92 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

This is wonderfully fragrant, with attractive notes of olive, mulberry and peppercorn. It’s juicy, medium- to full-bodied and very bright, with fine-grained tannins and a lively finish. 74% syrah, 11% grenache, 8% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cinsault and 1% viognier. Delicious already. Drink now.

91 Monica Larner - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

With an ample 1.2 million bottles made, the Boekenhoutskloof 2023 Swartland The Chocolate Block is one of South Africa's most popular restaurant and retail wines. The blend is 74% Syrah, 11% Grenache, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cinsault and 1% co-fermented Viognier. Eighty percent of the grapes are farmed by the in-house team. No new oak is used except for the Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest sees neutral barrel. Proprietor Marc Kent says the wine is on its way to officially becoming organic. People underestimate the influence of the Cinsault, he says. It takes away from the roughness of the other grapes, and along with Grenache, creates a more perfumed style of wine. The Chocolate Block is its own brand, representing a fruit-forward, accessible and food-friendly red wine with medium-plus texture and pleasant softness.

91 Neal Martin - Vinous Media

The 2023 The Chocolate Block, arguably the Cape's most successful brand in terms of both quantity and quality, is a mixture of 70% estate fruit (mainly from Porseleinberg) and 30% from partnership vineyards on reddish soils that have supplied fruit for 15 to 20 years. It matured for 12 to 14 months in 95% used barriques. Fruit picked after the rains was not included in the blend. The 2023 has a fresh nose with redcurrant and pomegranate fruit, earthy notes and a touch of tea leaf. The palate is medium-bodied with crunchy red fruit and fine acidity, fresh and vibrant with brown spices and black pepper toward the finish. According to the label, production totaled 4,043 barrels in this vintage—it is some achievement to produce a label of such scale at this level of quality. The Cape couldn't ask for a better ambassador.

92 Anthony Mueller - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Fresh and zesty, showing breadth and depth with citrus and spiced apple tones, the 2022 Clara Sauvignon Blanc is focused, complex and bright. Medium to full-bodied, the Sauvignon Blanc displays fantastic weight, with a round and spicy mouthfeel. Flavors of Marcona almond with nuances of dusty florals and Meyer lemon sway with a delightful mineral tension. Made from only free-run juice, the Sauvignon Blanc is naturally fermented in neutral oak before resting for nine months in a combination of old French and acacia barrels. Nicely done!

88-89 Jasper Morris, MW - Inside Burgundy

From good vineyards such as Au Pelson, Bons Batons and more. Dense purple. The bouquet impresses for its concentration of a bright zesty fruit, filling the mouth, through to an energetic finish where the fruit swamps the structure but remains well defined. A long finish beyond the norm for this level of appellation. 70% whole bunch vinification. Drink from 2026-2029. Tasted Nov 2024.

84-86 Neal Martin - Vinous Media

The 2023 Bourgogne Rouge contains around 50% whole bunch. I prefer this to the Côteaux Bourguignon this year—there's more freshness and delineation. The palate is balanced with supple tannins. It has fleshy ripe red fruit tones and a sweet, pastille-like finish. Fine.

91 Robert Parker - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2007 White Port (Dalva) is basically a white Colheita and it pretty much leans to tawny in taste, too. Mostly a field blend, it emphasizes Malvasia Fina, Viosinho and Rabigato. It comes in at 117 grams per liter of residual sugar. Surprisingly rich for a young white, this is filled with caramel nuances. It is a beauty that is really easy to like and drink. Bright, fresh and utterly delicious, it delivers a great performance that easily overachieves at its young age.

94 Luis Gutierrez - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

No 2018 was produced, so after the 2017 I tasted last year, we jumped to the 2019 Viña Ardanza Reserva, produced with a blend of 80% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacha. It fermented destemmed in stainless steel and aged in American oak barrels, 36 months for the Tempranillo and 30 months for Garnacha, and was blended before bottling. 2019 is a very good year for them, a small crop of powerful and concentrated wines when they produced all their brands, an exception. This is spicy, structured, balanced and powerful in this warm year, reaching the customary 14.5% alcohol and keeping a pH of 3.54 and 5.5 grams of acidity. It's still very young and undeveloped, with the classical profile, generous in American oak aromas and flavors that should slowly integrate in the wine with years in bottle. For them, 2019 means a change in Ardanza, less spicy (but still quite spicy, with clove, vanilla and tobacco leaves) and with more fresh fruit from the Garnacha. But the year is a modern version of 2015. 500,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2023. No 2023 or 2024 will be produced either.

93 Billy Norris - Vinous Media

Comprising 100% Petite Sirah from Ridge’s Lytton Estate in the Dry Creek Valley, the 2021 Petite Sirah Estate is a brooding, savory, forbiddingly tannic red that clubs you over the head with power and intensity. Leather, oil-cured olive, lavender and sappy blackberry fruit run through this particularly rustic, animalistic edition of Lytton Petite. The fruit is plush and velvety beneath the monstrous structure, but it’s going to take a while to settle this beast down.

92 Erin Brooks - Robert Parker's the Wine Advocate

The 2021 Petite Sirah Lytton Estate opens with initial touches of tar and struck flint that give way to black cherries and currants, wild thyme, pencil shavings, coffee grounds and earth. The full-bodied palate is elegantly styled, its chalky tannins nestled into concentrated, perfumed flavors. Its vibrant acidity adds to its elegance, and it has a long, latent finish. Give it 3–5 years in bottle.

96 The Tasting Panel

"Sleek tannins, guided by sweet earth, slate, purple plum and black olive. Savory notes of fig, toasted cedar, and black tea meld with blackberries. Well structured and impeccably balanced." - Meridith May, The Tasting Panel

92 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

Fresh and nicely framed aromas of red currants, stone and sweet tobacco. Medium-bodied with open-grained tannins and a creamy finish. Crunchy fruit. A blend of 77% cabernet sauvignon, 12% merlot, 5% malbec, 4% cabernet franc and 2% petit verdot. Very drinkable now, but can improve with age.

92 Wine Enthusiast

A mix of black fruits spun through with stimulating and flavorful spices fill the mouth with juicy and savory flavors. These are carried by a balance of acidity and fine-grained tannins into a mouthwatering and lengthy finish.