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.

96 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

"Aromas of burnt orange peel and cherry with hints of dried bark and mahogany. Full-bodied and very tight and dense, with a beautiful fruit, tannin and acid balance. Finesse and strength. Best wine from here for ages. Needs until 2018 to show its true quality."

94 Wine Enthusiast

Potent, earthy aromas like dried black figs, black truffles and oak char lead to a firm, tannic palate packed with black fruits, dark chocolate, graphite and cedar notes. The wine is intensely concentrated, showing good potential for aging. Best from 2026–2036.

93 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

Earthy aromas of plums, black cherries and just-ripe figs. An intensely dark color with a plush yet structured palate and flavors of dark chocolate and graphite. Abundant yet integrated tannins. A powerful full body. Drink or hold.

90-93 Jasper Morris, MW - Inside Burgundy

100% destemmed, 20% new wood, one new barrel in five. More lees were retained for the elevage, to add a reductive character so as to delay the need to add sulphur. A fine mid purple. The nose remains on the reductive side. Good tension and much cleaner fruit on the palate, with fine persistence. Drink from 2030-2035. Tasted Nov 2024.

98+ Joe Czerwinski - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Slated for a September 2024 release, Spottswoode's 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon comes across as more vibrant, floral and fresh than the 2020. Violet and cassis notes are accented by hints of crushed stone and pencil shavings on the nose. Hugely complex yet harmonious, this medium-bodied effort is firm but silky in feel, with a long, elegant finish. Lovely stuff.

97 Kerin O'Keefe - kerinokeefe.com

Hailing from the MGA of the same name that’s more commonly called Altenasso and located in Castiglione Falletto, the 2021 Garblèt Sue’ is another stunner from Brovia, starting with its enticing nose of blue flower, perfumed berry, ground clove and fine tobacco blend. Showing great structure and restraint, the youthfully austere palate features red cherry, cranberry, star anise and menthol accompanied by firm, refined tannins. It’s well balanced, with vibrant acidity that keeps it energized. Showing great aging potential, give this time to fully unwind. Drink 2033–2051. Abv: 14.5%

96 Monica Larner - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The Brovia 2021 Barolo Garblèt Sue' is beautifully sharp and refined, showing intensity, elegance and length. This is how you do Nebbiolo. The wine has extremely fine tannins but with glossy substance. They stay the course to give firmness from behind. The name Garblèt Sue' is a local dialect expression for Garbelletto Superiore. This is a 0.8-hectare site with evolved Sant'Agata Fossili Marl soils. Given the wine's structure, it ages in slightly smaller 30-hectoliter French and Slavonian oak casks. This is a release of 1,700 bottles.

94+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Bettinelli Sleeping Lady Vineyard comes skipping out of the glass with bright notes of kirsch, redcurrant jelly and blackcurrant preserves, giving way to a more serious earthy/savory undercurrent of smoked meats, crushed rocks and wild fungi. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers fantastic freshness to the densely laden red and black fruits, supported by ripe, grainy tannins, finishing long and savory.

99 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

The 2019 Syrah Lorraine is ultra-classic and is about as textbook an example of this cuvée as I can recall. Black raspberries, cassis, spring flowers, and baking spices all flow to a full-bodied, round, velvety textured, utterly seamless Syrah with ripe tannins, a great mid-palate, and a gorgeous finish that keeps you coming back to the glass. It's impossible to resist today (and I see no need to delay gratification), yet it will continue to deliver the goods any time over the coming 20-25 years.

91 Billy Norris - Vinous Media

The 2023 Riesling Dry blends fruit from all the vineyard blocks, comprising 45 to 50 different picks, and is the largest production wine at Wiemer. It offers a very perfumed nose that slinks from the glass with sweet jasmine, honeysuckle, orange peel and white pepper. This is a wine built more on round, ripe fruit than varietal acidity, making it very approachable and, dare I say, crushable. At $22 a bottle, it's hard to go wrong.

97 Stephan Reinhardt - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Basket pressed and vinified in traditional oak and stainless steel, the 2020 Vogelsang Kabinett is pure, bright and fresh on the highly delicate and flinty nose that shows precise and elegant fruit intertwined with the serious, flinty minerality of the gray and red slate soils of the domaine plus coolish vegetal nuances of nettles and mint. Round and intense yet light and filigreed on the palate, this is a pure, lush and round yet also very mineral, beautifully playful and palate-tickling Kabinett with less reduction than Molitor's Kabinetts usually show at this early stage. The sweetness is discreet and counterpointed by the immense mineral and saline drive. The finish is spectacularly long and tensioned, extremely complex and stimulating even at this age. This classic Kabinett reminds me of finest Scharzhofberger Kabinetts from Egon Müller. It is straight, sustainably saline, aromatic and charming. 10.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in September 2023.

96 Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

Muscular and graceful, on the nose this starts subtly then builds quickly towards intense and gripping flavours of crushed slate, white peach, lemongrass, quince, starfruit, lychee, green mango and oyster shell, by turns sharp and angular then opulent and fleshy with the barest hint of sweetness. Extremely elegant (the grapes for the kabinett are picked before the Grosse Lage to retain acidity, with the fermentation stopped to leave around 18g/l of residual sugar depending on vintage), with plenty of the textural precision that Molitor wines are known for. Structured but welcoming, this deserves to be taken notice of. Mainly stainless steel for ageing, with a touch of oak for 10 months.

95 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2020 Riesling Serriger Vogelsang Kabinett is subtle on the nose, opening with smokier hints of slate that still clouds lemon and riper, juicier notions. It is on the palate that the full playfulness of that fruit becomes apparent: this is a Kabinett in a classic sense, off-dry rather than outright sweet, with tender notions of sweetish Mirabelle, citrus blossom and mandarin juice, encompassed by a stony, citric verve. Such lightness, such elegance, such poise, such brightness. The finish flickers with an overtone of pineapple, as befits the sunny 2020 vintage, but retains tone, tension and, above all, flavor. (Off-dry)

95 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

Very fresh and delicate nose of an entire garden of herbs, yellow grapefruit and pomelo. Juicier than the nose suggested with stacks of white tree fruits and citrus zest freshness on the medium-bodied palate, this is a youthful and very elegant riesling for the 2020 vintage. Emphatically dry and long for this theoretically off-dry category, but also finely etched. This has just reached its best youthful drinking form, but the party has only just begun! Drink or hold.

95 Eric Guido - Vinous Media

The 2018 Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ca' del Merlo wafts up with an incredibly pretty, savory bouquet of dried Mediterranean herbs, geranium and citrus-tinged wild strawberries. It displays depths of ripe red and blue fruits underscored by crisp mineral tones as rosy inner florals arch across the palate, all over a core of tantalizing acidity. The finish is floral and long, leaving a tart sensation of raspberry as hints of lavender fade slowly. This is a supremely elegant and refined vintage for Ca' del Merlo.

94-96 Neal Martin - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The Château de Fargues 2014 has an opulent, rounded and powerful bouquet that delivers a payload of botrytized fruit that is precise, upholding the de Fargues style, hints of mandarin and Clementine developing in the glass. The palate has a huge weight in the mouth: a fine line of acidity with layers of clear honey, marmalade and a dash of ginger on the finish. This represents an immensely pure Château de Fargues with enormous length and intensity. Superb.

92 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

A lovely mix of red and black fruit on the nose. Medium-bodied with fine-grained and firm tannins. The palate reflects the nose with flavors of bright sweet cherries, plums, dried rosemary and thyme. Clean. Drink or hold.