Rolling Out the Super Tuscans, Plus Redefining California Syrah: Weekly Tasting Report

We tasted 496 wines over the past week at JamesSuckling.com, with James and Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli rating some terrific Super Tuscans, starting with the refined Petrolo Toscana Campo Lusso 2022.

Campo Lusso comes from a mere half-hectare vineyard planted in 2001 on a small mountain above the winery at about 450 meters in altitude. Organically farmed and manually tended, the grapes are handpicked and fermented with natural yeasts in cement vats before aging for about 18 months in French oak.

The recently released 2022 is its best vintage yet. James described the young cabernet as “mind-blowing, with pencil shavings, graphite, ink, and blackcurrants.” The medium-bodied palate reflects the same flavors, but it was the texture – defined by ultra-polished tannins –that made James rate it so highly.

In Italian, Campo Lusso translates to "luxury field," a name reflecting the land’s revered status among locals. But others say the name stems from the vineyard’s extreme remoteness and the sheer difficulty of cultivating it – making it a true luxury to farm, both in effort and expense.

Senior editor Aldo Fiordelli, meanwhile, was in Bolgheri recently to taste the latest vintage of Ornellaia at a special dinner organized by Ornellaia's co-owners, Lamberto and Ferdinando Frescobaldi. The mimosa trees on the estate were fully in bloom. “In the southernmost part of Maremma," Lamberto Frescobaldi noted, “the first buds have already opened.”

These details underscore a crucial aspect of climate change in Italy: the primary challenge is not only summer heat, but rather unseasonably warm winters. The 2022 vintage of this Bolgheri Superiore stands as one of the driest on record in Tuscany.

Marco Balsimelli, the newly appointed director of Ornellaia – who arrived last year from Bordeaux after a long collaboration with consulting enologist Eric Boissenot – said they had labelled 2022 "the determination vintage" for the resilience shown in navigating the extreme heat and drought.

“According to data from our vineyard weather stations, 2022 was the driest year in February, March, April, May, June and July,” Balsimelli explained. “The vines showed less vigor, with shorter branches, fewer leaves, and a reduced grape yield – at least 15 percent lower than usual. Smaller clusters and berries led to a different skin-to-pulp ratio, resulting in highly concentrated wines. Significant rainfall in August and again in September allowed the grapes to complete their ripening process, which would have otherwise stalled."

Yet, the 2022 Bolgheri Superiore is surprisingly graceful and fresh – distinctly Mediterranean in character, with elegant aromas of dried eucalyptus leaves, wild berries, dried banana and milk chocolate, accented by graphite and clove. On the palate, it is full-bodied, with fine, slightly dusty tannins that are beautifully integrated with bright acidity, leading to a long, lingering finish of blond tobacco.

Guests at the tasting had the opportunity to explore this “Lafite of Tuscany” through a mini-vertical of four vintages: 2015, 2011, 2005 and 2001. The 2015 has evolved into an outstanding wine, having shed the exuberance of its powerful youth. It’s ready to drink now or to be forgotten in the cellar.

The 2011 remains a compelling vintage, rich in detail and full of character – a touch old-fashioned and rustic, yet deeply umami-driven. The 2005 is leaner and more evolved but embodies the current trend toward approachable wines. Lastly, the 2001 stands as one of the greatest Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore vintages ever produced, though it is beginning to show the signs of age in the glass.

The evening concluded with a stunning surprise: an Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore 1997 served from a double magnum. A masterpiece of longevity and elegance, this wine evoked the spirit of a Tuscan Margaux, with its extraordinary aromatic intensity – violets, leather, and cassis – leading to a full-bodied, silky palate and a long, cigar-box finish.

REDEFINING CALIFORNIA SYRAH

Pax Mahle of PAX Wines began his journey in the late 1990s with a mission to redefine California syrah. As a former sommelier, he was captivated by the wines of the northern Rhone Valley but felt that California’s syrah had yet to reach its full potential. Determined to change that, he set out to craft syrahs that balance purity, complexity and structure.

Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery met with Mahle in Sebastopol this past week to taste his latest releases. His signature wine, the Pax Syrah Sonoma County Sonoma Hillsides 2023, reflects the hallmarks of a great syrah from a cool yet consistent growing season.

Mahle’s syrahs are incredibly pure and perfumed, offering layers of depth, spice, and earth that arise from sustainable viticulture, 100 percent whole-cluster fermentation and native yeast fermentations. Mahle has the knack for extracting structure, density, and mouthfeel while keeping a freshness and lift that make his wines enjoyable when young, yet they also have significant aging potential.

During Mahle’s 25-year-plus journey with syrah in Northern California, he discovered a unique vineyard at an elevation of 760 meters in the Yorkville Highlands of Mendocino County, known as Halcon. Halcon is planted with own-rooted vines from the Chave clonal selection, which was established in 2002.

Mahle acquired the 19-acre vineyard and produced his first wine from it in 2021, with the Halcon Syrah Yorkville Highlands Mendocino County Au Choix 2021 representing a selection of the finest parcels within the vineyard. While different in style compared with the well-known PAX label, Mahle effectively conveys his vision and ideals through his wines. His 2021 offering showcases power and depth with a black-fruited profile, enriched by layers of spice, herbs, and cured meats that are characteristic of exceptional Rhone syrah.

Ryan also tasted PAX’s racy and acid-driven chenin blancs, including the Pax Chenin Blanc Mendocino County Alder Springs Vineyard 2023, which showcases citrus and mineral characteristics with a generous texture and a lovely reductive edge. The Pax Gamay Noir Sonoma County Alta Monte 2023, meanwhile, displays a lively tension and freshness underneath layers of dark fruit and spices.

INTERCONTINENTAL MASTERPIECE

When Senior Editor Stuart Pigott visited the Paul Jaboulet Aine winery in the town of Tain l’Hermitage in the Northern Rhone to taste their 2022 vintage red wines, a “secret wine” – the first vintage of the Penfolds and Domaine de la Chapelle intercontinental joint-venture wine – was included in the lineup, and Stuart became one of the first professional tasters in the world to try it. Domaine de la Chapelle and Jaboulet are sister wineries (with the former being separated from the latter a few years ago), with Caroline Frey the winemaker for both.

The Grange-La Chapelle Shiraz-Syrah South Australia-Rhône Valley 2021 is an extraordinary cuvee of the Grange 2021 from Penfolds and the Hermitage La Chapelle 2021. Extremely rich and plush, it has a unique texture on the full-bodied, wide-screen palate. The very fine-grained tannins anchor this masterpiece, which marries the boldness of Grange on the front palate with the coolness of La Chapelle at the extremely long finish. 2021 was the coolest vintage for the Northern Rhone of recent years. This limited-production innovation is extremely expensive, but looks set to become a collector’s item. 

When Stuart asked Frey how they came up with the idea, she told him: “I’ve known Peter Gago, Penfolds’ chief winemaker, for a long time and we did quite a few joint winemaker dinners. So, we were curious how the two wines would combine. At the first blending trial with Peter, we were very surprised how it created something completely new.“

When you think that Penfolds Grange has always been a multiregional blend and La Chapelle comes from an appellation with a total area of just 140 hectares, the contrast in the origins of the two components of the blend is striking. And to that must be added the huge climatic differences plus harvests half a year apart because the wines come from the earth's two hemispheres. Considering this, it’s amazing how the components seamlessly mesh.

Stuart also tasted some wines from the Mosel that push the envelope. A century and more ago, it was common for dry riesling wines from the Mosel to ferment for a year or even more. A number of daring winemakers in the region have been experimenting with this since the 1990s.

The Günther Steinmetz Riesling Mosel Dhron Hofberg Reserve Late Release 2023 is an amazing example of what this can do for dry wines from top vineyard sites. It has an amazing interplay of monumental concentration with wet-stone freshness and salty minerality, which gives it wonderful energy at the enormous finish. The Günther Steinmetz Riesling Mosel Wintricher Geierslay Rondel 2023is even more youthful, with an intensely smoky and flinty nose from the very long fermentation, yet is extremely focused on the tightly-wound palate. There’s a whole waterfall of wet-stone character at the breathtaking finish. Both are limited production wines.

The Wwe. Dr. H Thanisch (Müller-Burggraef) Riesling Mosel Berncasteler Doctor GG 2023 is another late-release due to long fermentation but it is surprisingly open, with a kaleidoscopic nose of apricots, mandarin oranges and jasmine. The underplayed power and concentration make this enormously slaty dry riesling a compelling offering.

A VIBRANT DÃO FIELD BLEND

Senior Editor Jacobo Garcia Andrade tasted some of the latest offerings from renowned Portuguese producer Quinta da Pellada – an estate that has consistently championed traditional field blends in its top reds.  

Among the standouts was the Quinta da Pellada Dão Alto 2019, whose quality Jacobo likened to some of the better Galician wines he has tasted, mostly due to the high proportion of jaen (known as mencia in Galicia) in Quinta da Pellada’s vineyard. The Dão Alto displays vibrant wild berry notes, a nervy core and a seamless, elegant profile.

The Alto ("high" in Portuguese and Spanish) in the name refers to the highest plot on Quinta da Pellada’s estate, which is at 550 meters elevation. The vineyard, planted in 1950, comprises 47 varieties of grapes, which are destemmed and foot-trodden in open granite lagares, then aged for 28 months in used barrels. The result is a blended wine with an ethereal quality, a lively spark and a silky texture.  

Another surprise was the Carrocel 2021, a pure touriga nacional from an old, high-altitude vineyard. This wine is one of the purest expressions of the variety the JamesSuckling.com team has ever tasted. It is intensely aromatic, with floral notes of violets and ripe blueberries, evoking comparisons to a Northern Rhone Syrah.

This wine stands apart from the estate’s field blend philosophy, demonstrating what exceptional farming and winemaking can achieve with single-variety vineyards, which are becoming increasingly prevalent in the region. While field blends are the hallmark of the Dao and typically deliver more complex, characterful wines, the Carrocel shows that single-vineyard wines, when crafted with care, can be equally compelling. 

– James Suckling, Aldo Fiordelli, Ryan Montgomery, Stuart Pigott and Jacobo García Andrade 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.

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