineyards delivers a wine with deeper color and some darker, spicy fruit, and it was aged in French oak.

Portia wines, meanwhile, represent the modern image of Ribera del Duero with their impressive single-vineyard offerings, which show refined opulence and power with abundant dark-berry fruit and healthy concentration. Among them is the 400-liter barrel-fermented Portia Ribera del Duero Summa Edición Limitada 2019, whose depth and dusty tannins are awe-inspiring.

READ MORE: OUR TOP 100 WINES OF 2021

The other impressive Spanish wines we tasted over the past week came from Dominio de Atauta of Ribera del Duero, Bodega Exopto of Rioja, and Terroir Sense Fronteres of Montsant. The extremely serious Terroir Sense Fronteres Priorat Coreografia 2021 hit the mark with its bright transparency, texture and immense drinkability. It is one of the top-rated rosés from Spain.

We also kicked off our tastings of some impressive Chinese wines this week, including from Tiansai Skyline in Xinjiang, in the far northwest of the country. Among them were some rich, flavorful and deliciously saline reds based on cabernet sauvignon, marselan and syrah. Try the Tiansai Skyline of Gobi Cabernet Sauvignon Xinjiang 天塞酒庄庄主珍藏 2019 if you look for a plush, Napa-style cabernet sauvignon with ripeness, depth and some underlying savoriness, too. For marselan, the Tiansai Skyline of Gobi Marselan Yanqi T95 天塞酒庄T95马瑟兰 2019 is a sterling reference for Xinjiang marselan that finds a sweet spot between ripeness and freshness.

– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman; Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor; and Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

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.