96 Wine Enthusiast

This massively built wine wraps potent black fruit flavors and sophisticated spices in substantial tannins that will surely guide it to greater complexity and smoothness with time. Minerals, graphite, cloves, cedar and blackberries are layered inside a mouthfilling texture. The blend is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. Best from 2028-2040

95 Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

Combines structure and freshness, showing the spice and intensity of the 2020 vintage in Napa, softened by black cherry, blackberry, cocoa bean, espresso and the freshly cut herbs that takes you up into mountain Napa. Broad and almost sweet in feel, but lifted up by crunchy redcurrant fruit and mandarin peel on the finish. Grapes for this wine come from terraces set on the higher sections of the vineyard, from 300m and above, together with the premium Up and Down plot, in plots across both St Helena and Rutherford, all estate owned and located around the property. Justine Labbé winemaker, Frederick Ammons consultant, aged in 40% new French oak barrels and 20% large oak casks.

94 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

So pure and beautiful with perfumes and cedar as well as currants. Dark mushrooms and bark. A medium-bodied wine with dark berry, currant, chocolate, hazelnut, and fine tannins. 60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% merlot. Better in two or three years and beyond.

97 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

Compelling and evolving aromas emerge from the 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino Ragnaie VV, which packs in more concentration and another layer of depth, with ripe red cherry, fresh pine, and wet asphalt. Medium to full-bodied, with notes of ripe black raspberry, sage, and freshly turned soil as well as an exceptionally long finish, it has vibrant energy without being austere. This is hands down one of the top wines of the vintage. Bravo. Drink 2025-2045.

96+ Antonio Galloni - Vinous

Made with fruit from old vines, the Le Ragnaie 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Ragnaie V. V. is fine and delicate. It delivers etched aromas of wild berry, dried raspberry, redcurrant, balsam herb, crushed stone and blue flower. These elements are very true to the grape, and the wine covers the palate with elegant tannins and fresh acidity. Of the three single-vineyard wines released by Le Ragnaie, this wine is the most elaborate and complex in terms of mouthfeel. Only 3,700 bottles exist.

95 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino VV bursts from the glass with a mentholated freshness, as dusty dried flowers and red currants are offset by a mineral thrust of crushed ashen stone. This is soft and enveloping, yet nearly juicy in feel, with depths of dark wild berry fruit and exotic spices that slowly saturate. A twang of savory herbs and sour citrus defines the finale, balancing the grippy tannins that are left to linger, as the 2018 finishes classically dry under an air of rosy inner florals. This is, yet again, another excellent example of the energetic nature of the vintage, yet the VV also possesses the potential for medium-term cellaring.

90 Jeb Dunnuck - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"The NV Rivesaltes Ambré Hors d’Age 6 Ans has a vibrant, light amber/whiskey color to go with sweet notes of golden raisins, bitter orange, almond and subtle browned sugar. Made from 100% Grenache Blanc and aged six years in barrel, it’s medium-bodied, silky, seamless and layered. It lacks complexity and is slightly straightforward with its sweetness, yet it’s never cloying and is one sexy drink."

93 Eric Guido - Vinous Media

The 2020 G2 Vineyard is elegant and perfumed, showing a blend of wild strawberries and blueberries complicated by Violette Pastille. This is like pure silk, with depths of mineral-tinged red and black berries that saturate the palate in primary concentration. It finishes gently tannic and potent, leaving traces of molten chocolate and rum-soaked currants to linger.

94 Robert Parker - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"Falesco's top offering is a 100% barrique-aged Merlot, the 2000 Montiano. While it may not equal the quality of the 1999 or 1997, it comes close. The 2000 boasts an opaque purple color in addition to a sumptuous perfume of graphite, blackberries, currants, licorice, and subtle pain grille notes. With great depth, full body, sweet tannin, and a long, layered, elegant finish, it should drink well between 2005-2020. Bravo!"

89-92 Allen Meadows - Burghound

A brooding and reticent nose grudgingly offers up a wide array of spice elements that add real breadth to the aromas of plum liqueur, violet, tea and sandalwood. The punchy but still relatively refined middle weight flavors possess good depth though the raspy, indeed even slightly grippy, finish is not especially elegant. We will see how this develops with time but at present it does not appear to be at its usual level.

94+ Luis Gutierrez - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2021 Sin Azufre is the no-sulfur-added cuvée of Pinot Noir from organic and biodynamic grapes from vines planted in 1955. It fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts for 15 days and matured 60% in French oak barrels, 30% in concrete tanks and 10% in clay amphorae for nine months. It's light and fresh with 12% alcohol. The first vintage of this wine in 2013 changed everything, and today all the wines have very little sulfur. The nose is alive and expressive, denoting a living wine with hints of organic earth and tons of flowers and translucent red berries. It's clean, precise and chiseled, with pungent flavor, weightless but full of energy and light, with purity of flavors and symmetry. There are no hints of a wine with no sulfur added. It's just a superb expression of Pinot. Purity without funkiness. 12,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2021.

96 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

Coming from a site in the Santa Maria Valley, the 2021 Chardonnay Le Souvenir Sierra Madre Vineyard offers more minerality and salinity, with crisp citrus and orchard fruits, medium to full body, bright, juicy acidity, terrific mid-palate depth, and complex notes of minty herbs and green almonds. It will benefit from a year of bottle age (you'll be forgiven for opening bottles today) and will keep through 2031.

92 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2018 Barolo is a gorgeous entry-level wine. Actually, it is an entry-level wine just in name. Racy and pliant, with terrific purity and fine balance, the 2018 is positively stellar. Crushed red berry fruit, flowers, mint, licorice and rose petal flesh out in this gorgeous, captivating Barolo from the Altare family. Vineyard sites are Sarmassa, Badarina and Novello.