Tuscany’s Paradigm of Perfection and the Pfalz’s Gleaming 2023: Weekly Tasting Report (July 17-23)

There’s a big-picture concept to some of the top-scoring wines in this week’s report. James gave perfect scores to a pure sangiovese from Bibi Graetz and a 100 percent merlot from Petrolo – two highly respected wineries in Tuscany. Both bottles are from a hot and dry vintage, 2022, which is perceived as less good than the cooler and late-harvested 2021 vintage in Italy’s famous wine region.

The perfect scores of the two reds highlight the new paradigms top winemakers in the world are establishing with climate change, whereby they are agile and adaptive in their vineyards and wineries to compensate for extreme weather conditions. Moreover, well-managed vineyards seem to be acclimatizing to these challenging weather patterns. And winemaking success, as always, can come down to a little bit of luck.

“We had isolated rain the middle of August in 2022 and it saved our ass,” explained Luca Sanjust, the owner of Petrolo, which makes the highly sought-after merlot, Galatrona. He also said that he cut the tiny percentages of cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot from the wine. “It was a dry and hot summer, but those three days of rain were really important for the merlot and the maturation of the grape,” he said. “It was good rain for three days.”

Carlo Ferrini, Sanjust's consulting enologist, added: “The vines were much better off in 2022 than other hot and dry years. In 2017 they were really tired. In 2022 the vines were always green and not stressed. I am sure that the vines are adapting to the change in climate. You don’t need to help them with irrigation, for example. You don’t give air-conditioning to cows, do you?”

Sanjust also explained that his winemaking has become much “softer,” with less extraction and less wood maturation producing more transparent and “crunchy” wines. He noted that his use of amphora for fermentation and aging with some of his wines (not Galatrona) has guided his philosophies on more subtle barrel maturation. Many producers have been saying the same thing in many parts of the world, from New Zealand to Italy to the United States, according to James.

Another point is that many top producers no longer support the idea that extremely low grape yields produce the best wines. A balanced crop of grapes can produce more balanced wines with fresher and brighter fruit quality that can translate into vivid offerings, they say. “We work to help our vineyards come to a natural balance in their crop load and come to an optimal ripeness level,” Bibi Graetz said about the success of his top sangiovese reds in 2022.

Made on the other side of the world, the latest Penfolds wines have just been officially released and James was impressed with what he tasted, including a new vintage of their legendary Penfolds Shiraz South Australia Bin 95 Grange, the 2020. He thinks it’s one of the most refined and textural Granges he has ever tasted. However, James preferred the Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Coonawarra Bin 169 2022, which is all about caressing tannins and vivid cabernet fruit, although other reds from Coonawarra in this report are of equally compelling quality.

James tasted with Penfolds winemaker Peter Gago, who explained that his team in Coonawarra was “obsessive” in making sure that the eucalyptus character often found in wines from the region were not part of the wines.

THE PFALZ'S GLEAMING 2023

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was exploring the 2023 vintage in the Pfalz region of Germany and is now convinced that for it and most regions in the country, this is the best vintage since the great 2019 and on the same kind of level as 2007 and 2001.

There was no more compelling proof of this than at the famous Dr. Burklin-Wolf estate winery in Wachenheim, where there was a wealth of great dry rieslings – the category they are almost completely focused on. None was more amazing than the Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Pfalz Kirchenstück GC 2023 (note that this producer uses the abbreviation GC instead of GG). The density of yellow fruit aromas is truly extraordinary and the flinty character electrifies the wine’s overwhelming concentration. The finish is seemingly endless with a wealth of minerality. Sadly, production is very limited.

There’s rather more of the Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Pfalz Pechstein GC 2023, which is breathtakingly focused and mineral with a very exciting interplay of creaminess with herb and nutty apple character. However, don’t miss the remarkable quartet of village wines that are at a much lower price point and more easily obtainable.

The star of these is the Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Pfalz Forst Village Trocken 2023. It has a striking biscuity nose and is very complete on the beautifully balance on the medium-bodied palate, with aromas ranging from Mirabelle plums to ripe mango.

Stuart is convinced that Müller-Catoir in Neustadt never had a better vintage than 2023. Winemaker Martin Franzen explained that in spite of the stunning results, it was an easy vintage to screw up. “You had to very precisely remove any botrytis from the grapes for the dry wines, and the botrytis developed very fast, so you really had to watch picking dates, too."

The Müller-Catoir Riesling Pfalz Bürgergarten im Breumel GG 2023 is one of the dry riesling stars of the vintage, with an incredible filigree and delicacy as well as a cornucopia of stone and citrus fruit aromas. Not only is this wine a steal, the whole range from this producer offers exceptional value for money. That begins with a couple of entry-level wines that are absurdly good, most notably the Müller-Catoir Weissburgunder Pfalz MC Trocken 2023, a dry pinot blanc that’s brimming with ripe pear and mini banana aromas with a wonderful creaminess and delicate freshness on the medium-bodied palate.

However, the highest-rated bottle from this producer is a nobly sweet wine of the kind they were famous for the first time Stuart visited them in 1986, a TBA made from the rare rieslaner grape. The perfect Müller-Catoir Rieslaner Pfalz Herzog Trockenbeerenauslese EL 2023 has a gigantic nose of dried mangoes and porcini mushrooms, but it is the combination of off-the-scale concentration and supernaturally vibrant acidity that makes this every bit as great as the legendary 1990 Rieslaner TBA from Muller-Catoir.

The Bergdolt winery just outside Neustadt is an insiders’ tip for great dry pinot blanc, but Carolin Bergdolt also belongs to Germany’s new first league of sparkling winemakers. The soon-to-be-released Bergdolt Pfalz Sekt Fluxus Extra Brut 2017 is enormously deep and complex with stacks of candied citrus aromas, as well as notes of red berries, brioche and beeswax. It’s a big mouthful in the same kind of way that Roederer Cristal is but has superfine mousse that lifts the long finish in a way that’s breathtaking. Here, too, there are bargains to be had right through the range. Scroll down to discover them.

THE FRENCH TOUCH IN CALIFORNIA

French-born winemakers operating in Napa made all four of the top-rated wines from California this week. They are as different as Burgundy and Bordeaux, however.

A relative newcomer, Nid Tisse, offered two brilliant chardonnays and a supple, finely balanced Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills Radian Vineyard 2022. Nid Tisse owner-winemaker Marie-Laure Ammons made wine for Atelier Melka for 18 years.

Her Nid Tissé Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2022 took the highest score among California wines this week. Executive Editor Jim Gordon called it perhaps the stoniest, steeliest wine made from the much-celebrated property. It slowly opens in the glass to reveal Bosc pears, apple skin and a lingering finish.

The Nid Tissé Chardonnay Russian River Valley Bacigalupi Vineyard 2022 comes from an equally coveted site that brings out lovely minerals and subtle fruit elements on a finely detailed texture.

Also rooted in France, but situated in the rugged Mayacamas Mountains that divide Napa and Sonoma counties, is a Bordeaux-style red blend, the Pym-Rae Napa Valley Tesseron Estate 2020. This aromatic, linear and fine-textured wine from a challenging vintage continues the consistently high quality of these wines grown on the former property of actor Robin Williams. The Alfred Tesseron family of Bordeaux’s Chateau Pontet-Canet bought the spectacular site from Williams’ family and began farming the steep hillside vineyards biodynamically.

Another remarkable vineyard in Napa Valley that made this week’s report is the Hendry Estate, which borders the city of Napa on the northwest and is essentially wedged between the Carneros and Oak Knoll AVAs. The family seems to be able to succeed with every popular grape variety. Check out the good scores and great notes for their chardonnays, cabernet sauvignons, pinot noirs and zinfandels.

THE POETRY OF PORT

The tasting spotlight in our Hong Kong office was taken by three extremely rare Port bottlings from Van Zellers & Co, whose history dates back to 1620. The trio of XIX collection tawny Ports – Crafted by Liberty, Crafted by Family and Crafted by Poetry – are from 1860, 1870, and 1888, respectively, according to Cristiano van Zeller, the CEO and owner of Van Zellers & Co. The wines were discovered aging in their ancient Douro cellars and were meticulously preserved.

The colors of these ancient Ports revealed how unique they are, with the Liberty the lightest of the three with lower sugar content, and Family and Poetry both opaque and of a black mahogany tint, with superb concentration.

The most captivating of them, however, is the Poetry bottling, whose vintage – 1888 – is the birth year of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Senior Editor Zekun Shuai found the sweetness and alcohol perfectly tucked up amid the ultra-complex flavors on a sleek yet almost painfully concentrated palate. Yet, the very elixir will blow your socks off with a brightness and vibrancy that keeps it so vivid and lively before an endless finish. The same kind of brightness and agility can be found in the Liberty, which is equally great but with a bit less concentration and more nuance, finesse and dissolved layers.

Limited to just 75 three-bottle sets, these unprecedented tawny Ports were bottled in March 2024, offering a rare chance to experience the magic of century-old-plus winemaking. Tasting them is a humbling yet emotional experience, with a mere sip from any of these miniature sample bottles certain to linger, haunting the senses long after.

– James Suckling, Stuart Pigott, Jim Gordon and Zekun Shuai 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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