Stags Leap Stunners, Wild German Rieslings and Striking Gold Down Under: Weekly Tasting Report (Oct 16-22)

The harvest season in California brought not just a new vintage, but a bountiful and diverse harvest of great new releases from Napa Valley and Sonoma County. Seventeen of the 170 Golden State wines this week scored 95 and above: magnificent Napa cabernet sauvignons, soulful Sonoma pinot noirs and excellent examples of chardonnay, too.

Shafer Vineyards in Napa’s Stags Leap District earned a near-perfect score from Executive Editor Jim Gordon for its incredibly ripe, delicious and structured Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District Hillside Select 2021. This is a collectible wine with an excellent track record for aging.

Jim remembers tasting the inaugural 1978 vintage of Shafer cabernet sauvignon in the 1990s when it was about 15 years old – this was before Hillside Select was created – and realizing that the Stags Leap District, already known for its supple, dark and nuanced reds, could also produce wines that stand the test of time.

Not far behind the Hillside Select in quality and sheer attraction is the Shafer Vineyards Napa Valley Relentless 2021, a super-saturated, almost thick syrah that was named in honor of Shafer’s relentless winemaker Elias Fernandez, who has been on the job since 1984. Fernandez was one of the first children of Mexican immigrant farm laborers to rise to a prominent winemaking position in California.

Both of these outstanding wines were harvested before the Shafer family sold the winery and estate vineyards in early 2022. Fernandez stayed on. He can count the Shafer Chardonnay Red Shoulder Ranch 2023 as another great accomplishment.

Nearby, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, now fully owned by the Antinori wine family of Tuscany, also produced exciting, age-worthy reds in 2021, as proven by the flagship Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Cask 23 2021 and the equally high-scoring Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon S.L.V 2021.

SLWC, as it’s abbreviated, was founded by Napa legend Warren Winiarski, who died in June this year at age 95. The two top bottlings in this report by winemaker Marcus Notaro dramatically underline the refined, elegant style of cabernet that Winiarski first uncovered in the 1970s. It was his 1973 S.L.V cabernet sauvignon that won the now-historic Judgment of Paris blind tasting in 1976.

There is more meat on the bone of today’s estate-grown SLWC reds than decades ago, but no less snug tannins, complexity and precise balance.

Special kudos for Napa cabernet in this report also go to O’Shaughnessy for two mountain-grown 2021s that capture all the richness and accompanying structure that is typical of this outstanding vintage. The O’Shaughnessy Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 2021 is broad and muscular while their Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder 2021 offers intense, focused fruit on super-fine-grained tannins.

READ MORE NAPA CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2014 TASTING: A SEISMIC VINTAGE?

Over on the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas Mountains, Colombia-born winemaker Bibiana Gonzalez Rave has mastered pinot noir, chardonnay and several other varietal wine types under three brands. Her Cattleya line is crowded with outstanding new offerings like the Cattleya Pinot Noir West Sonoma Coast The Goddess 2022, a charming but super-concentrated and fresh-tasting wine. Her Cattleya Chardonnay Russian River Valley The Temptress 2022 is equally excellent in a lush, creamy style.

But Jim’s top pick in Gonzalez Rave’s current portfolio is a one-barrel lot of a different grape from a different region: the Cattleya Syrah Santa Lucia Highlands The Reward 2022. This Central Coast offering boasts the tannins and body of a big wine, yet it is nuanced in beefy, peppery flavors to complement its plush blackberry core, with so much grace and depth.

Elsewhere in Sonoma County, this year marks Marimar Torres’ 35^th vintage in California winemaking. Her Marimar Estate vineyard and winery is in one of the coolest parts of Russian River Valley near Sebastopol, and the property there, named for her father, Don Miguel, a key figure in Spanish wine production, produces elegant and polished wines from partly older vines planted in the 1980s.

The two most highly rated in this report are block selections from this property. The Marimar Estate Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Don Miguel Vineyard Earthquake Block 2021 is bold, singular and earthy, while the Marimar Estate Chardonnay Russian River Valley Don Miguel Vineyard Bonita’s Hill Estate Grown 2021 is massively concentrated, rich and long.

PUTTING THE WILD INTO GERMAN RIESLINGS

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott is now in the home straight of tasting for the forthcoming Germany Annual Report and the most exciting wine he uncorked at his home base the whole year was a late-bottled 2023 dry riesling from the Gunther Steinmetz winery in the Mosel.

Wild fermentation sounds great, but it is a high-risk strategy if you are making dry white wine because of the way the yeast can easily stop working before all the sugar has been converted to alcohol. Wild ferments are also often slow, so winemakers like Stefan Steinmetz end up spending months, and sometimes almost a year as in this case, biting their nails and asking themselves if it’s going to work.

Of course, there has to be advantage in all this and the Günther Steinmetz Riesling Mosel Neumagener Rosengärtchen V.d.T. 2023 is a fantastic example of the textural and aromatic complexity you can gain when a long, wild ferment is combined with sensational quality grapes from old vines. It unites gigantic concentration and extraordinary finesse to create a perfect tasting experience. An essence of white peach and jasmine is married to a dangerously intense wet stone minerality. Bottled just weeks ago, it is still a bit embryonic.

The Mosel Valley has a long tradition of bottling single 1,000-liter Fuder barrels (giving just over 1,300 bottles), and this wine is a modern example of that. Historically, this was done for sweet spatlese and auslese wines, whereas now it is also applied to dry wines like this one. Of course, that creates a limited-production wine with correspondingly limited distribution. Steinmetz and his Neumagener Rosengärtchen V.d.T. have special reputations, so every bottle is fought over and it will be difficult to obtain.

Another German wine tradition is special bottlings that are marketed exclusively or primarily through auctions, like those of the VDP producers association. The Jakob Schneider Riesling Nahe Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Über’m Häuschen Trocken (Auction Wine) 2023 is a stunning example of this. In this case there are also 1,300 bottles, which is a lot in the German auction wine category. Some people are pushing the creation of artificial shortages much further in order to push up the price.

Jakob and Laura Schneider’s wine is their best barrel of dry wine in this vintage from the legendary Hermannshohle vineyard site and from a special corner of it called Uber’m Hauschen, or “above the little house” in English. It is incredibly slaty with amazing wild herb complexity and brilliant acidity alongside a crystalline finish that doesn’t want to stop. It will be sold at the auction of Der Ring in Trier on Nov. 7. Bids must be placed through registered wine brokers, or a wine importer must do this for you.

The combination of daring and perfectionism in the vineyard and the cellar that results in these wines also greatly benefits the entire range of offerings from these winemakers. So scroll down to find larger bottlings that are more widely available. In both cases there’s nothing fancy about the winery, and prices are friendly for this exalted quality level.

Stuart feels another wine demands a mention here and that is the Krüger-Rumpf Riesling Nahe Abtei 1937 Trocken 2023. The wine’s name refers to the fact that this plot of vines in the Abtei vineyard site was planted in 1937. It is the last vineyard in the Nahe Valley before the river flows into the Rhine at Bingen, and Georg Rumpf has made a string of remarkable wines from these vines since 2018.

The 2023 vintage is the far north of dry riesling that theoretically was abolished by climate change, but somehow survives here in the glass. Mouthwateringly fresh with gigantic energy yet beautifully balanced, it is an incredibly mineral expression of a unique location that Rumpf rediscovered. The process of reviving such forgotten vineyards is one of the things that has driven the quality revolution in Germany that began around the turn of the 20th to 21st centuries.

HITTING GOLD IN AUSTRALIA

Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery traveled to Beechworth this week in northeast Victoria, the former gold-rush region that has evolved into a thriving wine producer. Although it may be the smallest wine-producing area in Australia, a handful of vintners have elevated it to the world stage, including Giaconda.

Founded by the Kinzbrunner family. Giaconda is dedicated to crafting exceptional, site-specific wines – especially chardonnay – which has earned it international acclaim. The Giaconda Chardonnay Beechworth Estate Vineyard 2022 is a masterfully constructed wine, showcasing the mineral-rich site where it’s grown, with a distinctive graphite-like minerality and textural mouthfeel.

Nathan Kinzbrunner, who honed his skills under his father, Rick, is also pushing the boundaries with varieties like nebbiolo, shiraz and roussanne, which is grown in an amphitheater-shaped block near their underground cave. The Giaconda Roussane Beechworth Estate Vineyard 2022 is very textural and rounded, supported with lush aromas of honeysuckle, sun-kissed melon, dried bananas, orange blossoms and jasmine.

Nearby, other notable winemakers are also raising the bar. Keppell Smith of Savaterre is producing high-quality, mineral-rich chardonnays with a Burgundian influence. The Savaterre Chardonnay Beechworth Reserve 2018 has developed beautifully with time in the bottle, displaying a minerally and reduced nose, with wonderfully integrated notes of grapefruit rind, Meyer lemons, chalk and orange blossoms.

Smith’s expertise doesn’t stop at chardonnay. He learned his craft with pinot noir while working under Australian pinot noir icon Phillip Jones of Bass Phillip, before starting Savaterre. The Savaterre Pinot Noir Beechworth Reserve 2022 showcases this mastery, with layers of red fruit and a captivating, perfumed nose with layers of savory notes lingering. It’s a true pinot noir lover's pinot.

Italian varieties like sangiovese and nebbiolo also thrive in Beechworth. Julian Castagna of Castagna wines, who was once a film director in Sydney, became captivated by Beechworth’s beauty in the late 1990s and began cultivating vines there using biodynamic practices. His blending of sangiovese and syrah delivers a focused, savory wine reminiscent of Tuscany. This is displayed in the Castagna Un Segreto 2013, which has aromas of dark cherries, tobacco leaves, mulberry bush, cured meat and graphite.

Gamay also has deep roots in Beechworth, thanks to Barry Morey of Sorrenberg Wines. Morey, who first planted vines in the late 1980s, has long been passionate about gamay. The Sorrenberg Gamay Beechworth 2023 reflects the region’s earth-driven style while maintaining the variety’s integrity. In addition to gamay, Morey has also crafted a unique and textural sauvignon blanc semillon. The Sorrenberg Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Beechworth 2023, which Morey produced with his daughter, Kara, is a complex, granite-textured wine that will appeal to lovers of white Bordeaux, with a unique Australian twist.

– Jim Gordon, Stuart Pigott and Ryan Montgomery 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.