Unwrapping Napa 2023, Mosel Masterpieces and Savory Depth from Soave

Napa Valley’s 2023 vintage featured prominently in our November tastings of 2,313 wines, with seven bottles we gave 99- or 100-point scores to coming from that excellent year in California’s most renowned wine region.

Executive Editor Jim Gordon and Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery uncovered three perfect-scoring cabernet sauvignons from the vintage – two from the boutique winery Tor Wines and one from the pioneering winemaker Paul Hobbs.

Jim tasted Tor's 2023 reds with owner Tor Kenward and winemaker Jeff Ames, and found an “amazingly powerful but sleek” offering in the Tor Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard BFD 2023 and an equally spectacular though more structured and tauter wine in the Tor Napa Valley Black Magic 2023. Rounding out the trio of perfect scorers was the Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Coombsville Nathan Coombs Estate 2023, a “quietly powerful, elegant and plush wine” that “vividly brings out the character of 2023,” according to Jim.

Tor also scored highly with their sleek but powerful Tor Napa Valley Pure Magic 2023 and pure, elegant and polished Tor Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Vine Hill Ranch 2023, and we uncovered another of our top-scoring Napa 2023 wines when Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery tasted with the talented Treasury Wine Estates winemaking team for Beaulieu Vineyard, Etude and Beringer at the Beringer Estate in St. Helena. Beaulieu’s nearly perfect Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Georges de Latour Private Reserve 2023 has an immense level of refinement and purity alongside fine-boned tannins. The Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Private Reserve 2023, meanwhile, is another exciting release from 2023, with a detailed and refined nose giving black-fruited aromas of graphite with a savory edge.

At AXR, Ryan tasted with Swiss-born winemaker Jean Hoefliger, and he came across a “truly exceptional” wine in the AXR Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard 2023 as well as the AXR Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Sleeping Lady Vineyard 2023, which “shows a balance of savory notes and freshness with all the class and polish of the vintage on full display."

There were also a few bottles from Napa’s “heat dome” vintage of 2022 that still showed balance, freshness and site expression despite the challenging conditions of the year, with the Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Gravelly Meadow 2022 marking the final bottling from this legendary vineyard before replanting, from vines originally sown in 1968. It features a finely structured palate and a balanced, finely woven texture that will age gracefully for many years to come.

Equally compelling are the Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Red Rock Terrace 2022, made from the last of the original 1968 plantings, and the Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Volcanic Hill 2022, which is for the long haul and will slowly reveal its depth over decades, according to Ryan.

Mosel Masterpieces

Our two other perfect-scoring bottles in November came from Germany, where Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was in the Mosel Valley catching up with a few leading producers who bottle late. He tasted some amazing wines, but the most exciting of these were produced in tiny quantities and are in great demand.

That certainly applies, Stuart said, to the Julian Haart Riesling Mosel Wintricher Ohligsberg Kabinett (White Label) 2024, an off-dry wine that’s paradoxically extremely light in body yet extraordinarily deep and complete in flavor. And their almost perfect Julian Haart Riesling Mosel Wintricher Ohlisgberg Kabinett Wurzelecht 2024 comes from a different parcel of vines and is at times incredibly steely and salty and has a totally different flavor profile.

The other perfect wine Stuart tasted was the dry Markus Molitor Riesling Mosel Erdener Prälat *** (White Cap) 2024, a giant of ripeness (mango!) and concentration with unbelievable refinement. It’s a dry Mosel masterpiece with the concentration of a great Grand Cru white Burgundy but with riesling aromas, according to Stuart.

There are some incredible Mosel values from other producers, too, like the Carl Loewen Riesling Mosel Alte Reben Trocken 2024, which has incredible mineral intensity for what is a de factor village wine, with a friendly price to go with it.

Stuart also encountered several important innovations in the Mosel. Schloss Lieser has been on a roll since Thomas Haag took over this historic estate in 1992 and he just released the great dry Schloss Lieser Riesling Mosel Domprobst GG Réserve 2019, which has balsamic complexity along with deep stone fruit character. It’s the first vintage of this new wine.

And in the Rheingau, Achim von Oetinger and his winemaker, Lutz Loosen, made an extraordinary range of 2024 dry rieslings, led by the Von Oetinger Riesling Rheingau Marcobrunn GG 2024, with its aromas of mirabelle plums and dried flowers. It’s a wine that lives up to the reputation of this legendary site, according to Stuart.

Stuart also traveled to Stuttgart to taste a range of red GGs from the Wurttemberg wine region, finding the Dautel Spätburgunder Württemberg Forstberg GG 2022 to be a “pinot noir supernova” with expansive forest berry aromas and every bit as much wet-stone freshness. “The way the mineral acidity and vibrant tannins interlock in this high-altitude pinot noir is dazzling,” Stuart said.

Succulent Gredos Garnachas

Senior Editor Jacobo García Andrade tasted the wines of Domaine Dexaïe, in the Gredos region of Spain, finding a couple unique garnacha expressions that deserve a look. The first, the Domaine Dexaïe Garnacha Cebreros Alto Alberche 2023, is a blend of thoughtfully selected parcels from Burgohondo and Navatalgordo chosen to balance the region’s austere character with a more succulent expression of high-altitude garnacha. The result is a wine of clarity, typicity and refined approachability. Their top wine, though, the Domaine Dexaie Garnacha Cebreros La Camilleja 2023, comes from a spectacular vineyard set among towering granite rocks, holm oaks, oaks, and the occasional fig tree. It’s well worth seeking out.

Galicia remains one of the most fascinating wine-growing regions in Spain, with Rias Baixas’ 2022 vintage showing particularly well in our recent tastings. Although coming from a relatively young site, Forjas del Salnés’s single-vineyard O Pradiño 2022, should evolve beautifully with time in the bottle, while their Goliardo A Telleira 2022 and Finca Genoveva Tinto 2022 are outstanding reds. The former is rounder and slightly broader due to its two-stage harvest and discreet use of new, well-integrated oak, while the Finca Genoveva Tinto is more incisive, herbal and deeply expressive.

Albamar also remains one of the top producers in the region, with a diverse portfolio where vineyards, styles, varieties and subregions converge. The Bodegas Albamar Rías Baixas Pepe Luis 2013 is always exceptional, and tasting it with some bottle age was a reminder of how beautifully these wines evolve.

Also check out some of the top-scoring releases from Bierzo that Jacobo tasted, including the exceptional César Márquez Mencía Bierzo Sufreiral Vino de Paraje 2023, the ethereal Bodegas y Viñedos de Viariz Mencía Bierzo La Muria 2023, Verónica Ortega Mencía Bierzo A Bruxa 2023, and the elegant and absorbing Michelini i Mufatto Mencía Bierzo Encinado 2023.

Jacobo also gained a compelling snapshot of Portugal’s diversity during a recent trip, complemented by tastings in our Hong Kong office. Among the highlights were wines from Luís Pato, one of Bairrada’s most influential figures and a key architect of the region’s modern identity. His wines, long known for their longevity, impressed again for their precision and typicity.

The Luis Pato Vinho Regional Beiras Vinha Barrosa 2008 stood out as a vivid example of graceful aging. Its aromatic profile — earthy, rusty and evocative of aged Left Bank Bordeaux or Chinon — comes from a single, nearly 100-year-old vineyard on clay-limestone soils. Fully destemmed and aged for two winters in neutral oak, it remains expressive and precise, with further life ahead.

Savory Depth from Soave

Tastings by Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli at the Consorzio headquarters for Veneto's renowned Soave wine revealed a pair of producers worth noting – Gianni Tessari, whose offerings impressed for their tension and minerality, and Le Battistelle, where concentration and savory depth were the order of the day.

Aldo said Gianni Tessari’s Soave Classico Scalete 2024 stands out for its nervy precision, with sour citrus, smoky sulfur tones, yellow grapefruit, lemon leaf and ripe white peach, while Le Battistelle’s Soave Classico 2023 shows a layered, leesy and slightly reductive style, rich in smoky aromas that mingle with candied lemon and fresh apricot.

And James and Aldo agreed that the Pieropan Soave Classico La Rocca 2023 is an exceptional wine, stunning them at the first stip. “With the 2023 vintage and La Rocca, they seem to have captured a golden moment for Soave and demonstrated how the region has become, arguably, Italy’s best source of world-class white wines,” Aldo said of it.

Both  La Rocca and Inama's Soave Classico Foscarino I Palchi Grande Cuvée 2022 show how a measured touch of wood can lend garganega an added degree of refinement and nobility, according to Aldo. La Rocca, in fact, is a kind of Italian Condrieu: classy and sophisticated, with toasty and stony aromas layered with lemon peel, orange, quince and fern. Complex, weighted, vibrant, long and silky – it’s a truly outstanding wine. The I Palchi, from a warmer vintage, is intensely mineral, showing apricots, lemon peel, angelica and mango, according to Aldo.

Aldo also encountered an exceptional tasting lineup in Barbaresco, where he tasted all the crus produced by the renowned cooperative winery Produttori del Barbaresco from what is already widely regarded as a fantastic 2021 vintage.

Among the winery's Barbaresco DOCG Riserva 2021 wines, the Pora is the most approachable and open, while the Rabaja sits at the opposite end of the spectrum as the most powerful. The Ovello is the most austere; the Asili is fresh and elegant; and the three “M” crus show a crescendo of tannic structure – from the Montefico, which combines freshness and power, to the Montestefano and Muncagota, which are both of larger grain. The excellent Paje closes the series, able to synthesize the two souls of the territory: grace and power.

Finally, Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli’s tasting tour through Champagne, from the Montagne de Reims to the Cote des Bar, gave him a closeup look at how growers and chefs in the famous region are reinterpreting their style of winemaking and aiming for originality, personality and character in their offerings. Champagne Gosset is doing just that thing with its zero-dosage cuvee, which ages for a full decade – one or two years as a still wine, then the rest on its lees during bottle fermentation.

The Gosset Champagne Zero Dosage is a wine of an intense mineral style, Aldo said, showing fresh yet restrained strawberries, lemon peel, green apples, wax and a whiff of pastry. Two of his other favorite picks from his Champagne tastings were the Alfred Gratien Champagne Clos le Village 2018, which shows a restrained style that’s subtle on the nose, and the Agrapart & Fils Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Avizoise Brut Nature 2019, which is a more austere offering that needs time in the glass to become gentler.

– Vince Morkri, Editor-in-Chief

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. 

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