98 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is one of the most elegant wines I have tasted at Shafer. Effusive aromatics and silky tannins are immediately captivating. Crushed red/purplish berry fruit, mint, spice, lavender and licorice are all finely knit. We will see, but the 2019 may very well represent a new direction for Hillside Select, one of Napa Valley's most iconic Cabernets.

98 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon, with 16% Malbec and 6% Petite Sirah in the blend, is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs a little coaxing to bring out notes of warm cassis, juicy plums, and boysenberry preserves leading to hints of violets, star anise, and forest floor with a waft of black olives. The full-bodied palate delivers incredible tension and depth, with firm, grainy tannins to frame the taut, tightly packed black fruits, finishing long and with wonderful purity.

97 J. D'Angelo - International Wine Report

The 2021 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Cervantes is sensational. It instantly bursts open with seductive aromatics of ripe blackberries, blueberries and creme de cassis that are laced with exotic spices, tilled soil grphite shavings and hints of dark chocolate that all explode from the glass. On the palate this is full-bodied with excellent depth and concentration. This multi-layered Cabernet is well-structured and retains excellent freshness through the long supple finish. This is a fabulous wine from Cervantes and winemaker Andy Erickson which looks to be the most impressive wine yet from this outstanding winery.

94 Wine Enthusiast

"A brilliant Pinot Noir, grown organically from the winery's new vineyard in a cool part of the coastal mountains. More tannic and acidic than Pinots from the estate vineyard in Green Valley, it offers lush, deep flavors of cherries, black raspberries, gingersnap cookies and almond biscotti. Just terrific, and will take a few years of bottle age in a cool cellar."

96 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

Brilliant and worthy of comparison to top Pinot Noirs and Burgundies, the 2023 Pinot Noir offers a gorgeous array of red and black fruits intermixed with forest floor, dried flowers, baking spices, and leather. This medium to full-bodied Pinot Noir reveals a layered, elegant mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, integrated acidity, and a great finish. Made with 30% whole clusters and fermented in oak tanks before 11 months in 65% new French oak, it shows the softer, supple, incredibly charming style of the vintage and will drink beautifully over the coming 10-12 years.

96 Billy Norris - Vinous Media

The 2023 Pinot Noir is a blend from the four different ridges on the vineyard, aged for 11 months in 65% new French oak. Blue fruit and chaparral herbs sizzle out of the glass, melding into a deep inner core of slate, crushed rocks and chalk. The refined, polished quality of the tannins and the harmony of the refreshing, cool-toned acidity are both particularly excellent in 2023. This is not a flashy vintage of the estate Pinot—it’s a powerhouse with a soft-speaking voice, a wine built for the cellar that’s already showing very well today. Resonant and harmonious, the 2023 is a dynamic, dimensional, utterly classy wine.

94 Erin Brooks - Robert Parker's the Wine Advocate

Medium ruby-purple, the 2021 Pinot Noir Silice Vineyard blossoms slowly to pomegranate, blackberry, watermelon, dried herbs and aniseed. The medium-bodied palate is loaded with wild berry fruit. Combining power and elegance, it's silky and seamless in the mouth, and a flourish of spicy accents across the finish hints it has more to reveal over the next 2-3 years in bottle.

94 Eric Guido - Vinous Media

The 2021 Pinot Noir Silice lifts from the glass, delicate and wonderfully fresh, casting dusty dried flowers and hints of star anise, cinnamon, and wild strawberries to form its darkly alluring bouquet. Cool-toned and wickedly fresh, it cascades across the palate with crunchy wild berries propelled by zesty acidity as salty florals come forward. It finishes tannic, yet sweet and round, tapering off quickly to leave touches of licorice and inner rose.

98 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2021 Barolo Aleste is off-the-charts gorgeous. Vertical and explosive in the glass, with tremendous energy, the 2021 possesses unbelievable richness married to vibrant energy. Plum, black cherry, gravel, lavender and mocha soar out of the glass. Readers will find a Barolo of stature and breeding.

98 Kerin O'Keefe - kerinokeefe.com

Pine forest, ripe dark-skinned berry, blue flower and carob are just some of the aromas you'll find on the stunning 2021 Aleste. Made with Nebbiolo from the Cannubi Boschis vineyard, it's delicious, full-bodied and shows great verve, delivering layers of ripe Morello cherry, cake spice, licorice, mocha and crushed mint set against a backbone of velvety tannins. Give this time to fully develop. Drink 2031–2046. Abv: 14.5%

97 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

A reflective red color, the 2021 Barolo Aleste leads with compelling and introspective notes of sandalwood, ripe cherries, hints of truffle, and fresh leather. The palate is supple and has a vibrant spine of acidity, mouthwatering mineral accents, and an underlying noble structure. As I am finding with the top producers in this vintage, the tannins demand time but also have a sweetness to them that makes the wines highly pleasurable to taste now, and they should improve and age very well. Drink 2027-2050.

96 Michaela Morris - Decanter Magazine

A beguiling and expressive nose allures with notes of rose, tobacco, earthy medicinal roots and exotic spice. This has the fruit density of the vintage with layers of elegant, chalky tannins and well embedded oak. Cedar-infused red berries provide lip-smacking tang and the finish is positively salivating. From the original plot in Cannubi Boschis that Luciano Sandrone bought in 1977, along with more recent acquisitions in Cannubi proper. A rechristening in 2013 to Aleste represents a contraction of his two grandchildren names: Alessia and Stefano.

93 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

This shows what was possible in the challenging 2024 vintage. Very youthful, energetic and crisp with a healthy core of moderately dry tannins. The pronounced minerality is as striking as the abundant black-cherry and wild-blackberry aromas. The long, slightly sappy finish has excellent intensity. Drink from release.

97 Erin Larkin - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

If the 2019 Coleraine got you going, then the 2020 will do just the same, albeit at a different speed. Where the 2019 is evolving into a spicy, elegant, medium-bodied affair, the 2020 Coleraine is all silk, creamy finesse and power. It offers abundant fruit, the oak framing is creamy and soft and the tannins are ductile and firm, fully ensconced in the fruit—embossed into it, even. The wine is chewy with pouch tobacco, graphite, raspberry seed, saffron, raw cocoa and nori sheets. It makes me say, "Yes, yes and yes again." The choice between 2019 and 2020 is purely going to be based on your mood: 2020 will soothe, while 2019 will stoke. 14% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.

93-95 Allen Meadows - Burghound

Exuberantly fresh black fruit aromas are liberally laced with notes of earth, clove, anise and wood. The succulent yet muscular and powerful big-bodied flavors possess excellent mid-palate density while exhibiting seriously good length on the mouth coating and strikingly long finish. Note that this is very much built-to-age and a wine that may well require 20 years to reach its apogee. Excellent.

90 Wine Enthusiast

With delicate peaches-and-cream and salty limy margarita vibes, woven with smoke, flint and toasty lees influence, this shows Long Island character within a classical bubbly framework. It's a little hard at the edges and never quite achieves the opulence of its European counterparts but is nonetheless a classy fizz for any occasion.