The Beauty of Blaufrankisch, Nervy Albariños and Salvaging 2018 Brunello Riservas: Weekly Tasting Report (May 29-June 4)

We rated 610 wines from 13 countries over the past week at JamesSuckling.com, with Senior Editor Stuart Pigott leading the way by tasting a row of stunning single-vineyard red wines from Uwe Schiefer, the self-taught winemaker who has reinvented the wines of the blaufrankisch grape in the Burgenland region of Austria over the last quarter century. Schiefer was a top sommelier before he became a winemaker, and he came to the Eisenberg area of the region in 1995 with the goal of making expressive wines that are all about terroir and not about toasty oak or fancy winemaking techniques.

The Schiefer Blaufränkisch Burgenland Ried Reihburg Eisenberg an der Pinka 2021 not only fully realizes this goal but is as sensationally intense as it is expressive, with youthful aromas of elderberry, licorice and tar. The plush tannins form a beautifully crafted, compact core that will give this wine a very long life.

It needs some more bottle age to give its best, unlike the Schiefer Blaufränkisch Burgenland Szapary S 2015, which already displays a wonderful complex gingerbread, clove, red and black berry character. In spite of the terrific concentration, it floats like a cloud on the palate and has incredible delicacy. These wines are as unique as anything Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont or Napa have to offer.

So far the blaufrankisch grape has been one of the big winners of climate change thanks to its bright natural acidity, and the Schiefer Blaufränkisch Burgenland Lutz Lutzmannsburg V.V. 2018 shows what the grape is capable of in a hot and dry vintage. This wine has a stunning mineral freshness and lots of tannins that are spread extremely evenly throughout the palate, giving it an understated power that Stuart found hard to resist. Scroll down for the additional handful of tasting notes for Schiefer’s blaufrankisch masterpieces.

THE SERIOUS SIDE OF ALBARIÑO

In out Hong Kong office, our tasting team members were inundated by a wave of Spanish wines, led by Bodegas La Caña in Rias Baixas, which delivered two outstanding albariños from 2022 and 2021. Senior Editor Zekun Shuai detected a Burgundian flair in these wines, with a flinty wood touch etched into the typical Rias Baixas salinity alongside sea breeze, white fruit and blossoms. As much as we love albariños in their purest form – ones that highlight the salty gastronomic nature of the grape – the Bodegas La Caña Albariño Rías Baixas La Caña Navia 2022 and 2021 showcase how serious and nervy albariños from granite-based soils in Rias Baixas can be when combined with meticulously controlled yield, fine lees contact and wood aging.

And it was a full-bodied rosé from Rioja’s Finca Allende that impressed the most out of all the Rioja wines we rated over the past week. The Allende Rioja Yzar 2020 is a garnacha rosado from a vineyard planted in 1970 in Briones, Rioja Alta, and although this is the inaugural vintage from winemaker Miguel Angel de Gregorio, it already makes a statement. The wine showcases a discreet touch of rusticity from its aromas of Mediterranean herbs, tile and spices that initially block the expressions of fruit but ultimately reveal their depth. The palate is fresh, tactile and sensual, showing broad, natural concentration with substance and texture.

Also check out the fresh and crunchy offerings from Ribera del Cuarzo, a booming project based in the Patagonia region of Argentina and headed by Felipe Menendez and Catena Zapata winemaker Ernesto Badja. They both visited our Hong Kong office to present their most recent releases, of which the most exceptional is the Bodega Ribera del Cuarzo Rio Negro Valle Azul Parcela Única 2020. This cofermentation of malbec, merlot and petit verdot shows length, richness and depth, but the freshness and the juicy crunch from the al dente dark fruit and its fibrous tannins are well retained even from a relatively warm vintage. According to Badja, picking at the right time and not going overboard on the winemaking led them to a better expression of the terroir as well as the vintage.

FINDING EXCELLENCE IN 2018 BRUNELLO RISERVAS

In Italy, Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli was tasting Brunello di Montalcino riserva wines from the 2018 vintage – a year that across the whole of Italy was not among the best of recent times, with rain causing some dilution in the more sensitive grapes, including sangiovese. Although some view 2018 as a “fresh” vintage due to the rainfall and thus expect the resulting wines to be more streamlined and elegant, it was in fact a warm year, and only a few producers made riservas.

According to Andrea Machetti, the director of the Brunello di Montalcino Wine Consortium, where Aldo was tasting, the paucity of riservas followed the recent trend in Montalcino. "An increasing number of our members prefer to focus on selections from single vineyards or single barrels, releasing them as Brunello annata because the riserva, with ongoing climate change, requires an aging process that many consider too long,” he explained.

And yet the quality of the 2018 riservas is quite good, with the dilution problem only sporadically showing in some of the wines. Although they show a more uneven level overall than usual, there are also peaks of excellence. In the best wines, the qualities required of a riserva – namely mid-palate extraction, concentration and perhaps even fruit freshness and depth – are on full display.

Rules in Montalcino that allow the addition of 15 percent of another vintage to the wine during aging – the so-called rejuvenation practice – definitely helped, with the contribution of the excellent 2019 vintage undeniably boosting the 2018 riservas.

The authenticity of Montalcino estates Caprili, Fattoi and Elia Palazzesi really stands out in their 2018 offerings, but also notable are the complexity and elegance of the San Filippo Le Lucere Riserva 2018, from an estate that enjoys a beautiful southeast exposure, as well as the San Polo Riserva 2018. The finesse of the Poggio di Sotto Riserva 2018, which maintains impressive consistency even in a lesser vintage, is remarkable. Last but not least, the Cerretalto 2018 by Casanova di Neri (which is not a reserve but a selection, although it is aged as long as the former) finds a particular balance in this vintage.

– Stuart Pigott, Zekun Shuai 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.

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