Shangri-La Magic from Ao Yun, And a Bojo Rockstar Comes of Age: Weekly Tasting Report (March 15-21)

Our latest Weekly Tasting Report highlights a respected name from China – Moet Hennessy’s Ao Yun, which is a blend of some of the greatest terroirs near the fabled city of Shangri-La in Yunnan province, in southwestern China. Nothing can stop the Ao Yun team from making great wines at the most extreme altitudes.

The 2019 Ao Yun is more refined and layered than ever, and according to Ao Yun winemaker and estate manager Maxence Dulou, it also came from their smallest crop ever – about 800 grams per plant for cabernet sauvignon, or one-third the average yield of a Medoc grand cru. 2019 was their most extended and latest harvest, with the picking window for their elevated mosaic of vineyards stretching from Sept. 9 to Nov. 21 – 72 days in total!

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF CHINA 2022

“We started harvesting cabernet sauvignon on Sept. 9 in the vineyards of Xidang [at 2,200 meters] and finished with cabernet sauvignon in Adong village [at 2,600 meters] on Nov. 21,” said Dulou, who visited our Hong Kong office and tasted with Senior Editor Zekun Shuai and Tasting Manager Kevin Davy.

2019 “was humid in winter with a warmer and drier spring, leading to many small berries and higher density,” Dulou added. “But some of our vineyards received more rain in the summer, and some did not. So the reason the harvest was so long was because of the heterogeneity.”

Ao Yun is a meticulous selection from 314 vineyard plots, totaling nearly 28 hectares, in four villages. Some of what is picked is bottled separately as “cru” wines. In the case of 2019, these were the Moet Hennessy Shangri-La Xidang Cru 酩悦轩尼诗香格里拉西当 Cru 2019, which shows density, depth and power, the Moet Hennessy Shangri-La Adong Cru 酩悦轩尼诗香格里拉阿东 Cru 2019, which has a tad more coolness and ashy notes of sweet tobacco and dustier tannins, and the Moet Hennessy Chardonnay Shangri-La Adong Cru 酩悦轩尼诗香格里拉阿东 Cru 2019.

The Ao Yun, though, is a complex blend of 67 percent cabernet sauvignon, 17 percent cabernet franc, 10 percent syrah and 6 percent petit verdot. Merlot was not included because of the spring drought. It was also the first year the wine was made using a 100 percent gravity-fed method instead of pumping, which Dulou believes gives the wines better texture. The crushing was also more delicate.

“Year after year we get more color and concentration, but we need to find finesse and elegance and only extract the best tannins by keeping the seeds inside the skins during fermentation,” Dulou said.

The final result is a bottle that is just as great as the exciting 2018 vintage, if not even better. It is already approachable at this early stage, with incredibly complex layers, pedigree and restraint on the nose, followed by a full but super-polished palate and a persistent finish.

A NEW BOJO ROCKSTAR

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott finally completed his marathon tastings of Beaujolais with visits to well-established and rising star producers in the region. One of the latter group made a particularly strong impression on him. “Although he is based in historic buildings and he uses the carbonic maceration technique typical for the region, J.B. Bachevillier of Domaine de Mont Joly is definitely the rockstar of the region’s new winemakers,” Stuart said.

One of the interesting things about Bachevillier’s wines is that the reds are marketed as Beaujolais Blacé, a variant of the humble Beaujolais Villages appellation that incorporates the name of Bachevillier’s hometown. “The Domaine de Mont Joly Beaujolais Blacé 85.45 2020 is a wine with a huge tannin structure and a fjord of berry fruits that retains all the vibrancy we associate with Beaujolais wines,” Stuart said. “It really shows what’s possible in the best corners of the sprawling Beaujolais Villages appellation.”

READ MORE BEAUJOLAIS ANNUAL REPORT: THE BEST VALUE REDS IN THE WORLD?

Stuart found that Bachevillier also makes impressive dry whites from the chardonnay grape, most notably the Domaine de Mont Joly Beaujolais-Blacé Blanc Les Blancs 2021. It has notes of floral honey and limoncello, and is one of the highest-rated whites from the region. “The remarkable thing about all this is that 2017 was the first vintage for Domaine de Mont Joly,” Stuart observed. “However, Bachevillier has been making wines since he was 14 years old, and he’s at least an eighth-generation winemaker. That combination is very 21st century Beaujolais!”

The young winemaker’s simultaneously self-confident and self-effacing words strike us as saying everything: “I’ve nothing to claim as my own except my story,” he told Stuart.

Back home in Germany, Stuart was impressed by the range of barrel-fermented whites and pinot noir reds from Martin Wassmer in the Markgraflerland sub-region of Baden close to where southwest Germany, France and Switzerland meet.

“Here, weissburgunder (pinot blanc) and chardonnay grow on limestone soils, and in Martin Wassmer’s hands the results from both grapes remind me of the way good white Burgundy tasted back in the 1980s before climate change really made itself felt,” Stuart said.

You don’t need to be an aficionado of white Burgundy to go for the Martin Wassmer Chardonnay Baden Dottinger Castellberg GC 2020, a combination of concentration and energy that screams grand cru. “This is one of the best chardonnays ever made in Germany,” Stuart said.

“Wassmer’s reds are almost as good as his whites, particularly the 2020s, of which the Martin Wassmer Pinot Noir Baden Dottinger Castellberg GC 2020 stands apart with its amazing tannin structure,” Stuart added. “It’s got so many years ahead of it. Here’s a German pinot noir that was made with long-term aging in mind.”

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF ITALY 2022

In Tuscany, Tastings Editor Jo Cooke continued to rate wines from the Italian region of Veneto, which is best known for its Valpolicella reds and Soave whites. Highlights from the past week’s tastings included two Amarones from Zenato, one of the region’s top producers: the Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2018 and Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Sergio Zenato Riserva 2017. Both wines come from Zenato’s vineyards, in the heart of the Valpolicella Classico designated zone.

The Riserva 2017 is made using the local grape varieties corvina and rondinella, selected from the oldest Zenato-owned vineyards in the village of Sant’Ambrogio and aged in Slovenian oak casks for four years before release. It’s a stunning wine, offering a wide array of aromas that seem to grow and grow in the glass followed by a superbly structured palate and endless length. It’s undoubtedly one of the region’s top reds, showing the highest level of quality consistently year after year.

The Amarone 2018 is another standard bearer for quality, from the same vineyard area. This is also from corvina and rondinella grapes, but two additional permitted red varieties for Valpolicella reds – oseleta and croatina – are blended into the mix. It’s aged for three years in large Slavonian oak casks, and is another example of superb winemaking, exuding harmony, character and warmth.

As is the case with most Amarones, these wines are high in alcohol – 17 percent for the 2017 Riserva and 16.5 percent for the 2018 non-Riserva, but don’t let that put you off. If these figures weren’t written on the label you would probably never guess.

– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor; Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor; Jo Cooke, Tastings 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.

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