Weekly Tasting Report (Mar 29-Apr 4, 2021): Perfection from Champagne, Germany; excellence from Beaujolais, Bordeaux

A perfect blanc de blancs Champagne and a perfect riesling auslese from the middle Mosel are just two of the incredibly exciting wines we rated last week in Hong Kong, South Australia and Germany. In total, we rated slightly more than 400 wines last week and many outstanding wines were found from Argentina, Chile, France, Germany and the United States.

“It’s the expression of chardonnay that is super pure,” said Vitalie Taittinger, one of the owners of Champagne Taittinger and the producer of the incredible Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2008. “A glass of Comtes de Champagne is like three or four lives in the glass. In the beginning you feel the youth of the wine. And you are on the energy of the chardonnay. And you have something that is pure and precise. Then you feel it is a large wine but then very straight … then you wait for the second life of the wine in your glass. And the complexity and the years that are precious to the wine start appearing. And you are feeling the complexity.”

I certainly felt that and more. The Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2008 is a weightless yet condensed Champagne with such weight and verve that it seduces you with every sip. It’s the best blanc de blanc I have had in a long time. I also tasted the Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2011, which will be released in September, and it was a more linear and mineral young Champagne than the 2008 and it had outstanding drive.

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was just as ecstatic with a perfect riesling from what he calls “Germany’s greatest modern vintage.” It was the Joh. Jos. Prum Riesling Mosel Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese Gold Cap 2019, He described it as “so concentrated, yet so vibrant and so pristine with such a mind-boggling number of nuances.” This is a wine to lay away in your cellar for decades ahead and may be remembered in the same way as the great Joh. Jos. Prum Riesling Mosel Wehlener Sonnenuhr Ausleses from 1947 and 1959. Both Stuart and I have been lucky enough in our lives to drink these wines and they are phenomenal in every sense of the word.

James tastes with Vitalie Taittinger, one of the owners of Champagne Taittinger and the producer of the incredible Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2008.

Stuart also rated a number of other great Joh. Jos. Prum rieslings from the 2019 vintage as well as a few late release ‘library wines' from Dr. Loosen. The Loosen wines are labeled as “Tradition” and cover a range of vintages from 2009 to 2016. Check them out below.

Argentina also had plenty of high scorers last week as we finished our tastings of about 1,800 wines from the country. The top Argentine wines last week highlight the continued emphasis on single-vineyard and parcel-specific wines where wine producers seek to highlight and validate their best places in Mendoza.

“Today you have the possibility to make wines in all the world,” said Sebastian Zuccardi, the winemaker of the winery bearing his name and one of the most outspoken proponents of site-specific wines. “We want to concentrate on what we have in the Uco Valley. We think that wine is a serious thing. We think to make great wine you have to sleep near to the vineyards. You need to have an everyday relationship with the vineyards.”

One of the top wines was the Bemberg Estate Wines Malbec Gualtallary Valle de Uco El Tomillo Parcela 5 La Linterna 2016, which shares the same owners and winemaker of Trapiche. What I like about the winery is that they release their reds a little older than most wineries. “The owners like their wines to be drinkable on release, so it’s important they have bottle age when they go on the market,” said Daniel Pi, the Bemberg winemaker.

Releasing wines on the market when they are ready is the philosophy of another important winery whose reds I rated last week: Chateau Latour. The first growth Bordeaux started the policy in 2012 after it stopped selling en primeur or futures. Honestly, it took some getting use to but I personally like the policy. It’s attractive to be able to buy great Bordeaux straight from the cellar of a chateau when it’s ready to drink.

And the 2013 Latour is certainly that. It shows plenty of sweet tobacco, lead pencil and currant character and it's firm and poised with layers of ripe tannins. Granted, it’s not at Latour’s normal stellar level but it is still one of the best wines of the vintage along with Margaux and Lafleur. 2013 was a difficult year and made rather thin wines. Latour had to do a severe selection to get the quality to the level it has in the bottle. I also rated the Les Forts de Latour 2015 and the third wine, Pauillac de Chateau Latour 2016. Both were excellent.

I spoke to Latour President Frederic Engerer and he said that all three wines sold out to the global wine trade in a few hours on March 23. The Latour 2013 currently sells for about $500 a bottle with the Les Fourt de Latour 2015 at $220 and Pauillac de Chateau Latour 2016 at $80. “The response has been very positive,” he said.

Some people reading the report might prefer buying some great 2019 Beaujolais considering it’s a great vintage and so many wonderful bottles can be bought for $20 to $30. The vintage is the best since 2015 and the wines show a richness while still retaining freshness. And they are very typical for great gamay as well as reflecting their respective areas and vineyards.

There’s also a handful of single-vineyard bonardas from Argentina’s El Enemigo rated that I want to point out as an alternative to Beaujolais. They share much of the same drinkability and freshness of a top Beaujolais but then have a tiny line of tannins running through their center palate. My favorites were the El Enemigo Bonarda Mendoza Single Vineyard Los Paraísos 2018 and the El Enemigo Bonarda Mendoza Single Vineyard La Esperanza 2018.

Also, I want to mention two Champagnes rated from Henri Giraud. I am a big fan of the house and they make bold and beautiful wines. Both the Henri Giraud Champagne Argonne Brut 2013 and Henri Giraud Champagne Aÿ Grand Cru Fût de Chêne MV16 NV are amazing quality. I was slightly surprised by how good the Argonne Brut was from the 2013 vintage considering the difficulty of the growing season for the grapes. Yet it’s tight and compressed with elegant structure. The MV16, based primarily on the 2016 vintage, was slightly more opulent but equally structured. It’s one for the cellar, as I wrote in the tasting note.

And don't forget the new and very small production still wines from the Champagne house of Louis Roederer - Louis Roederer Coteaux Champenois Camille Hommage Blanc 2018 and Louis Roederer Coteaux Champenois Camille Hommage 2018. Both the red and whites are minerally and fresh with a lovely drink-ability. They remind me of the days living in Paris and drinking such reds in my favorite bistros.

In fact, there are plenty of wines for the cellar in this report. So check out the list of wines below.

- James Suckling, editor

The list of wines below are bottles tasted and rated in the previous week by James and other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet in the market, but entering 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, and can search for specific wines in the search bar.