Weekly Tasting Report (Nov 2-8, 2021): A 100-Point Trio, Plus Napa, Bordeaux and Beaujolais Beauties

We normally don’t give out the scores of our top wines that we tasted in a week but we couldn’t help it with the amazing bottles we rated over the last seven days. These included the Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto 2016, Penfolds South Australia g5 NV and Krug Champagne Brut 2008. These are all 100 points!

The Penfolds red is the most unusual of the above bottles because it's the last of a trio of multi-blend vintage bottlings released by the Australian wine giant. It's made of five vintages of Grange blended together and aged – 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. Only 2,200 bottles were produced. James spent about a half an hour on Zoom discussing the project with Chief Winemaker Peter Gago, and he called the “g” series the essence of Grange.

All the g Penfolds South Australia NV reds have been rated 100 points but this may be the best ever, owing its incredible precision, grace and freshness. It’s 97 percent shiraz and 3 percent cabernet sauvignon. About 70 percent of the wines came from the Barossa Valley. James said that Gago is a “genius blender” and asked if he would be making more such blends. Unfortunately, Gago said the g5 was the last of the Penfold’s Grange multi-vintage bottlings.

Champagne Krug is obviously also known for incredible non-vintage blends, and James and his tasting team in Hong Kong tasted the newest releases yesterday with Cellarmaster Julie Cavil via Zoom.

The meeting included tasting and rating the Krug Champagne Grande Cuvée 169ème Edition NV and the Krug Champagne Grande Cuvée 164ème Edition NV. Both were fantastic, with the 164ème being extremely open and soft at this stage despite being based on the structured 2008 vintage. The 169ème was much more linear, structured and fresh, with the majority of the wine being from the energetic 2013 vintage.

Our team also re-rated the extraordinary 2008 Krug, and it remains a perfect wine with incredible depth and structure. James described it as a tightly wound ball with a compacted and deep palate of superb fruit and tight and fine phenolics. The bubbles just fade into the wine. This is a Champagne for the cellar.

TASTING PENFOLDS G5: James and Penfolds winemaker Peter Gago get down to business with the multi-vintage g5.

THE MAGIC OF CERRETALTO: In this video from 2011, James tours the Cerretalto vineyard of Casanova di Neri in Brunello di Montalcino with owner Giacomo Neri, who explains what makes Cerretalto special.

Meanwhile, the other perfect wine was one of James' old favorites, the Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto, but from the wonderfully structured 2016. This is one of the greatest 2016 Brunellos released – the single-vineyard wine is truly amazing. The Cerretalto soil and microclimate is very special, with iron and slate components. Check out a video James shot with Casanova di Neri owner Giacomo Neri in 2011 when they discussed what was so special about Cerretalto.

James should release his full report on 2016 Riservas and 2017 Brunello di Montalcinos very soon. There are three other wonderful 2016 Riservas in this report including one each from Valdicava, Livio Sassetti and San Polino.

The largest part of the tasting, more than 150 in total, came from Napa Valley, with many of them reds from 2019.

The vintage continues to impress us with the rich wines it produced. Most are not overdone or jammy. And we particularly like wines that have a tannin and acid backbone, which give them energy and form. We are debating whether 2019 could be even better than the fine and harmonious 2018. Top wines in the report are from Alpha Omega, Amici, Antinori Estates and Hobel.

James also tried a dozen or so 2019 Bordeaux and he was happily impressed with the quality. Check out our old reports on 2019 En Primeur, including this one. The bottles showed the same intensity, structure and brightness of fruit as the barrel samples from the spring of 2020. They have the classicism he expects in a top vintage for Bordeaux.

There are even new releases that Senior Editor Stuart Pigott tasted from Beaujolais, including top appellations from Henry Fessy such as Brouilly, Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie and Moulin-a-Vent. Is the 2020 vintage going to be another winner for Beaujolais after the 2019 and 2018? We can always hope…

READ MORE: BEAUJOLAIS CONTINUES TO COME OF AGE

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.