90 Wine Enthusiast

With 25% Malbec in the blend, this powerful wine is full of dark tannins and rich black fruits. A succulent character contrasts with the wine's massive density. Drink from 2023.

98-100 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

Tasted on multiple occasions and one of the legendary wines in the making from this vintage, the 2022 Château Larcis Ducasse clocks in as 86% Merlot and 14% Cabernet Franc that's still resting in 55% new French oak. A hypothetical blend of the 2005 and 2018, it's a deep, powerful, opulent Saint-Emilion offering an incredible array of black cherries, blackberries, smoked tobacco, chocolate, and graphite-driven aromas and flavors. With a rich, full-bodied, expansive mouthfeel, it has ultra-fine tannins, beautiful symmetry in its tannins, acidity, and fruit, no hard edges, and a killer finish. I was lucky enough to taste this on four separate occasions and I thought it had the potential to be a perfect wine every time.

98-99 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

This is really precise with a lazer-guided fine tannin structure throughout the wine, and juicy and electric texture. It’s so refined and polished. Endless. Wonderful young wine with a terrific future.

97-99 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

A blend of 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 3% Cabernet Franc, the 2022 Larcis Ducasse is deep garnet-purple in color. It wows as it powers out of the glass with bright, expressive notes of juicy blackberries, fresh black cherries, and warm plums, followed by suggestions of Indian spices, iron ore, iris bulb, and crushed rocks. The full-bodied palate is laden with rich, seductive, and amazingly energetic black and blue fruits, framed by super-ripe, velvety tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing with epic length. This 2022 is a triumph!

96-98 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2022 Larcis Ducasse is a huge, inky wine. A firm backbone of structure lies behind all of that opulence, yielding a wine that is both extravagantly rich and super-classic. That’s a pretty appealing combination in my book. Dark red-toned fruit, spice, leather, tobacco, incense and mocha emerge, but only with great reluctance. The 2022 is packed to the core. I don’t imagine it will be ready to drink anytime soon, but is unquestionably one of the wines of the vintage. The blend is 84% Merlot and 16% Cabernet Franc, a bit more Franc than usual, aging in equal parts 225- and 500-liter barrels. Tasted four times.

97 Georgina Hindle - Decanter

Smells gorgeous, black fruits, milk chocolate and floral notes. Supple and lively, crystalline and pure, you get both the juicy, fleshiness of the dark and concentrated fruit but with tension and detail and definition. Clarity and bite, this really works and delivers everything you want in terms of tannins, minerality, freshness and density. Controlled and purposeful and keeps a quiet confidence and strong intensity the whole way through. Clearly powerful, but refined and sophisticated. Compelling, darkly seductive and oh so drinkable. A fantastic wine in the making. Harvest 9 - 23 September. Ageing 16-18 months; 60% new barrels, 40% one wine (225L and 400L). Derenoncourt consultants.

96 Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

You feel the fingerprint of the limestone here, from a team that is never afraid of austerity in a young wine is young. It opens to show creamy black and red fruits, with steely acidity that keeps the ripeness in check. 34hl/h yield, 50% new oak and for the rest 500l casks for ageing

94-95 William Kelley - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

A fleshy, opulent wine, the 2022 Larcis Ducasse bursts with aromas of rich, creamy berry fruit mingled with aromas of licorice, bay leaf and spices. Full-bodied, broad and enveloping, it's a textural, layered wine with a ripe core of fruit, supple tannins and an expansive finish. More dramatic and unabashed than the 2020, this will appeal to readers who place a premium on flamboyant extravagance; but samples tasted later during my visit to Bordeaux exhibited greater freshness and precision.

96 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

A full-bodied Brunello with lots of plums and cherries, as well as orange-peel character. It’s creamy and round-textured. Soft and chewy tannins. Shows the warmth and ripeness of the 2017 vintage. Drink after 2023.

95 Monica Larner - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Carlo Ferrini's Giodo 2017 Brunello di Montalcino is plush and softly layered, and the wine has plenty of fiber and cherry to absorb the power that comes naturally to this vintage. This is Carlo's seventh leaf (or vintage) of Brunello from his family-run estate, and it's nice to reflect on the consistency of style and quality achieved since this new venture emerged. Giodo has the advantage of coming onto the scene when international regard and understanding for Brunello was highest (think back to the excellent 2010 vintage). Carlo has not disappointed. He brings us a modern, forward-thinking wine that is rooted in local Tuscan winemaking tradition (just think, one of his first stints was at Soldera Case Basse years ago). This vintage brings home that signature Giodo personality with black cherry, dark fruit and elegant earthy end notes. At about 18-years-old now, his vines are entering an interesting chapter of their lifespan, and we can expect more great results from this estate. Production for this wine is 12,000 bottles.

92 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

The more Roussanne-dominated 2022 Saint Joseph Circa Blanc (60/40 Roussanne and Marsanne) is a slight step up over the Crozes, offering a touch more purity and precision. White flowers, honeyed minerality, brioche, and green almond notes as well as a beautiful core of quince and stone fruits lead to a beautifully balanced, medium-bodied, and textured white that has that classic Northern Rhône mix of richness and precision. It's not far off the style of the Hermitage Blanche, yet without the same level of richness. It's a terrific white I'd be happy to drink any time over the coming 4-5 years, and it will keep even longer if need be. Drink: 2024-2029.

91+ John Gilman - View from the Cellar

"The new release of the Billecart-Salmon non-vintage Brut Réserve, which I encountered at the great Champagne tasting at Crush Wines and Spirits here in New York in December, is comprised mostly of fruit from the 2008 vintage and the vast majority of the blend is one third each of chardonnay, pinot meunier and pinot noir, with none of the base wines going through malolactic fermentation for this bottling. The bouquet is deep and quite lovely, offering up scents of apple, tart orange, a lovely base of complex soil tones, warm bread and a gently smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and snappy, with a fine core, absolutely exquisite balance and focus, very refined mousse and excellent grip on the very long and classy finish. This is a lovely bottle of Brut NV that will only get better with a bit of bottle age. 2013- 2025+." (02/13)

91 Wine Enthusiast

"Made with a high proportion of Pinot Meunier, this is elegant, fruity, with plenty of good acidity and a wonderful floral character. It is so fruity, fresh, a wine for real enjoyment. (Reviewed 12/11)"

91 Wine & Spirits

"This blend includes 40 percent pinot meunier, the balance equal parts pinot noir and chardonnay. Its remarkable fruitiness might be tied to the firm’s long, slow, cool fermentations, which, they believe, allow meunier to maintain its perfume. This is a graceful, vinous Champagne with dramatic high notes of roses and red fruit, finishing clean with a grounding of pale earthiness. It’s a lovely prediction of what Champagne might become in a warming climate." (12/13)

90 Wine Spectator

"Bright, with tangy acidity and a lively bead, this displays fruit-forward flavors of macerated apricot, pineapple and Granny Smith apple, with hints of ginger, biscuit and kumquat. Drink now through 2016. -AN" (10/13)

92 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

A solid red, juicy, textured and dense, with aromas of mixed berries, thyme and baking spices. Medium-bodied with fine tannins. Velvety with crunchy berry character at the center. Vivid and spicy with a flavorful finish. 50% grenache, 20% syrah, 15% carignan and 15% mourvedre. Drink or hold.

97+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

The 2005 d'Yquem has 141 g/L of residual sugar and an alcohol of 13.3%. Medium straw-gold color, it sashays out with vivacious, spritely candied peel, honeyed lemon, and grapefruit oil scents, leading to hints of dried apricots, toasted almonds, allspice, chamomile, and creme caramel. Full-bodied and full-on unctuous, it has a lively backbone injecting energy to all that richness and a decadently spicy finish that just won't quit. No one would blame you for wanting to drink this now - it's so tantalizingly good - but if you can cellar this a further 5-7 years, your patience will be rewarded with layers beyond your wildest dreams. It should keep until 2065 and beyond.

97 Wine Spectator

"This has a deliciously pure feel, with juicy, inviting green plum, ginger, heather, creamed pineapple and Jonagold apple flavors all melded together and gliding through the lengthy finish, which echoes with lilting flowers and dried citrus notes. Best from 2015 through 2045. 12,000 cases made. - JM"

97 Wine Enthusiast

This isn't sweet, but just so wonderfully rich. It's the concentration of botrytis that makes the wine. The texture is velvet, but with a spicy bite to it. Apricot, honey and marzipan all contribute to a wine that will age over decades.

96 Neal Martin - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Tasted at the property 12 months on from my last visit, my note for the Château d'Yquem 2005 is almost exactly the same. I feel that there is still just a little new oak to be resolved on the nose. But the palate is extremely well balanced, perhaps just a little nuttier than I remember from 12 months ago, with hints of white chocolate and crème brûlée just appearing on the finish. This needs another decade, but it is a very serious Yquem in the making. Tasted April 2015.

96 Neal Martin - Vinous Media

The 2005 Yquem is limpid golden in hue. The bouquet is gorgeous, finely-tuned and precise with clear honey, vanilla pod and saffron, less of the almond that I have noticed previously. The palate is built around its exquisite poise, the acidity keeping this Yquem on its tip-toes. As I have noted before, it appears to be gaining in concentration and viscosity with age, lovely fig and tangerine notes combining with a slight nuttiness on the finish.

93 The Tasting Panel

Cherries basted in brown sugar and cassis-soaked beets are just some of the elements to be found in this layered, distinguished red. A suede-soft mouthfeel intersects with spiced sandalwood on the long finish.- Meredith May