Champagne Lanson Le Green Label Reviews

Champagne Lanson Le Green Label

 

Champagne Lanson Le Green Label Reviews

Learn More About Champagne Lanson Le Green Label Through its Reviews.

 

Champagne Lanson Le Green Label

Suggested Retail Price $75.00

A blend of 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier, and 20% Chardonnay.

6BOTTLZ

95 Pointz James Suckling

This is very vinous with dried-strawberry, mineral and stone undertones. Some white pepper, too. Full-bodied with a creamy texture. So fine. Flavorful finish. Intense. Needs food. From biodynamically grown grapes. A blend of 50% pinot nor, 30% pinot meunier and 20% chardonnay. Demeter certified.

 

91 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Offering up notes of crisp yellow orchard fruit, fresh bread, white flowers and citrus zest, Lanson’s March 2018 disgorgement of the NV Brut Green Label continues to show well. Medium-bodied, pillowy and precise, with racy acids and a pinpoint mousse, it concludes with a chalky finish. This has hardly evolved in the year that has elapsed since I last encountered

91 Pointz Wine & Spirits

In 2010, Lanson purchased 32 acres in Verneuil from Leclerc Briant, which had farmed the parcels under biodynamics since 2002. Lanson has since added ten acres in Verneuil to the property they call Domaine de la Malmaison. The vineyards are organically certified, providing the fruit for Lanson’s new Green Label. This first release is rich and direct, presenting its clean red-cherry flavors with a perfumed, floral lemon note to the acidity. A touch of smoky lees adds toastiness to the finish—a classical aperitif Champagne with an organic pedigree.

91 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

An attractive Champagne, this shows white fruits and a touch of crispness. The bottling is at perfect maturity, as hints of nuttiness appear in the background of the wine’s fruit and tight texture.

91 Pointz Wine Spectator

A fine aperitif that’s lightly mouthwatering and satiny in texture, with a delicate range of ripe green apple and pear fruit, toast point, Marcona almond, pickled ginger and candied lemon peel flavors. Salty finish. Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. Disgorged March 2020. Drink now through 2024.

91 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

The NV Champagne Le Green Label Organic is 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Meunier, and the rest Chardonnay from 16 hectares of certified organic and biodynamic vineyards. It is floral with yellow apple, hay, and yellow flowers, and it has an energetic mousse, with a stony texture and a long finish as well as notes of fresh pear, chalk, and salinity. It is pleasantly savory and food-friendly. Best after 2022.

Chateau Pontet Canet Reviews

 

Chateau Pontet-Canet

Chateau Pontet-Canet Reviews

 

Learn More About Chateau Pontet Canet Through its Reviews.

 

2021 Chateau Pontet Canet Reviews

 

A blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot, and 4% Cabernet Franc.

99 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“The dense color and the perfumed aromas set the scene for a rich wine full of fruit. The balance is already there, complex with structure and dense juicy fruits. The wine is impressive.” 

96 Pointz James Suckling

“Plenty of blackberry and blueberry with wet earth and crushed stone. Some spice, tobacco, and lead pencil, too. It’s full-bodied with layered tannins and brightness. Fine and chewy at the end.” 

95 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

“The 2021 Château Pontet-Canet is rock solid in the vintage and certainly shows the vibrant, vivid style of the estate today with its bright, exotic blue fruits, violets, and graphite-like aromatics. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, I love its mid-palate density, it has notable freshness and purity, some chalky tannins, and outstanding length. The 2021 checks in as 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 6% petit Verdot, and the rest Cabernet Franc, and the aging consists of 50% in new barrels, 35% in concrete amphora, and the rest in second-fill barrels.” 

 

95 Pointz Vinous

“The 2021 is the most classically Pauillac Pontet-Canet I have tasted in modern times. Medium in body, with striking aromatic presence, the 2021 screams with character. Grilled herbs, incense, leather, lavender, and plum open with a bit of coaxing, all framed by beams of tannin and bright, salivating acids that give the wine shape and real sense of direction. There’s a bit more Petit Verdot in this year’s blend, and that comes through in the wine’s intensely savory profile. Aging is 50% in new wood, 35% in amphora, and 15% in one-year-old barrels. The 2021 was impressive all three times I tasted it.” 

93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“Offering up wild, exotic aromas of blackberries, cloves, and Indian spices mingled with notions of rose petal, bruised orchard fruit, and cherry pit that evolve rapidly in the glass, the 2021 Pontet-Canet is medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with a layered mid-palate and refined tannins that assert themselves on the firm, saline finish. Always one of the Médoc’s most singular, idiosyncratic wines, it will be interesting to see how it performs in bottle.” 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

95 Pointz Decanter

“Gorgeous fragrance on the nose, so perfumed and floral – really vibrant – you can smell the Cabernet and the Petit Verdot on the nose. Juiciness straight away from a burst of high acidity focussed on blackcurrant and black cherry with both a fragrance, spice and minerality following. This really hits you square on – it’s not opulent but it’s so fully flavoured, forward, and upfront. Tannins are fine-grained but plentiful, they hold the structure and give the frame while the creaminess and freshness gives an expansive aspect to the palate. There’s refinement and an aerial quality here despite the clear Pauillac power. The Cabernet fruit is in full shine mode, giving a eucalyptus, perfumed berry, and black pepper touch. Structured and supple with grape and terroir characteristics. If you love Pontet, and classic Pauillac claret, this is an impressive reference point. Skilled winemaking from technical director Mathieu Bessonet. 4% Cabernet Franc completes the blend.” 

 

2020 Chateau Pontet Canet Reviews

A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.

98 Pointz James Suckling

“Aromas of blackcurrants and black cherries with hints of crushed walnuts, grilled thyme, cocoa powder, and graphite. It’s full-bodied with layers of ultra-fine, silky tannins that elegantly coat your palate, allowing the juicy and vibrant fruit to shine. Delicate and pristine, yet compact with lots of energy and power to uncover in the coming years. It lasts for minutes and is delicious now. The purity of fruit is really impressive. 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. 50% new oak 15% old oak and 35% concrete amphorae. Try after 2027.” 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“Opaque purple-black in color, it needs significant aeration and swirling to coax out evocative notes of black cherry preserves, raspberry pie, blackcurrant pastilles, and damp soil, before launching into gorgeous floral and spice notions of red roses, cinnamon stick, star anise, and cardamom, with a waft of crushed rocks. The medium to full-bodied palate reveals a lot of depth and polish, delivering mouth-coating red and black fruits with loads of fragrant earth and floral sparks, framed by velvety tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and mineral tinged. This is a singular, fascinating expression of the vintage and highly recommended!” 

98 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Aromatic black currant and spice aromas give way to a wine that has richness while having impressive balance. The freshness shines with tannins that give a velvet character to the wine’s texture. The fruitiness should not deceive from its longevity, so age this wine for many years.” 

97 Pointz Vinous

“The 2020 Pontet-Canet is captivating effort from the Tesseron family. The intensely perfumed, savory bouquet is immediately alluring. Deep and substantial, the 2020 is luxuriously rich from start to finish. Swaths of incisive tannin wrap around a core of dark red cherry fruit, gravel, dried herbs, and rose petal, and a whole range of floral and savory accents lend aromatic presence. The Pontet-Canet is often a charmer en primeur, but the 2020 comes across as quite serious. I can’t wait to see how it develops. As always, one of the signatures of Pontet-Canet is a high proportion of Merlot vis-à-vis its peers among top Left Bank châteaux that lends tremendous midpalate weight. In 2020 production is within historical norms. Mildew pressure was high, but not as severe as in 2018, when two-thirds of the crop was lost in a single day. Harvest took place September 14–30, a bit more of a compact time frame than normal, and a good 7–10 days earlier than is typically the case. Aged in 50% new oak, 35% amphora, and 15% once-used barrels.” 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

97 Pointz Decanter

“Highly successful Pontet, one of the few Pauillacs that, for me, overperforms on its 2019. Inky purple with ruby reflections in colour. Lots of firm but upright tannins, a good dollop of graphite, pencil lead, and cassis bud, there is depth through the mid palate shot through with wild blackberry, hawthorn, sage, rosemary, and wild mint. It has personality, and is a little old school in the best possible way. Recommended. They have avoided the over-concentrated feel of some Pauillacs in the vintage, while remaining true to the appellation…First full vintage for Mathieu Bessonnet who replaced the previous long-term director Jean-Michel Comme in 2020. 100% first wine, as it has been for the past four years.” 

17/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson, MW

“Very dark, dense crimson. Quite a compelling nose. And the fruit and tannin seem well balanced with a frank expression. This should mature into something really exciting. Real energy here.” 

 

2019 Chateau Pontet-Canet Reviews

A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot.

99 Pointz James Suckling

“The aromas to this are really amazing, with a potpourri of spices and dried flowers, as well as redcurrants, sweet plums, and even some peaches. Full-bodied with layers of ripe fruit and ultra-fine tannins that spread across the palate in an encompassing yet always elegant and pure way. It’s succulent and unadulterated. Like crushed, perfectly ripened grapes. The length is rather endless. The tannins build. Fabulous young red. 35% in amphora and the rest in 50% new oak and 15% one-year oak. 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. From biodynamically grown grapes. Try after 2028, but an absolute joy to taste now.” 

99 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“This is a luscious, sumptuous wine, with layers of black fruits and wonderfully cushioned tannins. The structure of the wine is initially masked by the great fruits, but then finds balance from a dry edge of spice, smokiness, and lifted acidity. It’s another great vintage from this biodynamic estate.

96 Pointz Vinous

“The 2019 Pontet-Canet was so effusive and generous en primeur. Today, though, it is quite reticent. That won’t be an issue for those who can be patient, but patience indeed will be the key here. Dark red fleshed fruit, tobacco, cedar, spice, kirsch, mint, and blood orange gradually open with a bit of coaxing. Imposing tannins wrap it all together. The 2019 is a drop-dead gorgeous beauty, but it needs time.” 

 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

The challenging conditions in  2018 led Produuori to forgo all of their single-cru wines, a difficult financial decision for the winery but an opportunity for wine lovers. This wine opens with classic scents of tar and roses, red berry and cherry flavors that are ripe and round, freshened by notes of fennel and thyme, and deepened by that crulevel fruit. grab a case if you can.

 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

98 Pointz  Decanter

“Such gorgeous aromatics of freshly picked violets, cherries, and bramble fruits – pretty and quite delicate. The texture is smooth and succulent, mouth coating but full of soft tannins which have the most delicious black cherry, blackcurrant flesh, and liquorice tinge to them – so satisfying. Extremely well balanced and well integrated, this has restrained power, it’s not rich or particularly round but straight, direct, and layered rather than wide. Really long finish with great freshness and touches of cool blueberries. This is just such a great wine, everything you want and you know there’s power there promising a long life. Great winemaking on show. 35% aged in concrete, 50% new oak, 15% in barrels of one year, for 16-18 months. This year there’s a new label, the drawing of the house has remained but the font is more elegant and modern.” 

98 Pointz Jane Anson for Inside Bordeaux:

“Particularly successful during En Primeur, and even better now, just bursting out of the glass. Plump and fruit forward, plenty of character, with spiced cedar and smoked earth, violet, and iris notes play around the edges, but the focus is on creamy cassis, bilberry, cocoa bean, and aniseed. Last vintage with Jean-Michel Comme as technical director, and you really now see the skilled use of amphoras, which added notes of austerity in the early years (they introduced them in 2012) but now showcase the precision of the fruit. 100% 1st wine, with the ageing taking place in a mix of 45% new oak barrels, 15% one-year barrels, and 40% amphoras.”  Biodynamic

18/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson, MW 

“Deep purple hue. Pure, elegant, and precise, the fruit at perfect pitch, the aromatics complex and refined. Tannins finely edged but firm and present. Altogether great harmony and poise. Upright but seductive at the same time. A very complete wine.” 

 

2018 Chateau Pontet-Canet Reviews

 

A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot.

98 Pointz James Suckling

“A complex nose of blueberries, elderberries, dried fruit, spice and dark chocolate. It’s full-bodied with a harmonious, balanced texture. The tannins are still firm and powerful, but there’s balance and finesse to the whole thing. Tight and reserved, yet long and energetic. The tannins open slowly. Dusty texture. From biodynamically grown grapes.” 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“The 2018 Pontet-Canet is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. It was aged in 55% oak barriques and 45% amphorae. Deep garnet-purple colored, it explodes from the glass with an atomic perfume of raspberry pie, blackcurrant pastilles, rose oil, and Chinese five spice, giving way to suggestions of cinnamon stick, dusty soil, pencil lead, and underbrush. The rich, seductive, full-bodied palate is a hedonist’s dream, delivering layer-upon-layer of black and red berry preserves with loads of fragrant accents, a beautifully firm yet plush texture, and tons of freshness, finishing long with a whole firework display of exotic spices.”

98 Pointz Vinous

“When I tasted the 2018 Pontet-Canet in barrel I described it as a “freak of nature.” The 2018 is more than that, it is a freak of nature. Made from yields of just ten hectoliters per hectare, the 2018 possesses off the charts richness, phenomenal balance, and head-spinning intensity. Crushed red berries, flowers, mint, cedar, and rose petals saturate the palate in a Pauillac of breath-taking richness. The silkiest of tannins frame the phenomenally pure, long finish. This is a towering achievement from the Tesseron family and former Technical Director Jean-Michel Comme, who together spearheaded biodynamic farming in Bordeaux and built the present-day estate around a philosophy of non-interventionalist winemaking. In 2018, grapes were crushed solely by hand. Because of the tiny yields, the entire production was vinified in Pontet-Canet’s new smaller concrete vats. All winemaking was done manually, without the aid of external temperature control or electricity. Put in another way, if Lalou Bize-Leroy made Bordeaux, it would taste like this.” 

98 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

This wine combines the richness of the vintage with a sophisticated structure of smoky tannins and spicy wood aging. It is still young, with a powerful structure and ripe, vibrant black-currant fruits. The wine needs plenty of aging.” 

97 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

“An unevolved, almost primordial 2018, the 2018 Château Pontet Canet sports a dense purple hue as well as loads of blue and black fruits, damp earth, tobacco, candied violets, and graphite-laced aromas and flavors. With full-bodied richness, serious mid-palate depth, and building tannins, it’s mostly potential at this point, but it’s a beautiful wine in the making. A decade of bottle age is going to be required, though, so it’s not for those seeking instant gratification. “

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

95 Pointz Decanter

“In the glass, you get a richly nuanced and aromatic glass of Pontet. Plum, gooseberry, cassis, rosemary, violet, tobacco leaf, sage, and white pepper. Clear freshness, with beautiful floral aromatics through the palate – peony alongside the deeply textured fruit. A touch of bitterness on the finish and in the final moments the tannic grip of Pauillac takes hold. Has its own character and it feels very much of itself. Extremely small yields in this year, in which mildew meant they lost two-thirds of the crop, coming in at under 15hl/ha. 55% new oak, 45% amphorae.”

2017 Chateau Pontet-Canet Reviews

A blend of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot.

96 Pointz James Suckling

“This has ethereal transparency to it with a fresh, red-berry and cherry nose. Terra-cotta and dried-flower notes. Plums, too. Quite complex. The palate has a very detailed tannin texture with attractive cassis and blueberries that hold very long, fresh and pure. Fruity and fresh.” 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“Composed of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2017 Pontet-Canet gives up beautifully fragrant notes of rosehip tea, lilacs, cinnamon stick, cloves, dried leaves and underbrush with a core of kirsch, raspberry coulis, warm plums and red and black currants plus a waft of pencil shavings. Medium-bodied, the palate is refreshing, minerally and wonderfully elegant with a well-played texture of approachable, plush tannins and a long, fragrant finish. Beautiful. Aging took place in 50% new and 15% in second fill barrels and the remaining 35% in amphorae for 16 months, much of the material for which came from the soil at Pontet-Canet!” 

96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

Wine Enthusiast Top 100

Cellar Selections of 2020 

“The perfume intensity of this wine is remarkable. Firm yet velvety at the same time, the tannins are the prelude to the pure, opulent blackberry fruits and balanced acidity. The lines of the wine are clear and direct, a true promise for aging.” 

95 Pointz Vinous

“A gorgeous, alluring Pauillac, the 2017 Pontet-Canet is racy and exceptionally polished, with floral top notes that bring out the natural brightness of the red-toned fruit. Super-silky tannins add to the wine’s immediacy and sheer allure. The 2017 was the first wine made with the new sorting table. About half the fruit was destemmed by hand. As always, visiting Pontet-Canet is like stepping back into another time, a time in which wines were made much more manually than they are today. Here that means manual punch downs and pump overs, with no electricity.” 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

“Very tight, with notes of wet stone, plum pit, and chalky minerality leading the way, backed by an ample core of steeped currant, blackberry, and black cherry fruit waiting to unfurl. The finish smolders with cast iron details.” 

93 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

“Deep ruby/purple-hued and based on 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, the 2017 Chateau Pontet-Canet spent 16 months in a 50% new barrels, 35% in amphora, and the balance in once-used barrels. It’s an exceedingly elegant Pontet-Canet that has textbook Pauillac notes of blackcurrants, unsmoked tobacco, lead pencil shavings, new leather, and flowery incense. It’s not a blockbuster and reminds me slightly of the 2004, yet it has wonderful depth of fruit, ultra-fine tannins, and beautiful purity and elegance. “  

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

93 Pointz Decanter

“Compared to the flamboyant 2018 and the fantastic 2016, this comes in a lower gear, with less potential complexity. I like the ripe cassis, red and black berry aromatics with a lovely tannic finesse, but I wanted more palate density here. Medium finish.”

2016 Chateau Pontet-Canet Reviews

A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot.

100 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

No. 2 Top Cellar Selections of 2019

“A voluptuous wine, this is rich and fruity yet properly balanced by a magnificent structure. Pure, crisp, and packed with a black currant flavor, this will be a remarkable wine as it develops. Still young, it needs many years to develop.” 

99 Pointz Vinous

“The 2016 Pontet-Canet is absolutely breathtaking. Powerful, ample, and racy in the glass, the 2016 is one of the most exquisitely well-balanced young Pontet-Canets I can remember tasting. Savory, high-toned aromatics and brisk mineral notes lend energy and delineation as this vivid wonderfully alive wine opens up in the glass. The flavors are dark and incisive, but it is the wine’s total sense of harmony that is most compelling. All of the elements are simply in the right place. The 2016 is tremendous. It’s as simple as that. As is often the case, Pontet-Canet is one of the most singular wines in Bordeaux. Alfred Tesseron could have chosen to play things safe when he took over the management of the estate in the mid-1990s. Instead, he chose a very different path. No proprietor in Bordeaux has taken more risks over the last two decades than Alfred Tesseron. A commitment to biodynamic farming, sustainability across the entire estate more broadly, and the adoption of new concepts for Bordeaux, such as aging a portion of the wine in terra cotta, set Pontet-Canet apart from other properties in Pauillac and the Left Bank. Not surprisingly, the wine is also starkly different from the wines of neighboring estates.” 

98 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

“Reminding me of the 2010 and, I suspect, a wine that will merit a triple-digit rating in a decade or so (I tasted this on multiple occasions and thought it was perfect on one of them), the 2016 Château Pontet-Canet comes from 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Petit Verdot that spent 16 months in 50% new French oak, 35% in concrete amphora, and the rest in second fill oak. Thrilling notes of pure crème de cassis, lead pencil shavings, crushed mint, graphite, and crushed rock notes all emerge from this deep, powerful, yet elegant Pauillac. The style of this wine has become more and more finesse-driven and pure, yet it hasn’t lost a beat on concentration or length. This singular, beautiful Pontet-Canet needs 7-8 years of cellaring (it has some accessibility today given its purity and balance) and will keep for 4-5 decades.” 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2016 Pontet-Canet hits the ground running with a hedonic nose of Black Forest cake, crème de cassis, and blueberry pie plus suggestions of candied violets, hoisin, chocolate mint, charcuteries, and forest floor with a waft of star anise. Full-bodied, rich, profoundly layered, and powerfully fruited, the palate is built like a brick house, with very firm, super ripe, grainy tannins and harmonious freshness, finishing with incredible length and depth. Still incredibly primary and yet already strutting so many layers, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this warrants the three-digit score in a few years’ time.” 

97 Pointz James Suckling

“The aromas of ripe blackcurrants, iodine, sweet tobacco, and fresh flowers are spellbinding. Full-bodied with mouth-expanding, massive, and natural tannins. Impressive fruit with hints of prunes. The finish is long and powerful.”  

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

“This is sappy and rich in feel, with waves of red and black currant preserves, raspberry, and bitter plum coulis. The long finish drips with sweet tobacco and anise notes, while a brambly layer courses underneath. The vivacious finish kicks into second gear as the fruit and grip come together.” 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

98 Pointz Decanter

“The 2016 is a vintage that shows off the best of Pontet, and is similar in feel to their 2010. Gorgeously rich right from the first nose, it opens stunningly in the glass, showing waves of tight black fruits, touches of redcurrant, liquorice and aniseed, fine tannins, and mouthwatering salinity. It manages to remain balanced without losing the punch and concentration of Pauillac, rising up through the palate. It’s hard not to fall in love with this wine, and it will clearly age with grace and ease.” 

2015 Chateau Pontet-Canet Reviews

A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. 

98 Pointz James Suckling

“So much floral and dark-fruit character with almonds and walnut shell. Full body and ultra-fine tannins. Powerful. Classic style with a harmony and energy. Goes on for minutes. A superb wine with great fruit. Real Bordeaux.” 

97 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2015 Pontet-Canet comes charging out of the glass with fantastically expressive notes of black cherry preserves, black raspberries, and blackcurrant pastilles plus touches of kirsch, wilted roses, tobacco, camphor, and cinnamon stick with a waft of fragrant soil. Full-bodied, the palate is laden with black and red fruit layers, supported by very firm, very finely grained tannins and provocative freshness, finishing with incredible length and stunningly perfumed.”

97 Pointz Vinous

“Proprietor Alfred Tesseron and winemaker Jean-Michel Comme produced an absolutely stellar Pontet-Canet in 2015. Sumptuous, racy and totally inviting, the 2015 is all class. Super-ripe dark cherry, plum, spice, and exotic floral notes build as the 2015 shows off its alluring personality. Even with all of its raciness, the 2015 speaks with authority and power. Fine tannins extend the persistent, highly nuanced finish. The 2015 is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot aged 50% new oak, 4% in terra cotta, and 15% in neutral oak. Tasted three times.”

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

“Succulent fruits, rich tannins, and juicy acidity are in perfect harmony in this wine produced from biodynamic grapes. It has a rich, velvet texture and dense structure, sumptuous and already balanced and delicious. However do not be fooled, this is a serious wine for aging.” 

95 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

“The 2015 Pontet Canet is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot brought up in 50% new oak, and 35% in amphora. With textbook Pauillac notes of lead pencil shavings, tobacco leaf, smoke, and licorice, as well as a core of pure crème de cassis fruit, this beautiful, full-bodied, impeccably balanced is one of the few 2015s that’s going to demand cellaring. The tannin are high, yet sweet, and like its bright acidity, nicely integrated into the wine. Forget bottles for 5-7 years and enjoy over the following three decades. I don’t put this as the level of the 2009 and 2010, but it’s still a beautiful wine. Tasted three times.” 

95 Pointz Wine & Spirits 

 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

“This sports a lovely core of gently steeped plum, blackberry, and black currant fruit, carried by velvety structure, while smoldering tobacco and charcoal notes fill in through the finish. Fleshes out steadily in the glass, revealing more juniper, bay leaf, and loam accents.”

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

97 Pointz Decanter

“A vindication of Jean-Michel Comme’s obsession with detail. A true Pauillac powerhouse, exploding with aromas of wild blackberries and Lapsang Souchong tea before the voluptuous, expressive palate unfolds. Peerless definition and gravitas, but have patience. Part matured in amphora.”

 

2014 Chateau Pontet Canet Reviews

 

A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. 

 

98 Pointz James Suckling

“A stunning wine for this vintage although it’s still a bit shy on the nose (more spice than fruit showing than now). There’s wet earth, too, but on the palate it’s bursting with ripe yet subtle flavors. Very long and complex finish that goes on and on.” 

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

“A final blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and 5% Petit Verdot, the 2014 Pontet-Canet is brilliant stuff, and I was able to taste this wine from barrel as well as multiple times from bottle, both at the estate and from a bottle purchased in the United States. It offers a sensational bouquet of crème de cassis, black raspberries, tobacco leaf, and minerals, as well as an unmistakable Pauillac lead pencil characteristics that I just adore. Possessing full-bodied richness, a rounded, surprisingly opulent, sexy texture, awesome purity, and sweet, succulent tannin, it’s a sensational 2014 that might just surpass what they accomplished in 2015. This is a 2014 you won’t regret buying in bulk as it’s going to keep for 2-3 decades and be drinkable for the vast majority of it. Bravo to Alfred Tesseron and his team!” 

96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection” 

“This is a finely structured wine with dark tannins and intense black fruits. The estate, with its biodynamically grown fruit, has given an impressively pure wine, packed with tight serious tannins and a fine structure of black-plum skins and intense acidity. It is direct, firm, and with a huge potential over many years.” 

95 Pointz Vinous

“The 2014 Pontet-Canet seems to have put on quite a bit of weight and volume since I first tasted it from barrel. Ripe, juicy tannins wrap around a core of intense dark cherry, plum, spice, lavender, and tobacco. Today, it is the wine’s sheer intensity and vertical structure that stands out. I wouldn’t dream of touching a bottle until at least age ten, and even that is almost certainly not going to be enough time for the 2014 to show the full breadth of its potential. The transformation the 2014 has undergone from a delicate, nuanced Pauillac to a wine of depth is quite remarkable. Tasted three times. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, vinified in equal parts cement and oak and aged in a combination of 50% new oak, 35% amphora and 15% once-used barrels. This is a gorgeous wine from the Tesseron family and the team led by Technical Director Jean-Michel Comme.” 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“The 2014 Pontet-Canet, now in bottle, was tasted twice during my trip to Bordeaux. It has an attractive bouquet: graphite tinged black fruit, incense, and violets, perhaps a little more hedonistic than I envisaged when I tasted it from barrel. The palate is medium-bodied with tensile tannin thanks to the keen line of acidity. I like the precision of this Pontet-Canet. It feels linear and correct, pencil lead notes developing towards the second half, more quintessentially Pauillac than previous vintages, with what you might describe as a classic Pauillac finish that retains the focus that I remarked upon from barrel. Tasted February 2017.”

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

“This delivers a notable menthol note, showing an ample core of well-steeped blackberry, plum, and black currant fruit. A bright anise streak checks in on the back end, with a slightly loamy structure imparting a broad feel through the finish. Needs to pull together a bit more, but the fruit is there.”

 

Where to Buy Chateau Pontet-Canet Online

Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve

Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

 

Learn More About Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Through its Reviews.

2019 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2019 Flaccianello della Pieve is another stunning wine that sums up the character of the vintage and reflects the sun-drenched beauty of its quintessentially Tuscan surroundings. Giovanni Manetti and his team have two new important wines in the works, but Flaccianello remains an old love and a wine that hits the highest marks for quality consistency vintage after vintage. I tasted this wine next to the 100-point 2016 vintage for friendly comparison, and perhaps the main difference is that the tannins are finer and more accessible in this bottle.

It offers rich concentration and layers of dark fruit that wrap thickly over the senses. Tannin management is an active pursuit. Time in barrique has been reduced over the years in favor of a final six-month resting period in larger oak casks. In fact, the barrel room was recently enlarged to give more room to these bigger vessels. The 2019 vintage recalls the balance of 2001 with the freshness of 2013. However, 2019 is more profound. 

96 Pointz James Suckling

Blackberry, black-cherry, bark, and ink aromas follow through to a full body with tight, integrated tannins and a solid core of fruit at the same time. A little hard and tight now. From organically grown grapes. Needs time to open. 

94 Pointz Vinous

The 2019 Flaccianello della Pieve is another potent wine from Fontodi in this vintage. That said, it has more than enough mid-palate heft and overall intensity to balance its equally imposing tannins. Black cherry, mocha, licorice, lavender, spice and tobacco fill out the layers. The 2019 needs time to integrate its oak and for the imposing tannins to soften. 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

This smooth red is highlighted by macerated black cherry, blackberry and oak spice flavors. Harmonious, with a kick of refined tannins on the long finish. A polished style with the structure to age. Sangiovese. 

2018 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

100 Pointz Vinous

The 2018 Flaccianello della Pieve is another stellar wine from Fontodi. It is the richest Flaccianello ever made (in terms of dry extract), with elevated acidity that trails the 2016 by just a touch, but it does not taste like that at all. Dark cherry, violet, lavender, spice, mocha and graphite build with a bit of time in the glass. Like the Sorbo, the 2018 Flaccianello is not a wine of size, as in most previous years, but rather a wine that exudes vibrancy, energy and class from start to finish. I absolutely loved it. 

98 Pointz Robert Parkrt’d Wine Advocate

Generally speaking, I have reservations concerning the 2018 vintage that saw intermittent periods of hot and cold with some rain thrown in at the end of the growing cycle. The 2018 Flaccianello della Pieve blasted straight through any lingering doubt and is the result of a deft winemaking hand. This is a phenomenal and proudly confident vintage of the estate’s top Sangiovese, which represents a blend of organic fruit from the best parcels.

The wine’s personality reveals brooding darkness and austerity, and these impressions are reinforced by savory tones of cigar smoke and earthy leather. The core of the wine is tight and richly concentrated with generous blackberry and plum. The velvety tannins are integrated but still youthful and grippy. You’ll definitely need to give this elegant wine more time in the bottle. Production is an ample 60,000 bottles. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator “Collectible”

Ripe black cherry, black currant, and blackberry fruit is beautifully displayed on the harmonious structure in this red. Violet, iron and juniper notes add depth, while the aftertaste gets lift from the lively acidity and dusty tannins. 

95 Pointz James Suckling

This is a solid red with plenty of fruit and a dense, intense palate with hints of wood and spice. Full-bodied and very structured. Plenty of tannins here. Needs three to four years to soften and come together. From organically grown grapes. Best after 2024. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

96 Pointz Decanter

Produced since 1981, Flaccianello was a single-vineyard wine up to 2003, then a selection of the best grapes of the estate. Guyot-trained Sangiovese is fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts for at least three weeks, then racked in barrels for the malolactic fermentation. It ages for 24 months in barrels. An enticing aroma unfolds its Mediterranean character in the glass with liquorice stick, bergamot, helichrysum, raspberry and cherry in depth. On the palate it shows extremely good volume for the 2018 vintage. Firm and youthful with refined tannins and crisp acidity, this is a wine of straight elegance. 

2017 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

 

97 Pointz Vinous

The 2017 Flaccianello della Pieve is fabulous. Dark, sensual and enveloping, the 2017 captures the essence of the house style in its textural richness and baritone inflections. Black cherry, plum, spice, new leather, licorice and chocolate infuse the 2017 with tremendous richness. The 2017 spent 18 months in barrique followed by 6 months in cask, the same aging regime as the Vigna del Sorbo, but with a bit more new oak. That approach worked very well, as the Flaccianello stands out for its exceptional textural elegance and finesse. It is a positively stellar wine. 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The Fontodi 2017 Flaccianello della Pieve is a standout wine of the dry vintage. This pure Sangiovese opens to a dark garnet color with more visible concentration and density compared to recent past editions. This is a beautiful wine with pliant tannins, dark fruit richness, balanced acidity, and a fruit-forward 15% alcohol content. The wine is big and bold when weighed on the Flaccianello scale (and even more so when weighed on the Sangiovese scale) with dark cherry, plum, spice, violet, chalk, and campfire ash. Despite that power and inner opulence, this wine adds that zesty Sangiovese character with fresh acidity and an energized approach. This Flaccianello is whole and complete with the natural firmness and structure to hold it steady during the aging process. A small part of amphorae-aged fruit is added to the blend. 

96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Aromas of baked plum, blue flower, French oak, and camphor are front and center on this bold, full-bodied red. Made entirely with organically grown Sangiovese, the delicious palate boasts concentration and a weightless elegance, doling out layers of ripe Marasca cherry, raspberry compote, licorice, cocoa, and carob framed in tightly wound, close-grained tannins. Give it a few more years to fully develop. 

95 Pointz James Suckling

Very high-toned and muscular red with crushed cherries, blackberries, and walnuts. Some dried earth. It’s full-bodied and chewy with solid tannins that form the wine. Beautiful ripe fruit in the center palate. Needs time to soften. 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator “Collectible”

There’s fine purity to the black cherry, black currant, and blackberry flavors in this expressive red, with refined tannins. Everything is in the right proportion as this remains vibrant and focused, with iron and oak spice accents adding depth as this builds to a lingering aftertaste. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

94 Pointz Decanter

A selection of the best grapes from Fontodi’s highest altitude parcels in Panzano’s Conca d’Oro. Manetti maintains that the spring frost helped lighten the vines’ load, allowing the remaining grapes to continue ripening even during torrid conditions. Macerated cherry and blackberry compote are nuanced by dried thyme and grilled fennel. New wood adds hints of vanilla and spice box. The palate is robust and firm, though the tannins are refined and tangy acidity brightens the whole. An excellent showing from this challenging year. Needs time. 

2016 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Fontodi’s 2016 Flaccianello della Pieve is a masterpiece. This review represents a composite of notes from two separate tasting sessions, one at the winery and a second bottle tasted repeatedly over the course of 24 hours at my own pace. In the case of the second sample, it ended up in a blind flight next to the 2016 Masseto, and as beautiful as that Merlot-based wine is, this wine paints an even more beautiful portrait of a perfect Tuscan landscape, thanks to that tangy Sangiovese typicity. This vintage shows amazing depth and poise, with a sheer sense of elegance that comes from the undisputed quality of fruit achieved in this balanced vintage. 

The bouquet opens to dark cherry, blue flower and tilled earth. The tannins are taut, almost crunchy, and the wine offers profound pedigree and persistence that is driven by the evident acidity. That depth is what stands out most. Until the 2013 vintage, Flaccianello was aged in barrique for 24 months. After that vintage, six months of the total aging time is spent in botte instead. This 2016 vintage includes a small part from clay amphorae for the first time. This slight change in the relationship of wine to barrel size has resulted in a more elegant and finessed wine. That point is especially underlined in this vintage. Because of cool spring temperatures during the flowering, yields were reduced by 20% in 2016 compared to 2015. 

100 Pointz Vinous

The 2016 Flaccianello della Pieve is a truly special, moving wine. There’s not much more to say. The 2016 was epic when I tasted it last year. It is every bit as memorable today. Beautifully layered, the 2016 possesses remarkable finesse and power. All of the natural intensity of Panzano’s Conca d’Oro comes through in a wine that dazzles from start to finish. As always, Flaccianello showcases the darker side of Sangiovese. 

97 Pointz Wine Spectator

Ripe, with mulberry, plum, black cherry, mineral and spice flavors, this red is both lush and firmly structured. Complex, well-defined and persistent, courtesy of the racy acidity. Though balanced, this needs a few years to really knit together. 

95 Pointz James Suckling

Dark cherries, blackcurrants, brambleberries, eucalyptus, vanilla, tar, sandalwood and dried violets are the calling cards on the nose. This is certainly a very refined and delicate Flaccianello, that weaves its way through fresh dark fruit and layers of intricately wrought tannins. 

94 Pointz Wine Enthusiast 

Made entirely with Sangiovese, this offers aromas of wild berry, new leather, exotic spice and eucalyptus. Full bodied and enveloping, the firm palate doles out mature Marasca cherry, prune, licorice and tobacco alongside youthfully assertive, fine-grained tannins. Fresh acidity keeps it balanced and lends tension. It’s still young so give it time to unwind and fully develop. Drink 2026–2036. 

2015 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

99 Pointz Vinous

The 2015 Flaccianello della Pieve is even more stratospheric than it was last year. Rich and ample on the palate, Flaccianello captures all of the best qualities of this radiant vintage. The blend of sites, all in higher altitude spots near the center of town, yields a gorgeous, riveting wine of the very highest level. Dense and brooding, with magnificent energy as well as nuance, the 2015 Flaccianello is positively stunning. 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s  Wine Advocate

I’m hardly surprised to report that Fontodi’s 2015 Flaccianello della Pieve is one of the best wines recorded in this report of new releases from Tuscany. This wine sits as tall and as proud as the Colosseum in Rome or the Pyramids of Giza in its undeniable glory and beauty. It would be impossible to exaggerate its many lasting attributes and qualities. Perhaps the most remarkable is the smooth and seamless nature of its many complicated moving parts. It produces abundant power, intensity, and elegance as if this were the easiest accomplishment in the world. But we all know that’s far from the truth. Despite the heat of the vintage, this wine is constructed with firm building blocks as if it were from a cooler year. That’s the Panzano magic in a nutshell. This vintage is very young and tight, and you need to exercise patience to allow it enough time to evolve. 

97 Pointz James Suckling

The aromas are crystal-clear here, ranging from dark cherry essence, dried herbs and dark plums to licorice, cloves, vanilla and paprika. Full body, very velvety yet firm tannins, and a long, grippy finish. The tension created with the interplay between the rich fruit, taut acidity, and a sturdy tannin backbone is so enticing. Drink in 2022. Made from organically grown grapes. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

Rich and opulent, with a sheen to the black currant and blackberry fruit flavors. Additional notes of thyme, leather, mineral, and tar add depth, while the burly tannins still ride roughshod on the finish. Nonetheless, all the components are there and this shows fine length. A more muscular style for this wine, reflecting the vintage. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

96 Pointz Decanter

2015 was a relief after 2014. Manetti describes it as an almost perfect vintage: the summer was warmer than usual with lots of sunshine, but it was never too hot and rain fell at the right moments. It’s surprisingly open on the nose, where sweet earth, dark cherry, grilled thyme and baking spice aromas unfold. The palate is full and voluptuous, with succulent fruits coated by firm tannins. This just needs time to take shape and it will reveal its more subtle complexities after a few years in the cellar.

 

2014 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

 

96 Pointz Vinous

The 2014 Flaccianello della Pieve will probably drink well a bit earlier than the Vigna del Sorbo, as it has more midpalate creaminess, softer contours, and a slightly more immediate personality. Even so, the translucent finesse of the vintage is very much in evidence. A rush of black cherry, plum, tobacco, licorice, chocolate, and spice infuses the sweet, creamy finish. The 2014 spent 18 months in oak (less than was once the norm), 80% of it new. 

95 Pointz Wine Advocate

Like the Vigna del Sorbo, the 2014 Flaccianello della Pieve spends a few additional months in botte grande than usual. The wine still breathes in large oak cask, but the environment is slightly more reductive (oxygen-free) compared to smaller barrique, thus allowing for a more complete and slower integration that is necessary in a cool vintage like this. The result is a beautifully complete wine that takes a few minutes to spread its wings. 

The bouquet starts off with a timid personality, but soon reaches a full regime of red fruit and spice that is so specific to this celebrated selection of Sangiovese from Panzano in Chianti. The September heat (following a gray, soggy summer) helped to eventually achieve fully ripened tannins. There is no greenness or astringency to disturb the soft and velvety mouthfeel. Thanks to severe fruit selection, production of the 2014 Flaccianello della Pieve is one-third less than average. 

Giovanni Manetti calls 2014 ‘a vintage of opportunity.’ Although Panzano saw less average rainfall in 2014 compared to neighboring villages, Fontodi vineyards required double the work that year. This is an impressive achievement. 

95 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Balancing structure and finesse, this full-bodied red delivers aromas and flavors of black-skinned berry, licorice, exotic spice, and raspberry compote. Tightly knit, fine-grained tannins and vibrant acidity provide the ageworthy backbone. Drink 2020–2024. 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

Well-marked by toasty, vanilla-scented oak, this red boasts a core of cherry, floral, tobacco, and graphite flavors. Pure and intense, with fine harmony and an aftertaste that echoes fruit and a smoky, minerally element. Terrific length. Sangiovese. Best from 2021 through 2040. 

93 Pointz James Suckling

This is an excellent 2014 with beautiful linear fruit and silky, firm tannins. Full body, tight and bright. A lot of new wood showing now but should come around nicely. Drink in 2019. 

 

2013 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s  Wine Advocate

The 2013 Flaccianello della Pieve is a commanding wine and a strong protagonist of both the vintage and its territory. Connoisseurs of Sangiovese will be hard pressed to find a wine more authentic, elegant, complex, and pristine than this. I am a huge fan of the 2013 vintage in Chianti Classico and the Flaccianello della Pieva is one big reason for this love affair. The bouquet is gorgeous and delineated with wild berry, tangy spice, crushed mineral, and forest flower. Yet, the wine’s color is dark, brooding, and austere.

 The wine offers exuberance and energy in the mouth, thanks to its balanced acidity and seemingly never-ending finish. It should age forward for twenty years or more. Congratulations Fontodi. It is impossible to exaggerate my enthusiasm for this set of new releases from Giovanni Manetti’s venerable Fontodi. I’ll start with the 2013 Flaccianello della Pieve that left me speechless. This is the wine that taught me to love the 2013 vintage in Central Tuscany. 

97 Pointz James Suckling

Very precise and focused with blueberry, blackberry, and currant character. Chewy tannins and tight. Full body, fabulous density, and length. A classic. Needs five or six years to completely open but so beautiful in its youth. Real deal. From organically grown grapes. Pure Sangiovese. 

97 Pointz Vinous

The 2013 Flaccianello della Pieve is a powerhouse. In this vintage, Flaccianello has all of its typical richness but also a good deal of freshness that will help it age. Interestingly, the stylistic difference between Flaccianello and Vigna del Sorbo is more accentuated in 2013 than in 2012. Deep, layered, and unctuous, the 2013 offers plenty of blue and purplish-hued fruits, clove, lavender, and new leather nuances, all supported by big, searing tannins that will require the better part of a decade to settle down. The 2013 is a magnificent Flaccianello with a bright, bright future. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator 

This powerful red is polished, with toasty oak framing the black cherry, blackberry, plum, mint, vanilla and earth flavors, backed by a firm structure that shows refined tannins. Fruit and tobacco elements linger on the long aftertaste. Sangiovese. Best from 2018 through 2030. 

 

2012 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

 

97 Pointz Vinous

Tasted next to the 2012 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna del Sorbo, the Flaccianello is richer, deeper, and more flamboyant. Super-ripe red stone fruit, smoke, licorice, and dark spices meld together in a deep, powerful wine. The 2012 is impressive, but personally I prefer the finesse and freshness of the Sorbo. The greater influence of new French oak is also felt in the wine’s texture. Still, that is splitting hairs, as the level here is high. Very high. 

94 Pointz James Suckling

A fresh and clean wine with mineral, blackberry, blueberry, and lavender character. Full body, fine and chewy tannins, and a tangy finish. Refined and beautiful. Needs a year or two to soften. Organically grown grapes.

 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

As it is every year, the 2012 Flaccianello della Pieve represents a selection of the best fruit from the best vineyards (excluding, of course, Vigna del Sorbo that is dedicated to its own wine). The five parcels span various soils types and exposures, and the youngest vines are 20 years old. Because the fruit selection process is so detailed, the darkest and smallest clusters are carefully chosen.

As a result, the fruit is rich in polyphenols, thick extract and extra aromatic intensity. The 2012 vintage saw yields reduced by as much as 20%, meaning that fruit selection was even more severe in this vintage. This beautiful wine shows abundant richness and generosity with toned mineral nuances that are wrapped within bold flavors of dark fruit and spice. The wine is rich and velvety in texture. 

90 Pointz Wine Spectator

A supple, fluid texture sets the pace for the black currant and blackberry flavors in this concentrated red. Earth, tobacco, and leather notes add interest as the tannins frame the finish. Best from 2017 through 2027. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

17.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW 

Aromas here are more savoury and refined than on the Felsina Fontalloro 2011. More perfumed too. Chewy but very finely textured tannins. Packed with dark fruit and spice. Long and too young to broach now, unless you have a chunk of protein to hand. 

 

2011 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

Rich and opulent, with a sheen to the black currant and blackberry fruit flavors. Additional notes of thyme, leather, mineral, and tar add depth, while the burly tannins still ride roughshod on the finish. Nonetheless, all the components are there and this shows fine length. A more muscular style for this wine, reflecting the vintage. Sangiovese. 

95 Pointz James Suckling

The blackberry, currant, nutmeg and chocolate aromas follow through to a full body, with velvety tannins and lots of savory fruit. Some balsamic and citrus fruit underneath it all. Needs a little time to soften. Pure Sangiovese. From organically grown grapes. Better in 2016. 

94 Pointz Wine Advocate

The 2011 and 2012 vintages are close cousins, with the 2011 Flaccianello della Pieve appearing a bit softer and plumper around the midsection. This was a notoriously warm vintage that saw sugar and phenolic ripeness shoot up very quickly at the end of the growing season. Indeed, this wine produces a noticeable level of sweetness on the finish, all surrounded by jammy flavors of cherry confit and blackberry marmalade. My observation is that this 2011 vintage feels more overtly ripe, whereas the 2012 vintage is able to hide some of its ripeness within the general fleshiness and succulence of the fruit. Giovanni Manetti says that 2011 resulted in some dried berries on the clusters that had to be removed by hand on the sorting table. This problem did not occur in 2012. 

94 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International  Wine Cellar

(100% Sangiovese): Good deep, bright red. Knockout nose combines liqueur-like red fruits, minerals, aromatic herbs, and spicy oak. Sappy and suave, with extremely deep red and dark berry, mineral, and Oriental spice flavors framed by harmonious acidity. Still a bit youthfully aggressive today, finishing with firm, building tannins and outstanding length. An exceptionally successful Flaccianello; in fact, I predict it will turn out to be one of the top three Chianti-area wines of the 2011 vintage. 

94 Pointz Vinous

The 2011 Flaccianello della Pieve has come along quite nicely over the last year. The signatures of the unusually warm, dry vintage are very much in evidence in the wine’s profile and overall weight. At the same time, the richness and overall unctuousness suggest the 2011 will drink well earlier than some of the surrounding vintages – once it sheds some baby fat. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

93 Pointz Decanter

A precocious year from bud break all the way through to harvest in mid-September. Towards the end of August, a heat spike caused some shrivelling of berries, making careful sorting necessary. The wine is fruity rather than graceful in character, the generous ripeness showing through with macerated cherry and currant flavours offset by balsamic and tobacco nuances. This is already starting to demonstrate some evolution though the palate, but has serious structure and density for at least another seven to eight years of ageing. In this vintage, Manetti started reducing the percentage of new wood. 

17.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

24 months in French barriques. Dark crimson. Rich and sweet on the front palate with all the kick of ripe Sangiovese behind. Dramatic. Long. Fiery. Concentrated. A very different style to Isola e Olena’s. 

 

2010 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Reviews

 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

From an iconic vintage that gave generously to all grape varieties across almost all of Tuscany, this wine ranks high on the Fontodi billboard of greatest hits. The 2010 Flaccianello della Pieve is a rock solid wine that sits firm and begins to peel slowly, each delicate layer at a time. It puts on quite a show with a solid core of dark fruit followed by smoke, spice, tar, licorice, and delicate blue flower. 

On previous tastings of this vintage, I had scored it 97 and 97+ points, respectively. I’m going down one point at this sitting because the wine’s fiber has unraveled, ever so slightly, at the edges. It still maintains that solid core, but the wine has taken an important jump forward in its evolution these past three years. Evidently, it is currently in a phase of relaxation and unwinding. Beautifully polished notes of Mediterranean herb and dried mint appear on the long, glossy finish. Giovanni Manetti compares the 2010 vintage to 2006 but considers this vintage slightly more approachable overall. 

96 Pointz Vinous

A rush of intense blue and black stone fruits, tobacco, smoke, licorice, spices, and new leather hits the palate in the 2010 Flaccianello. A wine of considerable immediacy and intensity, the 2010 captivates all the senses with its magnificent richness and pure texture. There is so much to like here. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

A linear, taut version, somewhat austere in profile, with racy acidity driving the black cherry, black currant, and violet flavors. Intense and persistent, it’s long and more mineral than the ’11 at this stage. 

94 Pointz James Suckling

This shows plums and currants with blackberries. Full body with soft tannins and a fruity finish. Very fruity and delicious. Made from 100% organically grown Sangiovese grape. 

 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

95 Pointz Decanter

After a chilly, wet start, the weather finally became dry and hot in July. Following mid-August showers, the temperatures cooled down, particularly at night. These conditions lasted through September, slowing down ripening. Manetti compares 2010 to 2006 but feels the latter is more approachable. Of the line-up, it comes across as the most darkly-fruited and brooding, with a smouldering, smoky vanilla edge. There’s plenty of intensity and power to keep the wine going, but it needs more time to lighten up.

2015 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia Reviews

2015 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia Reviews

2015 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia Reviews

Learn More About 2015 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia Through its Reviews.

 

98 Pointz James Suckling

 Love the aromas to this young red with blackcurrants, sage, cinnamon, and five-spice character. Changes all the time. Full-bodied, dense, and powerful with a ripe and rich tannin backbone that gives form and beauty to the ripe and beautiful fruit. Tight and very long. Approachable now but will reward more in five to six years. A classic Sassicaia.  

97 Pointz Wine Advocate

The long-awaited 2015 Bolgheri Sassicaia represents a tremendous effort that comes together with seamless precision and focus. This is a confident and proud red wine from Tuscany. Starting with the primary material at hand, you sense the quality of fruit thanks to the wine’s beautifully dark appearance and the rich texture it offers to the palate. The acidity is integrated, but more freshness still would have been welcomed in my view (and would also contribute to its longevity).

The bouquet is amplified both in terms of volume and length. Its playlist includes dark berry fruit, spice, leather, licorice, and roasted coffee bean. Yet, the mouthfeel is extremely graceful and silky. The wine’s undisputed pedigree is showcased on the palate. It should also be noted that this edition of Sassicaia feels more ready and open to me. It will age and evolve beautifully, but the 2015 Sassicaia can also be enjoyed in the medium-term. This wine is all about the here and now. 

97 Pointz Wine & Spirits

The warm and dry 2015 growing season produced some bold and beautiful wines from Bolgheri, and Sassicaia leads the pack. Fine-boned and silky, it radiates elegance and balance. Flavors of black cherry and raspberry are saturating yet seemingly weightless, warmed by lingering notes of licorice and subtle spice. The fruit has a very slight tartness that adds lift and suggests the grapes were picked at the perfect moment. The flavors continue to gain momentum and energy over several days, indicating the long life that lies ahead of this wine. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

This iconic wine’s blackberry, cedar, and vanilla aromas fill the glass. The elegant, structured palate delivers juicy black currant, black cherry, exotic spice, crushed herb, and menthol flavors alongside taut, fine-grained tannins. It boasts a fantastic combination of delicious, ripe fruits, balanced by remarkable freshness and agility for the hot vintage. Drink 2022-2035. 

 

97 Pointz Wine Spectator

“Collectible”

Wine of the Year 2018

Rich and concentrated this red features black currant, blackberry, violet, mineral, and spice flavors. Dense yet lively, structured yet impeccably balanced, with vibrant acidity driving the long, fruit-filled aftertaste. The oak is beautifully integrated. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2023 through 2042. 

95 Pointz Vinous

The 2015 Sassicaia is powerful and dense in the glass, with a level of concentration that is unusual. In most vintages, Sassicaia is a wine of restraint. Although the 2015 is by no means overdone, it exudes richness and textural resonance in all of its dimensions. A rush of black cherry, mocha, grilled herbs, menthol, licorice, and underbrush builds as this powerful, creamy wine shows off its muscle. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

98 Pointz Decanter

This is certainly an exceptional Sassicaia, with a sumptuous nose of ripe, creamy black and red fruit with cedar and spice notes. The colour is by no means dark (as is often the case with Sassicaia), and the impression on the palate is one of controlled power underpinned by gorgeous sweetness and flowing elegance. This is a very confident wine with real authority and presence, beginning with a magnificent attack of rich cassis and ripe griotte cherry followed by cigar box and leather notes, and a long finish of savoury bay leaf and minerals.

It’s deceptively structured, the tannins wonderfully ripe, creamy, and finely textured, while the juicy acidity also suggests that this wine has a very long life ahead of it. This 2015 exhibits everything that you’d want from Sassicaia – and more – because of its winning combination of winemaking savoir-faire, world-class terroir, old vine fruit, and an outstanding vintage. It is unarguably stunning. 

17++/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Lustrous mid ruby. Ripe dark fruit reflecting this warm vintage but with intrinsic freshness and finely chiselled tannins.

Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon

Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

Learn More About Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Through its Reviews.  

2019 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

98 Pointz James Suckling

Very perfumed and aromatic with blackcurrant, sweet-tobacco, and Spanish-cedar character. Full-bodied with ultra fine tannins that build on the palate and take the fruit and other flavors to an endless finish. More refined than the perfect 2018 and almost as compelling. Drink in 2023 or after. 

96 Pointz Vinous 

(Viña Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Don Melchor Red) The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Don Melchor is also 5% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot and spent 15 months in 75% new French barrels. Vivid garnet in color. The rich, complex nose presents notes of black currant, mint, and hints of balsam and ash over a bed of oak and a whiff of cedar. In the mouth, hefty volume, fine-grained tannins, and a broad expression combine, supported by a structure that is rather delicate for a wine of this intensity. The long-lasting finish ends with an aftertaste of fruit and mint before the oak has the final say. This will grow in the bottle.

94 Pointz Wine Enthusiast 

#78 of Top 100 of 2022

The nose of this flavorful red opens up with raspberry, cherry, licorice, and peppercorn aromas. Well-integrated tannins are smooth and provide a good structure to the palate. Black and red fruit appear alongside dried herbs and vanilla flavors. It has depth and is balanced, with a lingering spiciness on the finish. 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

A standout red, offering svelte entry but quickly accelerating to a rich and well-structured state, built around never wavering flavors of black cherry, plum, and baking spice, which gain dimension from fresh mineral acidity and subtle loam and bay leaf nuances. Ends with rich, well-integrated, and mouthcoating tannins as well as hints of cocoa. Drink now through 2028. 11,500 cases made, 4,000 cases imported.

93 Pointz Robert Parker Wine Advocate 

There is a little more ripeness in the 2019 Don Melchor, which in warmer years shows notes of ripe plums and is subtly balsamic. The palate is round and powerful, with good balance and nice integration of the oak. As usual, there is a combination of elegance and power, with subtle mintiness and harmony. 156,000 bottles were produced. It was bottled in December 2020.

2018 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

A blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot.

100 Pointz James Suckling

This is amazing. The vibrancy and energy in this wine is stunning. The complexity of aromas are breathtaking with flowers, blackcurrants, raspberries, and peaches. Full-bodied, yet ever so refined and polished with impeccable texture and beauty. The length is marvelous. This is a testimony to balance, harmony, and transparency in a great red. 

96 Pointz Vinous

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Don Melchor is a combination of a proven style – the blend also includes 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot – and a particularly good harvest in the Puente Alto region in Maipo. Made by Enrique Tirado and aged for 15 months in French barrels, it is garnet red in the glass, with a very complex expression that unfolds in layers, beginning with black currant and sour cherry notes, followed by mint, cedar, and pepper and a faint whiff of red pepper. Juicy in the mouth with fine-grained tannins and a concentration that centers the wine, channeling and stretching out the fruity backdrop, this is an unusually harmonious and delicious Bordeaux blend. 

96 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Long produced from its own 314-acre vineyard, a prime site on the third alluvial terrace above the north bank of the Maipo River, Don Melchor is now established in its own estate winery. Enrique Tirado, who started making Don Melchor in 1997, considers the 2018 season one of the most vine-friendly he has worked, with plenty of rain in winter, optimal weather during flowering, no heat spikes in summer, and cool nights through harvest. 

The fruit of the vines shows the freshness of the season, as well as the ripeness, allowing Tirado and consultant Eric Boissenot to include both early ripening merlot and late-ripening petit verdot in this 2018 (in most years, they limit the blend to cabernets sauvignon and franc). The purity of that fruit is completely Andean—neither green nor dimpled, but precisely tuned in both the flavor and texture of its tannins. The wine has a quiet, gracious power, reflecting its Chilean character (there’s nothing either bold or austere about it; this is a wine of a place, without cabernet preconceptions). Its black currant and tart red cherry flavors have the crunch of walking through Andean snow, even as the sunniness of the fruit is cool, not at all cold, leaving a gracious impression. Great Andean cabernet has the capacity to age and develop for decades. If you’ve never invested in Chilean wine, this is the place to start. 

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

I tasted two vintages of the top Cabernet Sauvignon, and even if the two years were quite different, the wines showed very good regularity. My preference was for the 2018 Don Melchor, from a cooler and rainier vintage that produced a very complete and balanced wine with the aid of 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot. It has power and finesse, integrated 14% alcohol, and a classical profile with the ingredients to develop nicely in bottle. It’s tasty and has polished tannins. 156,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2019 and early January 2020.

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

Powerful and well-structured, with vibrant acidity backing a lively blend of dark fruit and fresh-crushed cooking spice flavors. Cedary and savory notes in the midpalate, with a long finish filled with underbrush accents. 

2017 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

99 Pointz James Suckling

Fantastic aromas of blackcurrants and other dark fruit with crushed stone, iron and oysters, following through to a full body that shows incredible energy and depth, offering ripe yet fresh fruit, together with bright herbs and earth. Precision and balance of the intensity of the vintage. Layered. Perhaps the greatest Don Melchor ever made. Try after 2022. 

95 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

#6 of Top 100 Cellar Selections 2020 

A full, spicy nose is packed to the brim with smoky, toasty oak and earthy black-fruit aromas. A ripe, full, and chewy palate is smooth in feel, while this classic Cabernet from Puente Alto in the Maipo Valley tastes of coffee, rich chocolate, toasty spices and blackberry. A lush, bold finish runs long, indicating that this will age well. Hold through 2040. 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

Suave, complex, and elegant, with fine-grained tannins supporting the dried cherry, red plum, and currant flavors. Cedar and forest floor notes show midpalate, leading to a long finish of cocoa powder and baker’s chocolate details, accented by hints of apple wood smoke and white pepper. Drink now through 2032. 

94 Pointz Vinous

Don Melchor 2017 contains 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Franc, both from Maipo Alto. This earlier harvest resulted in precise, intense doses of cassis, raspberry, and blackberry jam sprinkled with spices and country herbs. A young wine, the tannic structure bodes well for the future even with the moderate freshness. 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Marking its 30th anniversary, the 2017 Don Melchor was produced 30 years after the initial 1987. This is a wine that transcends vintages and shows great regularity, always combining elegance and power, with subtle mintiness and superb elegance. It’s juicy, textured, and velvety. This is a superb showing in 2017, a warm year, and a fresh wine. Bravo! And the volume is not small—156,000 bottles were produced. It was bottled in December 2018. 

94 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Don Melchor, named for the founder of Concha y Toro, is based on a single parcel on a terrace above the north bank of the Maipo River. With this 2017, it’s now a stand-alone brand, led by winemaker Enrique Tirado and his team. The wine is a cool, black currant–scented classic from the Andean highlands, a powerful cabernet with quiet, Chilean restraint. The care of its farming shows in the detailed earthy tannins, which time in oak transformed into textural finesse. Top vintages from Puente Alto develop over the course of two decades or more, and this one should age beautifully.

2016 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

92 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

Well-concentrated berry aromas include rich notes of chocolate, tobacco, and earth on this plush yet restrained Cabernet. Spicy berry and cocoa flavors finish dry, long, and with a hint of clove. Given the documented difficulties of 2016 in Chile, this can hold its head up. Drink through 2026.

2015 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

98 Pointz James Suckling

The aromas of lead pencil, blackcurrant, and tar are impressive with just a hint of fresh herb. Sweet tobacco. Iodine. Full body, very tight and polished with ultra-fine tannins and a refined, textured finish. 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot. Drink in 2022.

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

An elegant and rich-tasting red, full of concentrated red plum, cherry, and currant flavors, backed suave, medium-grained tannins. The finish offers a caressing palate of lush spice, cocoa powder, and cream nuances. Drink now through 2024.

94 Pointz Wine Enthusiast Editors’ Choice

It’s been a long time since Concha y Toro has put out a Don Melchor Cabernet with this much concentration and overall quality. An earthy nose with foresty berry aromas and generous but controlled oak sets up a fully stacked palate that’s chewy but not fiercely tannic. Dark toasty chocolaty black-fruit flavors finish with a note of cherry cough drop and moderate acidity that says this is more or less ready now. Drink through 2025

93 Pointz Robert Parker’s

Wine Advocate

2015 was a warm and dry vintage, and the 2015 Don Melchor shows notes of ripe plums and is subtly balsamic. The palate is round and powerful, with good balance and nice integration of the oak. With time in the glass, more spicy aromas of paprika and merken emerge, but there is a notable absence of green notes. It’s a ripe and round vintage of Don Melchor, faithful to the conditions of the year. 

Bonus Reviews 

96 Pointz Decanter

The current release is a stunning wine. The familiar mineral and dark fruit bouquet leaps from the glass and those notes follow on the palate. Even with the Petit Verdot in the blend, the volume is lower so you hear the notes better. Similar to the 2014, but 2015 exhibits more elegance and poise. Drinking window 2025 – 2040 

18+/20 Pointz 

Jancis Robinson MW

Very dark, glossy, purplish crimson. Peppery, herbal nose. Big and sweet start and then very luscious. Some vigorous inkiness. Good stuff. Slightly leathery finish. 

2014 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

98 Pointz James Suckling

Wonderful aromas of stones, mint, and blackcurrants. Sweet tobacco. Tile and rust. So aromatic. This is the best Don Melchor I have ever tasted. Full body, very soft yet firm and silky. It has tension, intensity, and balance.

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

A ripe, rich, and full-bodied red, with powerful flavors of dark cherry, plum pudding and currant that feature a lush creaminess. Firm and savory midpalate, ending with a long and refined finish that shows mineral and cocoa butter accents, supported by dusty tannins. Drink now through 2024.

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s

Wine Advocate

The current vintage is the 2014 Don Melchor, one of the icons of Maipo. The wine has been produced since 1987 from the best lots from their 127 hectares of vineyards in the Puente Alto appellation on alluvial terraces of the Maipo River at 650 meters altitude. In 2014 the bottled wine comes from 20 lots of free-run wine and 35 lots of press wine and contains some 8% Cabernet Franc. It matured in French oak barrels, 65% of them new, for some 15 months. The oak is perfectly integrated and seeing how the wines from this terroir age, I wouldn’t worry at all. 

This was a low-yielding year, a balanced vintage not a lot warmer than 2013, which has resulted in a classical Don Melchor combining power with elegance, with those refined tannins and superb balance. There is a mixture of red and black fruit and even some fresh orange peel notes. Seeing how the older vintages age in bottle, it would be a shame to drink this now; and even if it’s drinkable, I prefer them some ten years after the vintage. This is produced from virtually the same vineyards as Almaviva, yet the wines are so different. 90,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in October 2015.

Bonus Reviews

94 Pointz Decanter

A baby, to be sure, with an explosive combination of dark fruit and minerals on the nose. On the palate, the concentrated fruit dominates, but exotic notes on the finish suggest great things will emerge over time. Refined tannins and brilliant freshness ensure balance. Drinking window 2025 – 2040. 

18.5/20 Pointz

Jancis Robinson MW

Broad and balsam and exciting. Real verve. Masses of life rather than simple fruit or ripeness. Masses of energy. Not masses of obvious alcohol. Long. Reverberant. Sinewy. (JR) 

2013 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

96 Pointz James Suckling

This is from one of the coolest vintages in memory but delivers fresh tobacco and currant aromas and flavors. Full body, chewy tannins, and plenty of currant leaf and stone character. A structured and very solid Don Melchor. 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Cabernet Franc. Drink or hold.

93 Pointz Robert Parker’s

Wine Advocate

2012 is a short vintage, so the 2013 will be released towards the end of 2016. I tasted the 2013 Don Melchor, which contained 9% of Cabernet Franc to complement the Cabernet Sauvignon from Puente Alto in the Maipo Valley; the final blend was created from 23 lots of free-run juice wine and 39 lots of press wine. The blend is done with the help of Eric Boissenot (previously with his father Jacques). The wine matured in 66% new French oak barrels for some 15 months. 

I see this 2013 more in the line of the 2010 (and 2011). In fact, 2013 was a very cold year. The nose combines aromas of tobacco, iron and blood, dark cherries, and some herbs. The palate shows something in between 2011 and 2012, medium to full-bodied with fruit, tannins, and a slightly bitter finish. It should get polished with a little bit more time in bottle. 109,200 bottles produced. I also had the chance to preview the 2014 and 2015 vintages that were aging in barrel, still very young and primary.

93 Pointz Wine & Spirits

From vines planted in the early 1970s on an alluvial terrace above the north bank of the Maipo River, Don Melchor is a classic among Chilean wines. Enrique Tirado has made this wine from the same vineyard at Puente Alto since 1997. This latest release comes from a cool year, and you might notice that in the herbal notes and the vibrant acidity, underlining the generous core of sweet red fruit. The wine’s restrained ripeness will allow it to mature unencumbered by any excess weight. In fact, it needs ten years of age to show its best.

93  Pointz Wine Spectator

An elegant and rich-tasting red, full of concentrated red plum, cherry and currant flavors, backed suave, medium-grained tannins. The finish offers a caressing palate of lush spice, cocoa powder, and cream nuances. 

92 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

Initially, this smells foxy, with jumpy untamed berry and plum notes racing across the nose. After the aromas come around, this is hard and choppy on the palate, while herbal black-plum and carob flavors finish more lushly than before, but still fairly tannic. Drink through 2023

Bonus Reviews

17+/20 Pointz

Jancis Robinson MW

Blackcurrant, very rich fruit, and lovely sweet spice oak to match. Fragrant and sophisticated and built to last. Perhaps just a little warm on the finish. 17+/20 points.

2012 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

98 Pointz James Suckling

#51 James Sucklings Top 100 Wines of 2016

Wonderful aromas of black olives, meat, and currants. Hints of fresh mint. Full to medium body, with sublime tannin texture that feels like the finest silk. A finish that lasts for minutes. Palate has amazing energy of richness and freshness. A great wine. So layered and balanced. 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Cabernet Franc. Drink or hold.

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

#33 Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2016

Suave and refined, with rich, dense flavors of dried berry, dark plum, rose petal, and bramble. Offers fine-grained tannins and accents of green olive. Finishes with hints of hot stone, dried beef, and white pepper. Complex. Drink now through 2022.

92 Pointz Wine & Spirits

This is the 25th vintage of Don Melchor, a wine selected from the Tocornal vineyard in the Alto Maipo, from vines planted in the mid-’70s in alluvial soils on the north bank of the Maipo River. In warm years like 2012, the fruit of this wine often becomes round and voluptuous, marked by sweet spice. In 2012, however, the wine held its freshness: The acidity feels firm amid generous waves of black fruit flavors. Cellar this for two or three years to serve with beef braised with cranberries and cinnamon.

92 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

This is a riper, heavier than usual Don Melchor, as evidenced by aromas of raisin along with black plum, coffee, and creamy oak. A full, round, plush palate offers more than adequate depth, while black cherry, plum, and vanilla flavors come with hints of licorice and chocolate. Hailing from a hot vintage, this avoids almost all herbal characteristics but feels a bit soft and simple. Drink through 2023.

91 Pointz Robert Parker’s

Wine Advocate

The 2012 Don Melchor, which in that ripe and warm vintage contained some 7% Cabernet Franc, has a showy nose with ripe blackberries that develop minty aromas with some time in the glass. The grapes are selected from their 127 hectares of vineyards in the zone, and fermented in small stainless steel vats to separate the different plots that are kept apart until after malolactic, when they are tasted and the blend is decided in July (the grapes are harvested between mid April and mid-May).

The wine aged for 15 moths in French oak barrels, 70% of which were new. The palate is juicy with round tannins and good volume of fruit with the softness of a ripe vintage, showing the expressive aromas of the year. 91,200 bottles produced. This wine will be sold in March 2016.

2011 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

95 Pointz James Suckling

Gorgeous aromas of eucalyptus, black currants, berries and stones. Medium to full body, fine tannins, and tension. Firm, caressing texture. This remains one of the top cabs of Chile as always. Better in 2017.

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s

Wine Advocate

I tasted three bottled vintages of the iconic Cabernet Sauvignon from the Puente Alto appellation in the Maipo Valley, the classical zone for the Bordeaux grape in Chile, starting with the 2011 Don Melchor; this wine had plenty of aromas of graphite, iron, cold ashes, blood, and fresh meat — denoting freshness and seriousness. 

This year only has 1% Cabernet Franc blended in — one of the lower, if not the lowest years ever. With time, the more balsamic aromas emerge, which also gives some brightness and light to the nose. The palate is medium-bodied with some sweet fruit and the core of fine-grained, classical Cabernet tannins. This is a fresh, elegant vintage of Don Melchor, a prototype Cabernet from Alto Maipo.

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

Rich and powerful, with balanced and elegant flavors of dried raspberry, mocha, mineral, and dark chocolate. Creamy midpalate, presenting a broad and lush finish, revealing slate and white pepper notes. Drink now through 2022.

93 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

As per usual, Don Melchor is singing a pretty tune. Deep, dense aromas of floral berry fruits and tarry darkness are solid and complete. Pure, elegant and confident across the palate, this delivers firm cassis, plum and cherry flavors backed by a toasty finish accented by licorice. This is rich and brawny but not heavy; drink through 2023.

Bonus Reviews

95 Pointz Decanter

With 99% Cabernet Sauvignon and some drops of Cabernet Franc, this comes form the tradtional Tocornal Vineyard, planted in the mid-1970s. A cold vintage reveals its herbal, spicy, flavors, but above all a crunchy, vivacious acidity and pungent tannins that need time in a bottle. A brilliant version of a classic.

2010 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

96 Pointz James Suckling

Pretty aromas of blueberries with hints of sandalwood and cedar. Full body, with very integrated tannins and a wonderfully polished texture. The finish is extremely long and intense. Serious density and class to this. A blend of 97% cabernet sauvignon and 3% cabernet frac.

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

In 2010, Chile’s Puente Alto appellation saw a slightly cooler-than-usual growing season, and winemaker Enrique Tirado used the weather to his advantage, allowing the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, grown on alluvial soils, to hang on the vines longer than usual.

The result is this particularly elegant version of the flagship Don Melchor. Blended with 3 percent Cabernet Franc, the wine aged in French oak barrels for 15 months. Concha y Toro, owned by the Guilisasti family, is Chile’s largest wine company.

94 Pointz Wine & Spirits

This classic Alto Maipo Cabernet grows at Tocornal, on vines planted in the 1970s. It builds from scents of herbs and menthol toward a strong presence of red fruit and spice. The texture is soft and gentle while acidity marks the contours of the mouth with freshness. Drinking well now, this will improve with four to five years in bottle. 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s

Wine Advocate

The 2010 Don Melchor (a homage to Don Melchor Concha y Toro who created Concha y Toro in 1883) is a blend of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc from Alto Maipo, the best terroir for Cabernet Sauvignon in Chile. 2010 was a cool vintage, balanced and fresh.

It has aromas of blood and fresh meat, it feels subtle, with signs of youth in the shape of some lactic hints with good freshness, notes of black and red berries, developing some aromas of graphite and cold bonfire with time in the glass. The wine fills your mouth with its sophisticated, fine-grained tannins and has good freshness and length.

The wine is quite drinkable now, but if you wait a little, the lactic touch should get more integrated and will age for a long time. I tasted 1993 and 1996 and both are drinking perfectly now: this wine has a track record. The 2010 vintage was launched in March-April 2014. Drink 2015-2025.

93 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

It offers a briary blend of aromas familiar to Chilean Cab: dry black fruits, olive, tobacco, and oaky grit control the bouquet. In the mouth, this is ripe, tannic, and lively. Flavors of raspberry, cassis, herbs, chocolate, and baking spices finish firm and long. This is everything you’d want from Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink through 2024. 

Bonus Reviews

17/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Moderate fruit without excessive alcohol. But still quite young and tannins tight and tight-lipped! 

Masseto Reviews

 

Masseto Reviews

 

Masseto Reviews

Learn More About Masseto Through its Reviews.

 

 

2009 Masseto Reviews

96 Pointz Vinous

Good full ruby. Superripe, pure aromas of blackberry, cassis, violet, minerals, milk chocolate, and exotic spices. Superconcentrated, rich, and seamless, offering explosive sweetness but also great verve, thanks to bright acidity that provides wonderful lift and clarity to the blackberry, blueberry, and black cherry flavors. Finishes with ultra-suave tannins and a kaleidoscope of violet and Oriental spice flavors. A very great Masseto from a hot year, when I would have expected the merlot to suffer a bit. But unlike in 2003, when it wasn’t just hot but dry as well, Masseto’s unique microclimate allowed the Merlot to avoid major stress in 2009. As good and refined as the Ornellaia is in 2009, I think the Masseto has an extra layer of complexity and depth. 

95 Pointz James Suckling

Sexy and muscular. Blackberries, licorice, and tar on the nose. Bark, earth, and spice as well. Super subtle. Full-bodied, with super chewy tannins and a wonderful line. So beautiful. Creamy tannins. A baby 2001. Try in 2016. 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2009 Masseto bursts from the glass with dark red berries, blackberries, flowers, licorice, and tar. It shows lovely up-front juiciness and expressive inner perfume in a surprisingly accessible style for this wine. Like the Ornellaia, the 2009 Masseto has quite a bit of freshness, although it, too, is medium-bodied in structure. In this vintage the Ornellaia team was especially selective and only used part of the three vineyards that typically go into Masseto. I have been fortunate to taste every vintage of Masseto, most more than once recently. Masseto has a great track record for aging, even in the smallest, least promising of vintages. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2029. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

An effusive aroma of ripe black cherry announces the seriousness of this red, which is concentrated and intense, with shadings of plum and spice from the toasty, smoky oak. Though broad-shouldered, there’s a sense of harmony, followed by an expansive finish. Just a bit brawny on the finish. Best from 2015 through 2030. 

 

2008 Masseto Reviews

99 Pointz James Suckling

“Ranked #1 in Top Dozen Bottles Tasted in 2011” 

Opulent and complex, with dark fruits such as plums and blackberries. Milk chocolate. Dried herbs too. Black olives. Stunning nose. Full-bodied, with firm and chewy tannins, but a very creamy texture, and lots of milk chocolate, berry, and mineral character. It goes on for minutes. Clear and powerful. Savory and salty. One of the best Massetos ever.  

97 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2008 Masseto is another huge wine. It boasts tons of energy in a tense, inward style I can only describe as implosive as if the wine is holding back all of its energy. A deep core of black fruit, grilled herbs, licorice, and new leather emerges from time to time, but the tannins are still imposing. There is no shortage of pedigree. I fully expect the 2008 to develop into one of the great Massetos. Needless to say, it will be interesting to taste the 2008 in vertical tastings in the future. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2033. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

A dark, extracted red, offering plenty of juicy plum, blackberry, and violet notes framed by vanilla and toast. Squarely in the modern camp, yet this works. The tannins are slightly gritty now, but should mesh with time. Merlot. 

 

2007 Masseto Reviews

 

100 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

A perfect wine from a classic vintage, the 2007 Masseto (100% Merlot from a 17-acre vineyard of the same name) opens with an unabashedly opulent bouquet of delicious blackberry, cherry, chocolate, vanilla, exotic spice, and cinnamon. Masseto excels both in terms of quality of fruit and winemaking and delivers plush, velvety tannins and an extra long, supple finish. It will make a special and valuable collection to your cellar. 

98 Pointz Vinous

Rich, sumptuous, and exotically beautiful, the 2007 Masseto is off the charts. The year got off to a very warm, dry start, but then cooler weather in August allowed for the vines to find their balance. All the best elements of Masseto and the house style come together in this truly memorable wine. Dark red fruit, espresso, mocha, and wildflowers flesh out in a resonant, stunningly beautiful Tuscan red that hits all the right notes. Wow! 

96 Pointz James Suckling

Wow! Licorice, dried violets, blackberries, blueberries, and a touch of cedar on the nose. Full-bodied and firm with a tight and refined fruit character. The nose is unbelievable, but the palate is holding back. This has everything, but it needs time to really come together. 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The estate’s 2007 Masseto is fabulous. Loads of black cherry blackberry and cassis are intermingled with minerals violets and French oak. This is an especially sensual Masseto that impresses for its clarity intensity and length. The wine’s pedigree is impossible to miss in fact in one of my blind tastings it was immediately identifiable; the class and sheer personality of Masseto came through in spades. Anticipated maturity: 2017-2027. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

Features a bouquet of ripe plum, cherry, fruitcake, and iron. Round and rich, displaying ripe cherry, plum, cedar, cigar box, and iron flavors, this is very open, with a touch of heat on the long finish. Close to ready. Merlot. Best from 2019 through 2035.

 

2006 Masseto Reviews

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The wine that most delighted me at this historic tasting of Tuscany’s most iconic wines was the 2006 Masseto. This is a wine of sheer power, bliss, opulence, infinity, and sublime seduction. This Merlot-based masterpiece hits all your senses with the grace of a ballerina and the power of a heavyweight. It is steady on its proverbial feet, but it also glides over the palate with a profound sense of elegance, harmony, and rhythm.

Among the prized vintages of Masseto, including 2001, 2004, and 2007, this edition is my favorite. The wine delivers an extra sense of tightness or firmness at the back that serves to stitch together its fleshy richness and general sumptuousness. The personality is sunny, expansive, articulate, and sophisticated. You’ll remember that the 2006 vintage is celebrated for the elegance of its wines. In the coastal Bolgheri appellation, it is also remembered for the power of its wines. You get the best of both worlds with this stunning creation: elegance and power. These traits are particularly well suited to the versatile grape variety at the heart of this Tuscan all-rounder. This is a true Renaissance wine. 

99 Pointz James Suckling

This has a special savory character that is fascinating. It shows beautiful aromas of dried fruits, black olives, and brown sugar. Full-bodied with a phenomenal amount of fruit and freshness at the same time. Salty, juicy, and fruity. Hard not to drink now. Decant two or three hours before serving. Great potential for aging. 

99 Pointz Vinous

I still remember where I was the first time I tasted the 2006 Masseto. Since then, I have tasted the 2006 several times. It has never been anything less than utterly profound. That is once again the case on this night. Readers who are cellaring the 2006 Masseto in magnum will want to wait at least a few years for it to be at its very best. Still, it is magnificent tonight. 

98 Pointz Wine Spectator

Beautiful aromas of perfumes, berries, and flowers turn to light toasty oak and sandalwood. Full-bodied, with very well-integrated tannins that build and coat your palate. Long and silky textured on the finish. Shows great class and finesse. Merlot. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

This wine shows growing intensity the longer it stays in the glass and a very silky, polished feel in the mouth. Aromas include red fruit, spice, and rosemary: this is a beautiful, balanced wine that will have a long life in your cellar.  

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

98 Pointz Decanter

It is perhaps no surprise that very distinctive vintage conditions in 2006 produced such a special wine. A huge drought from mid-April to mid-September saw only 4mm of rain, which was followed by a deluge of 240mm in one weekend. ‘This wine had one of the highest alcohols and highest acidities we had ever seen’, comments Axel Heinz.

Perhaps it is this contradiction that makes the 2006 so distinctive. It is brimming with vivid Merlot aromas including ripe red fruit, plums, and contrasting green tomato and spice notes. The rich concentration and opulent texture is offset by vivid acidity. Flavours of green olive, spice, and black cherry seem to spring to life on the palate. It has all the lush, velvety tannins you would expect of Masseto, but it bursts into life with a lively, slightly wild personality. 

 

2005 Masseto Reviews

 

96 Pointz James Suckling

This is a Masseto that is its own now with balance and harmony. It shows delicate chocolate and berry character with hints of hazelnut. Medium to full body. Long silky finish. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Tasted next to the 2002, the 2005 Masseto is perhaps a bit edgier, with an extra kick of tannic intensity that gives the wine its sense of direction and a good kick of energy too. I very much admire the tension in the 2005, a wine built on freshness, aromatic depth, and mid-weight structure. Cool, rainy weather towards the end of the season resulted in a late harvest that took place between September 14 and 30. 

95 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Fruit was picked later than normal and the Masseto Merlot does indeed show mature aromas of black cherry, ripe blackberry, earthy iron, and polished stone. The intensity and purity are amazing and the wine is sophisticated, soft, and very rich on the finish. It is already showing beautiful evolution in the glass. 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

An exotic bouquet reveals floral, spice, cherry compote, and truffle elements. A Masseto that’s all about elegance, with a silky texture, wild berry fruit, firm tannins, and bright acidity. This still has some tannins to give, but is delicious now. Fine length. 

 

2004 Masseto Reviews

1

100 Pointz Vinous

As hard as it may seem to believe, the 2004 Masseto is even more expressive. It, too, is incredibly silky, bright, and polished, with captivating aromatics, nuanced red cherry fruit, and stunning overall balance. The mid-weight, gracious style bears some resemblance to the 2010. From magnum, the 2004 is a showstopper. 

 

99 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Even better than the highly acclaimed 2001 vintage, this Merlot from a tiny, clay-soil vineyard in Bolgheri is just about everything you’ve ever dreamed of tasting. Gorgeous, generous, voluptuous, cheerful, succulent, and intense: Masseto is all those things. The aromas are seamless and capture the essence of chocolate fudge, sweet cherry, blackberry, spice, and vanilla. It boasts thick, dense extraction, excellent structure, and amazing persistence. 

 

98 Pointz Wine Spectator

Ripe cherry, mulberry, coffee, and spice flavors mark this complex bouquet. Lush, intense, and firmly structured, with savory elements of leather, tobacco, and wild herbs. The fine, juicy finish is extremely long. Merlot.—Non-blind Masseto vertical (October 2017). Best from 2020 through 2035. 

97 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The stunning 2004 Masseto (100% Merlot) presents layers of sweet jammy dark fruit and mineral notes that burst forth from the glass with notable length, purity, and delineation. It is a decidedly elegant and super-refined Masseto that continues to integrate its 100% new oak well, showing extraordinary class and fine, silky-textured tannins that caress the palate on the long finish. The 2004 will be hard to resist in its youth as it is incredibly delicious even now, yet it promises to develop gracefully to at least age 20. It is a phenomenal effort that is not to be missed. 

96 Pointz James Suckling

There is such precision and refinement to this Masseto with a freshness and deliciousness that makes you want to drink it now. It full to medium bodied, with lovely density and a bright acidity with fine tannins. Goes on for minutes on the finish. 

2003 Masseto Reviews

 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Tasted at Jeurg Richter’s pre-Climens lunch. The Masseto ’03 oozes class with a ravishing, opulent bouquet with raspberry, kirsch, Kalamata olives, and a touch of undergrowth. It has enticing definition and a sense of natural calm. The palate is beautifully balanced with svelte tannins, a nonchalant sense of self-being with gentle grip, filigree texture, more black than the red fruits evident on the nose, cedar, and cigar box towards the understated finish. Stunning. Drink now-2020+ Tasted November 2009. 

94 Pointz Vinous

The 2003 Masseto is tremendous tonight. I admit, 2003 is one of my least favorite vintages, and yet the wine is so delicious today. Exotic and opulent to the core, the 2003 shows all of the natural richness of this brutally hot, dry year in its dark, heady, super-ripe flavors. There is not a ton of nuance, but readers could certainly do worse. This is an especially fine showing for the 2003, that much is pretty clear. Harvest took place between August 25 and September 18, a very early start. Ultimately, the winemaking team decided to only use the heart of the Masseto vineyard, ‘Masseto Centrale,’ in the blend, which lowered production significantly in favor of quality, a strategy that paid off brilliantly. 

92 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

Produced in limited numbers, this showcases fine winemaking on all levels despite a hot vintage. The raspberry fruit and chocolate nuances are fragrant and intense; the oak is so well integrated you only feel its presence in the mouth, where the wine is opulent but also extremely silky. But the most exciting elements to this wine are its distinctive Mediterranean accents of menthol, wild sage, and seaside shrubbery that beautifully recall its coastal Tuscan roots. 

92 Pointz Wine Spectator

This is ripe and meaty, with cherry and plum preserve notes and a touch of tar. Broad-shouldered and powerful, this reveals dense tannins and roasted, dried accents on the lingering finish. Extremely concentrated.

 

2002 Masseto Reviews

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2002 is another eye-opening wine. The year is mostly remembered for its cool, wet summer and a number of dilute, uninteresting wines. Not here. The 2002 Masseto will go down as one of the handful of truly great wines made that year. I imagine in ten or twenty years it will be fascinating to taste alongside Miani’s Merlot, Soldera’s Brunello Riserva and Conterno’s Monfortino. There is no question the wine is in that league. Today the 2002 remains a baby, with tons of depth in its dark fruit. Hints of rose petal and spice develop in the glass, adding further complexity. There is plenty of structure underneath, suggesting the 2002 will be a very long-lived wine. Today, it is a knock-out. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2022. 

92 Pointz Jane Anson MW

A challenging vintage that started well but from August 10 was impacted by rain. At almost 20 years old, this majors on white truffle, spice, balsamic and cassis liqueur. Still delivering pleasure, tertiary character with raspberry, wild strawberry, oyster shell and cold ash aromatics, smoked earth, and softened tannins. This is ready to drink and to enjoy over the next five to 10 years. 100% new oak, but for six months less than the usual 24 to ensure it remained balanced. 

91 Pointz James Suckling

This is surprisingly outstanding quality after being such a rainy vintage. Lovely nose of mint, berry, and mineral follow through to a full to medium body. Firm and silky texture. Delicious and holding on beautifully. Drink now. 

 

2001 Masseto Reviews

 

100 Pointz James Suckling

This is clearly a perfect wine and just now starting to open and show you its sheer beauty. It’s balanced with fascinating rosemary and dark fruit character that turns to plums and light chocolate. The undertones on the nose remind me of walking through the Masseto vineyard during a cool summer’s morning. It finally softens at the finish and shows a stunning fruit and acid tension. Finally softening and showing it true greatness.

 

99 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Best of 2008

Even better than the highly acclaimed 2001 vintage, this Merlot from a tiny, clay soil vineyard in Bolgheri is just about everything you’ve ever dreamed of tasting. Gorgeous, generous, voluptuous, cheerful, succulent, and intense: Masseto is all those things. The aromas are seamless and capture the essence of chocolate fudge, sweet cherry, blackberry, spice, and vanilla. It boasts thick, dense extraction, excellent structure, and amazing persistence. 

99 Pointz Wine Spectator

Offers a terrific bouquet of ripe, mellowing cherry and berry, accented by leather and incense hints. Shows fine tension between the firm, vibrant structure, and ripe fruit, with grace notes of Mediterranean herbs, cigar box, and mineral. Velvety and long, with a fabulous, fresh aftertaste. 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The massive 2001 Masseto forms with Le Macchiole’s Messorio and Tua Rita’s Redigaffi a trio of world-class Merlots in a ten square mile area where the variety virtually did not exist 15 years ago. The volume, richness, and sumptuousness are almost beyond description, as are the length and density of the flow and finish, but there is an underlying vein of purity and freshness which help maintain an impeccable balance. 

98 Pointz Vinous

The 2001 Masseto is one of the all-time great wines here. Vertical and soaring in its intensity, the 2001 occupies all dimensions, especially texturally, where it is so rich, so heady and so compelling. Next to other wines, or other vintages, the 2001 just has more of everything. I imagine well-stored bottles will drink well for another 15-20 years. The 2001’s reputation as an iconic wine is clearly justified. This magical vintage was marked by cooling temperatures in September that resulted in a drawn out harvest that took four weeks to complete. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

100 Pointz Decanter

Dense garnet in colour, this vintage of Masseto is restrained with a lavish elegance on the nose, displaying mint, milk, wild fennel (typical along the roads in Bolgheri), leather, and white truffle. It is vibrant and mineral on the big palate, creamy at first then velvety on the mid-palate, and super-ripe on the finish, woven with refreshing acidity and cassis meatiness. One of the greatest Masseto ever, and one of the best wines produced in Bolgheri (alongside Ornellaia 1998 and Sassicaia 1985). Simply, perfect! 

18.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

A landmark vintage that put Ornellaia on the trophy wine map. Thomas Duroux’s first (of three) vintages. Picked by hand and transported in small 15-kg boxes. Once in the cellar, the grapes were sorted by hand before undergoing destemming and gentle pressing. Fermentation took place in 65-hl and 125-hl wooden casks. Average temperature during fermentation was 27–30 °C.

Malolactic fermentation in French oak barriques, and aged for 24 months at a controlled temperature. After bottling, the wine remained in the cellars for another 12 months before release. Rich yet fresh. Fully evolved and lovely balance; long. Great undertow. Sweet and inky with a light gamey note. Racy and vivacious. Very dramatic without being too opulent. Just not hot on the end. Axel Heinz sees it as a cross between Châteauneuf and Pomerol. 

 

2000 Masseto Reviews

92 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The all-Merlot 2000 Masseto, warm, spicy, and very ripe in aroma, is broad and enveloping on the palate, lush, silky, and, again, rather ready, though the force and length on the finish suggest that there are easily a dozen years of life ahead of it. 

92 Pointz Vinous

I was thrilled to finally taste a good bottle of the 2000 Masseto after having quite a bit of bad luck. The 2000 won’t set the world on fire, but the best bottles are quite harmonious, and even better, they won’t require the cellaring needed age more recent vintages. 

91 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Saturated purple-black ruby. Complex, intense nose of dark fruits, pepper, and sage. There is uncommon richness on the palate expressive of stewed prunes, bitter-sweet chocolate, and candied fruit. Somewhat unevolved today, with palate-gripping tannins and a notable acid presence, it finishes very long, with a strong dose of minerality. (I should add that a barrel sample of the 2001 Masseto revealed more freshness and sweetness and a greater sense of balance than either of the preceding vintages, even though it maintains the typically lush and imposing structure for which this single-vineyard merlot is noted. 

90 Pointz Wine Spectator

Pretty blackberry, cherry, and licorice aromas follow through to a full-bodied palate, with velvety tannins and a smoke-, berry- and chocolate-flavored finish. A pretty wine. This is soft and round compared with my tastings from last year.–Masseto non-blind vertical. 

Tenuta dell’Ornellaia “Masseto” Reviews

Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Masseto Reviews

Tenuta dell’Ornellaia “Masseto” Reviews

Learn More About Tenuta dell’Ornellaia “Masseto” Through its Reviews.

2009 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

96 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Good full ruby. Superripe, pure aromas of blackberry, cassis, violet, minerals, milk chocolate, and exotic spices. Superconcentrated, rich, and seamless, offering explosive sweetness but also great verve, thanks to bright acidity that provides wonderful lift and clarity to the blackberry, blueberry, and black cherry flavors. Finishes with ultra-suave tannins and a kaleidoscope of violet and Oriental spice flavors. A very great Masseto from a hot year, when I would have expected the merlot to suffer a bit. But unlike in 2003, when it wasn’t just hot but dry as well, Masseto’s unique microclimate allowed the merlot to avoid major stress in 2009. As good and refined as the Ornellaia is in 2009, I think the Masseto has an extra layer of complexity and depth. 

96 Pointz Vinous

Good full ruby. Superripe, pure aromas of blackberry, cassis, violet, minerals, milk chocolate, and exotic spices. Superconcentrated, rich, and seamless, offering explosive sweetness but also great verve, thanks to bright acidity that provides wonderful lift and clarity to the blackberry, blueberry, and black cherry flavors. Finishes with ultra-suave tannins and a kaleidoscope of violet and Oriental spice flavors. A very great Masseto from a hot year, when I would have expected the merlot to suffer a bit. But unlike in 2003, when it wasn’t just hot but dry as well, Masseto’s unique microclimate allowed the Merlot to avoid major stress in 2009. As good and refined as the Ornellaia is in 2009, I think the Masseto has an extra layer of complexity and depth. 

95 Pointz James Suckling

Sexy and muscular. Blackberries, licorice, and tar on the nose. Bark, earth, and spice as well. Super subtle. Full-bodied, with super chewy tannins and a wonderful line. So beautiful. Creamy tannins. A baby 2001. Try in 2016. 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2009 Masseto bursts from the glass with dark red berries, blackberries, flowers, licorice, and tar. It shows lovely up-front juiciness and expressive inner perfume in a surprisingly accessible style for this wine. Like the Ornellaia, the 2009 Masseto has quite a bit of freshness, although it, too, is medium-bodied in structure. In this vintage the Ornellaia team was especially selective and only used part of the three vineyards that typically go into Masseto. I have been fortunate to taste every vintage of Masseto, most more than once recently. Masseto has a great track record for aging, even in the smallest, least promising of vintages. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2029. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

An effusive aroma of ripe black cherry announces the seriousness of this red, which is concentrated and intense, with shadings of plum and spice from the toasty, smoky oak. Though broad-shouldered, there’s a sense of harmony, followed by an expansive finish. Just a bit brawny on the finish. Best from 2015 through 2030. 

 

2008 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

99 Pointz James Suckling

“Ranked #1 in Top Dozen Bottles

Tasted in 2011” 

Opulent and complex, with dark fruits such as plums and blackberries. Milk chocolate. Dried herbs too. Black olives. Stunning nose. Full-bodied, with firm and chewy tannins, but a very creamy texture, and lots of milk chocolate, berry, and mineral character. It goes on for minutes. Clear and powerful. Savory and salty. One of the best Massetos ever.  

97 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2008 Masseto is another huge wine. It boasts tons of energy in a tense, inward style I can only describe as implosive as if the wine is holding back all of its energy. A deep core of black fruit, grilled herbs, licorice, and new leather emerges from time to time, but the tannins are still imposing. There is no shortage of pedigree. I fully expect the 2008 to develop into one of the great Massetos. Needless to say, it will be interesting to taste the 2008 in vertical tastings in the future. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2033. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

A dark, extracted red, offering plenty of juicy plum, blackberry, and violet notes framed by vanilla and toast. Squarely in the modern camp, yet this works. The tannins are slightly gritty now, but should mesh with time. Merlot. 

2007 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

100 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

A perfect wine from a classic vintage, the 2007 Masseto (100% Merlot from a 17-acre vineyard of the same name) opens with an unabashedly opulent bouquet of delicious blackberry, cherry, chocolate, vanilla, exotic spice, and cinnamon. Masseto excels both in terms of quality of fruit and winemaking and delivers plush, velvety tannins and an extra long, supple finish. It will make a special and valuable collection to your cellar. 

98 Pointz Vinous

Rich, sumptuous, and exotically beautiful, the 2007 Masseto is off the charts. The year got off to a very warm, dry start, but then cooler weather in August allowed for the vines to find their balance. All the best elements of Masseto and the house style come together in this truly memorable wine. Dark red fruit, espresso, mocha, and wildflowers flesh out in a resonant, stunningly beautiful Tuscan red that hits all the right notes. Wow! 

96 Pointz James Suckling

Wow! Licorice, dried violets, blackberries, blueberries, and a touch of cedar on the nose. Full-bodied and firm with a tight and refined fruit character. The nose is unbelievable, but the palate is holding back. This has everything, but it needs time to really come together. 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The estate’s 2007 Masseto is fabulous. Loads of black cherry blackberry and cassis are intermingled with minerals violets and French oak. This is an especially sensual Masseto that impresses for its clarity intensity and length. The wine’s pedigree is impossible to miss in fact in one of my blind tastings it was immediately identifiable; the class and sheer personality of Masseto came through in spades. Anticipated maturity: 2017-2027. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

Features a bouquet of ripe plum, cherry, fruitcake, and iron. Round and rich, displaying ripe cherry, plum, cedar, cigar box, and iron flavors, this is very open, with a touch of heat on the long finish. Close to ready. Merlot. Best from 2019 through 2035.

 

2006 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The wine that most delighted me at this historic tasting of Tuscany’s most iconic wines was the 2006 Masseto. This is a wine of sheer power, bliss, opulence, infinity, and sublime seduction. This Merlot-based masterpiece hits all your senses with the grace of a ballerina and the power of a heavyweight. It is steady on its proverbial feet, but it also glides over the palate with a profound sense of elegance, harmony, and rhythm. Among the prized vintages of Masseto, including 2001, 2004, and 2007, this edition is my favorite.

The wine delivers an extra sense of tightness or firmness at the back that serves to stitch together its fleshy richness and general sumptuousness. The personality is sunny, expansive, articulate, and sophisticated. You’ll remember that the 2006 vintage is celebrated for the elegance of its wines. In the coastal Bolgheri appellation, it is also remembered for the power of its wines. You get the best of both worlds with this stunning creation: elegance and power. These traits are particularly well suited to the versatile grape variety at the heart of this Tuscan all-rounder. This is a true Renaissance wine. 

99 Pointz James Suckling

This has a special savory character that is fascinating. It shows beautiful aromas of dried fruits, black olives, and brown sugar. Full-bodied with a phenomenal amount of fruit and freshness at the same time. Salty, juicy, and fruity. Hard not to drink now. Decant two or three hours before serving. Great potential for aging. 

99 Pointz Vinous

I still remember where I was the first time I tasted the 2006 Masseto. Since then, I have tasted the 2006 several times. It has never been anything less than utterly profound. That is once again the case on this night. Readers who are cellaring the 2006 Masseto in magnum will want to wait at least a few years for it to be at its very best. Still, it is magnificent tonight. 

98 Pointz Wine Spectator

Beautiful aromas of perfumes, berries, and flowers turn to light toasty oak and sandalwood. Full-bodied, with very well-integrated tannins that build and coat your palate. Long and silky textured on the finish. Shows great class and finesse. Merlot. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

This wine shows growing intensity the longer it stays in the glass and a very silky, polished feel in the mouth. Aromas include red fruit, spice, and rosemary: this is a beautiful, balanced wine that will have a long life in your cellar.  

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

98 Pointz Decanter

It is perhaps no surprise that very distinctive vintage conditions in 2006 produced such a special wine. A huge drought from mid-April to mid-September saw only 4mm of rain, which was followed by a deluge of 240mm in one weekend. ‘This wine had one of the highest alcohols and highest acidities we had ever seen’, comments Axel Heinz. Perhaps it is this contradiction that makes the 2006 so distinctive. It is brimming with vivid Merlot aromas including ripe red fruit, plums, and contrasting green tomato and spice notes. The rich concentration and opulent texture is offset by vivid acidity. Flavours of green olive, spice, and black cherry seem to spring to life on the palate. It has all the lush, velvety tannins you would expect of Masseto, but it bursts into life with a lively, slightly wild personality. 

 

2005 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

 

96 Pointz James Suckling

This is a Masseto that is its own now with balance and harmony. It shows delicate chocolate and berry character with hints of hazelnut. Medium to full body. Long silky finish. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Tasted next to the 2002, the 2005 Masseto is perhaps a bit edgier, with an extra kick of tannic intensity that gives the wine its sense of direction and a good kick of energy too. I very much admire the tension in the 2005, a wine built on freshness, aromatic depth, and mid-weight structure. Cool, rainy weather towards the end of the season resulted in a late harvest that took place between September 14 and 30. 

95 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Fruit was picked later than normal and the Masseto Merlot does indeed show mature aromas of black cherry, ripe blackberry, earthy iron, and polished stone. The intensity and purity are amazing and the wine is sophisticated, soft, and very rich on the finish. It is already showing beautiful evolution in the glass. 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

An exotic bouquet reveals floral, spice, cherry compote, and truffle elements. A Masseto that’s all about elegance, with a silky texture, wild berry fruit, firm tannins, and bright acidity. This still has some tannins to give, but is delicious now. Fine length. 

2004 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

100 Pointz Vinous

As hard as it may seem to believe, the 2004 Masseto is even more expressive. It, too, is incredibly silky, bright, and polished, with captivating aromatics, nuanced red cherry fruit, and stunning overall balance. The mid-weight, gracious style bears some resemblance to the 2010. From magnum, the 2004 is a showstopper. 

99 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Even better than the highly acclaimed 2001 vintage, this Merlot from a tiny, clay-soil vineyard in Bolgheri is just about everything you’ve ever dreamed of tasting. Gorgeous, generous, voluptuous, cheerful, succulent, and intense: Masseto is all those things. The aromas are seamless and capture the essence of chocolate fudge, sweet cherry, blackberry, spice, and vanilla. It boasts thick, dense extraction, excellent structure, and amazing persistence. 

98 Pointz Wine Spectator

Ripe cherry, mulberry, coffee, and spice flavors mark this complex bouquet. Lush, intense, and firmly structured, with savory elements of leather, tobacco, and wild herbs. The fine, juicy finish is extremely long. Merlot.—Non-blind Masseto vertical (October 2017). Best from 2020 through 2035. 

97 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The stunning 2004 Masseto (100% Merlot) presents layers of sweet jammy dark fruit and mineral notes that burst forth from the glass with notable length, purity, and delineation. It is a decidedly elegant and super-refined Masseto that continues to integrate its 100% new oak well, showing extraordinary class and fine, silky-textured tannins that caress the palate on the long finish. The 2004 will be hard to resist in its youth as it is incredibly delicious even now, yet it promises to develop gracefully to at least age 20. It is a phenomenal effort that is not to be missed. 

96 Pointz James Suckling

There is such precision and refinement to this Masseto with a freshness and deliciousness that makes you want to drink it now. It full to medium bodied, with lovely density and a bright acidity with fine tannins. Goes on for minutes on the finish. 

 

2003 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Tasted at Jeurg Richter’s pre-Climens lunch. The Masseto ’03 oozes class with a ravishing, opulent bouquet with raspberry, kirsch, Kalamata olives, and a touch of undergrowth. It has enticing definition and a sense of natural calm. The palate is beautifully balanced with svelte tannins, a nonchalant sense of self-being with gentle grip, filigree texture, more black than the red fruits evident on the nose, cedar, and cigar box towards the understated finish. Stunning. Drink now-2020+ Tasted November 2009. 

94 Pointz Vinous

The 2003 Masseto is tremendous tonight. I admit, 2003 is one of my least favorite vintages, and yet the wine is so delicious today. Exotic and opulent to the core, the 2003 shows all of the natural richness of this brutally hot, dry year in its dark, heady, super-ripe flavors. There is not a ton of nuance, but readers could certainly do worse. This is an especially fine showing for the 2003, that much is pretty clear. Harvest took place between August 25 and September 18, a very early start. Ultimately, the winemaking team decided to only use the heart of the Masseto vineyard, ‘Masseto Centrale,’ in the blend, which lowered production significantly in favor of quality, a strategy that paid off brilliantly. 

92 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

Produced in limited numbers, this showcases fine winemaking on all levels despite a hot vintage. The raspberry fruit and chocolate nuances are fragrant and intense; the oak is so well integrated you only feel its presence in the mouth, where the wine is opulent but also extremely silky. But the most exciting elements to this wine are its distinctive Mediterranean accents of menthol, wild sage, and seaside shrubbery that beautifully recall its coastal Tuscan roots. 

92 Pointz Wine Spectator

This is ripe and meaty, with cherry and plum preserve notes and a touch of tar. Broad-shouldered and powerful, this reveals dense tannins and roasted, dried accents on the lingering finish. Extremely concentrated. 

2002 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2002 is another eye-opening wine. The year is mostly remembered for its cool, wet summer and a number of dilute, uninteresting wines. Not here. The 2002 Masseto will go down as one of the handful of truly great wines made that year. I imagine in ten or twenty years it will be fascinating to taste alongside Miani’s Merlot, Soldera’s Brunello Riserva and Conterno’s Monfortino. There is no question the wine is in that league. Today the 2002 remains a baby, with tons of depth in its dark fruit. Hints of rose petal and spice develop in the glass, adding further complexity. There is plenty of structure underneath, suggesting the 2002 will be a very long-lived wine. Today, it is a knock-out. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2022. 

92 Pointz Jane Anson, MW

A challenging vintage that started well but from August 10 was impacted by rain. At almost 20 years old, this majors on white truffle, spice, balsamic and cassis liqueur. Still delivering pleasure, tertiary character with raspberry, wild strawberry, oyster shell and cold ash aromatics, smoked earth, and softened tannins. This is ready to drink and to enjoy over the next five to 10 years. 100% new oak, but for six months less than the usual 24 to ensure it remained balanced. 

91 Pointz James Suckling

This is surprisingly outstanding quality after being such a rainy vintage. Lovely nose of mint, berry, and mineral follow through to a full to medium body. Firm and silky texture. Delicious and holding on beautifully. Drink now. 

2001 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

100 Pointz James Suckling

This is clearly a perfect wine and just now starting to open and show you its sheer beauty. It’s balanced with fascinating rosemary and dark fruit character that turns to plums and light chocolate. The undertones on the nose remind me of walking through the Masseto vineyard during a cool summer’s morning. It finally softens at the finish and shows a stunning fruit and acid tension. Finally softening and showing it true greatness.

 

99 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Best of 2008

Even better than the highly acclaimed 2001 vintage, this Merlot from a tiny, clay soil vineyard in Bolgheri is just about everything you’ve ever dreamed of tasting. Gorgeous, generous, voluptuous, cheerful, succulent, and intense: Masseto is all those things. The aromas are seamless and capture the essence of chocolate fudge, sweet cherry, blackberry, spice, and vanilla. It boasts thick, dense extraction, excellent structure, and amazing persistence. 

99 Pointz Wine Spectator

Offers a terrific bouquet of ripe, mellowing cherry and berry, accented by leather and incense hints. Shows fine tension between the firm, vibrant structure, and ripe fruit, with grace notes of Mediterranean herbs, cigar box, and mineral. Velvety and long, with a fabulous, fresh aftertaste. 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The massive 2001 Masseto forms with Le Macchiole’s Messorio and Tua Rita’s Redigaffi a trio of world-class Merlots in a ten square mile area where the variety virtually did not exist 15 years ago. The volume, richness, and sumptuousness are almost beyond description, as are the length and density of the flow and finish, but there is an underlying vein of purity and freshness which help maintain an impeccable balance. 

98 Pointz Vinous

The 2001 Masseto is one of the all-time great wines here. Vertical and soaring in its intensity, the 2001 occupies all dimensions, especially texturally, where it is so rich, so heady and so compelling. Next to other wines, or other vintages, the 2001 just has more of everything. I imagine well-stored bottles will drink well for another 15-20 years. The 2001’s reputation as an iconic wine is clearly justified. This magical vintage was marked by cooling temperatures in September that resulted in a drawn out harvest that took four weeks to complete. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

100 Pointz Decanter

Dense garnet in colour, this vintage of Masseto is restrained with a lavish elegance on the nose, displaying mint, milk, wild fennel (typical along the roads in Bolgheri), leather, and white truffle. It is vibrant and mineral on the big palate, creamy at first then velvety on the mid-palate, and super-ripe on the finish, woven with refreshing acidity and cassis meatiness. One of the greatest Masseto ever, and one of the best wines produced in Bolgheri (alongside Ornellaia 1998 and Sassicaia 1985). Simply, perfect! 

18.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

A landmark vintage that put Ornellaia on the trophy wine map. Thomas Duroux’s first (of three) vintages. Picked by hand and transported in small 15-kg boxes. Once in the cellar, the grapes were sorted by hand before undergoing destemming and gentle pressing. Fermentation took place in 65-hl and 125-hl wooden casks. Average temperature during fermentation was 27–30 °C. Malolactic fermentation in French oak barriques, and aged for 24 months at a controlled temperature. After bottling, the wine remained in the cellars for another 12 months before release. Rich yet fresh. Fully evolved and lovely balance; long. Great undertow. Sweet and inky with a light gamey note. Racy and vivacious. Very dramatic without being too opulent. Just not hot on the end. Axel Heinz sees it as a cross between Châteauneuf and Pomerol. 

2000 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia

“Masseto” Reviews

92 Pointz Vinous

I was thrilled to finally taste a good bottle of the 2000 Masseto after having quite a bit of bad luck. The 2000 won’t set the world on fire, but the best bottles are quite harmonious, and even better, they won’t require the cellaring needed age more recent vintages. 

92 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The all-Merlot 2000 Masseto, warm, spicy, and very ripe in aroma, is broad and enveloping on the palate, lush, silky, and, again, rather ready, though the force and length on the finish suggest that there are easily a dozen years of life ahead of it. 

91 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Saturated purple-black ruby. Complex, intense nose of dark fruits, pepper, and sage. There is uncommon richness on the palate expressive of stewed prunes, bitter-sweet chocolate, and candied fruit. Somewhat unevolved today, with palate-gripping tannins and a notable acid presence, it finishes very long, with a strong dose of minerality. (I should add that a barrel sample of the 2001 Masseto revealed more freshness and sweetness and a greater sense of balance than either of the preceding vintages, even though it maintains the typically lush and imposing structure for which this single-vineyard merlot is noted. 

90 Pointz Wine Spectator

Pretty blackberry, cherry, and licorice aromas follow through to a full-bodied palate, with velvety tannins and a smoke-, berry- and chocolate-flavored finish. A pretty wine. This is soft and round compared with my tastings from last year.–Masseto non-blind vertical. 

Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Learn More About Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Through its Reviews,

2020 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

97 Pointz James Suckling

Very dense black-fruit aromas, but also licorice, an entire microcosm of spice and a whiff of smoked bacon. Very dense and meaty with an incredible tannin structure that enables this to be simultaneously very big and elegant. Super-long finish with enormous mineral freshness. Drink or hold. 

97 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Beaucastel’s 2020 Chateauneuf du Pape is shaping up as a blend of 30% each Grenache and Mourvèdre, with 10% each Counoise and Syrah, plus 20% other permitted varieties, including a healthy proportion of white grapes. Complex and red-fruited, with hints of flowers and garrigue, it’s expansive and richly textured on the palate, finishing long and silky. 

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

The 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape was scheduled to be bottled the week after this tasting, and it’s the usual blend of 35% Mourvedre, 25% Grenache, and the rest Syrah, Counoise, and other permitted varieties. While the estate compares this to their 2016, it reminds me slightly of their 1990 and has a wonderful perfume of red, blue, and black fruits, as well as sappy garrigue, saddle leather, and ground pepper. It’s beautifully textured, medium to full-bodied has a good sense of freshness, and fine tannins, as well as a tight, focused style on the palate that bodes well for longevity. It deserves 7-8 years of bottle age and should be long-lived. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

96 Pointz Decanter

Fresh and bright nose, then a palate with exceptionally smooth and fine tannins, lovely acidity, and notes of blackberry and raspberry juice. Particularly fine, elegant, and balanced this year. Grenache and Cinsault fermented in cement, Syrah and Mourvèdre fermented in foudre. Drinking Window 2028 – 2042. 

2019 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

97 Pointz James Suckling

So much ripe damson plum and blackberry fruit, but also notes of licorice, candied ginger, and baking spices. In spite of all the considerable power and concentration, this is anything but loud or domineering, rather it tastes very poised and precise. Very long finish with pronounced stony character. 

96 Pointz Decanter

Immediately rich and damson-scented with a shot of cassis running through it. A medium-bodied, very classic vintage with good freshness. Has a good sense of weight and drive, not endlessly deep like 2017 or 2016 but perfectly balanced. Should age well into the medium, if not long term, but what’s more important is that it’s extremely delicious, balanced, and fresh. Grenache and Cinsault fermented in cement, Syrah and Mourvèdre fermented in foudre. A little less Syrah this year. 

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

The 2019 Châteauneuf Du Pape is the usual blend of roughly 30% Mourvèdre, 30% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise, and the rest a mix of permitted varieties that was brought up in foudre. It offers a vivid ruby/purple hue as well as stunning aromatics of blueberries, violets, peppered beef, leather, and spring flowers. Medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and elegant, it has just a kiss of classic Beaucastel wild, sauvage nuances, ripe, silky tannins, and a great finish. Give bottles 4-5 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following two decades. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

#8 Wine of the Year 2022

This is pretty gorgeous, with a remarkably pure display of cassis, cherry puree, and plum reduction flavors laced ever so gently with threads of leather, alder, and dried garrigue. The sleek iron spine is buried deeply on the finish, and there’s a lingering hint of warm stone as the fruit echoes through. Built to last. 

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The dark-fruited, plummy, and cola-scented 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape is a rich, full-bodied effort reminiscent of the 2007 or 2009. Dense, powerful, and savory, it may drink well for a short time on release, but expect it to close up shortly, only to reemerge in several years. There’s ample concentration and sufficient tannins for the long haul, with a long, dusty finish and hints of licorice that bodes well for the future. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Powerful, mineral-accented cherry, blackberry, licorice, and -garrigue- scents, along with a hint of candied flowers. Deep, penetrating, and alluringly sweet, offering cherry liqueur, dark berry, lavender, exotic spice, and cola flavors that are given spine by a core of juicy acidity. In a concentrated yet lively, fluid style. Finishes extremely long and precise, with building tannins and a powerful echo of spiciness and florality. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

96 Pointz Decanter

Immediately rich and damson-scented with a shot of cassis running through it. A medium-bodied, very classic vintage with good freshness. Has a good sense of weight and drive, not endlessly deep like 2017 or 2016 but perfectly balanced. Should age well into the medium, if not long term, but what’s more important is that it’s extremely delicious, balanced, and fresh. Grenache and Cinsault fermented in cement, Syrah and Mourvèdre fermented in foudre. A little less Syrah this year. 

18/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Cask sample, tasted at the domaine. What a stunning nose! Piercingly fresh and expressive notes of violet, garrigue, and black olive tapenade. Defined tannins support the fresh zesty mid-palate and is all beautifully encased in a toasty cape of dark fruit. 

2018 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

At the moment, Beaucastel’s 2018 Chateauneuf du Pape bucks the vintage trend toward open, expressive wines, seeming a bit closed on the nose and tight on the palate. It also shows a bit more depth and tannin than many of its peers. A blend of 30% each Grenache and Mourvèdre, with 15% Syrah, 10% Counoise and smaller amounts of other permitted varieties (including some white grapes), it delivers hints of mixed red berries and garrigue, a medium to full-bodied feel in the mouth, some dusty tannins and a long, mouthwatering finish. Give it another couple of years to soften and reopen, then drink it over the next decade and a half. 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator “Collectible” 

Really pure in profile and alluring in feel, with cassis and cherry puree flavors seamlessly layered with melted red licorice and fruitcake notes. A dash of roasted apple wood underscores the finish, letting the fruit be the primary player. Subtle mesquite and incense accents are tucked in the background for now. Approachable, but no rush. 

94 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

Moving to the reds, the 2018 Châteauneuf Du Pape showed nicely with a deep ruby/purple color as well as classic Beaucastel aromas and flavors of darker currents, blueberries, smoked meats, black licorice, and roasted herbs. With medium to full-bodied richness, a pure, clean, elegant texture, sweet tannins, and a great finish, this seamless, elegant Beaucastel will be approachable in its youth, yet still have 20+ years of prime drinking. 

94 Pointz James Suckling

Very rich aromas of blackberries, chocolate, and crushed stones. Some cloves and black pepper, too. Medium-bodied with round, juicy tannins that are soft, polished, and nicely integrated into the wine. Delicious finish. Very drinkable now, but will improve with age. 

94 Pointz Vinous

Cherry, blueberry, smoky mineral, and pungent floral qualities on the perfumed nose, along with spice and garrigue flourishes. Sappy and well-concentrated red and dark fruit preserve flavors show surprising and welcome energy for their depth and pick up candied lavender and spice nuances as the wine opens out. Closes very long and lively, with chewy tannins framing floral pastille and dark berry notes, 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

95 Pointz Decanter

A tight and compelling tannic structure, muscular and knitted down at this stage, rich and concentrated with blackberries and olive paste. Needs a few years, but already you can discern the floral aromatics that overlay the core, and this is going to evolve into a beautiful Beaucastel. 

 

17.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Raspberry and redcurrant, milk chocolate, really juicy and effusive. Front-loaded with fruit right now, but it has the structure and density to last. Another classic, and perhaps not as strong as the 2017 but still one of the best of the vintage. 

2017 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

95 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

The 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape is another sunny, beautifully Provençal effort that has a huge nose of garrigue, raw steak, leather, truffle, and peppery spice. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and balanced, it’s not a massive Beaucastel yet it has a classic, Provençal, incredibly satisfying style that will benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and keep for two decades. 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

A dark and winey style, offering a mix of plum, black currant and black cherry notes, infused with black tea, fruitcake and anise accents. Solidly built, vibrant and energetic from start to finish, this carries copious fruit easily through the lengthy finish. 

94 Pointz Vinous

Dark bright-rimmed ruby. Ripe black and blue fruit liqueur, incense, smoked meat, and candied lavender qualities on the deeply perfumed, spice-accented nose. Broad and fleshy in the mouth, offering intense black raspberry, bitter cherry, and fruitcake flavors that tighten up and turn livelier with air. Shows plenty of energy for a hot-vintage wine and finishes impressively long and chewy, with mounting tannins and repeating smoke and floral notes. 

94 Pointz Vinous

Dark bright-rimmed ruby. Ripe black and blue fruit liqueur, incense, smoked meat, and candied lavender qualities on the deeply perfumed, spice-accented nose. Broad and fleshy in the mouth, offering intense black raspberry, bitter cherry, and fruitcake flavors that tighten up and turn livelier with air. Shows plenty of energy for a hot-vintage wine and finishes impressively long and chewy, with mounting tannins and repeating smoke and floral notes. 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Now that it’s in the bottle, Beaucastel’s 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape comes across as full-bodied and rich, but also a bit shut down and reticent on the nose. With air, black olives and asphalt give way to black cherries and briery spice notes, backed by velvety but substantial tannins and a long, richly textured finish. Given a few years in the cellar, I have no doubt this will drink well for the next 15-plus years. I’ll have additional reviews of the Perrin Family’s other offerings in the next installment of my Southern Rhône non-odyssey, but now that I’ve had a chance to taste it out of bottle, let this serve as a reminder not to overlook the 2017 Beaucastel, which should age well for up to two decades. 

 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

95 Pointz Decanter

At Beaucastel, the Grenache and Cinsault are fermented in cement while the Syrah and Mourvèdre are fermented in foudre. The result features finely pixellated fruits of the forest on the nose, with a full-bodied but mightily fresh and lively palate. The Mourvèdre element is strong this year, bringing vibrancy and power. It’s firmly savoury, very dry, and dramatic. A very tannic year has produced a seriously structured Beaucastel for the long term. 

18/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Rich, succulent black fruit with wonderful clarity and effortless depth. A real masterclass of the appellation, with meaty complexity on the palate as well as persistent fragrant spices. Spot-on balance to finish, even though the tannins are still very brash and furry. Certainly needs age, and should be a really wonderful investment. 

2016 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

99 Pointz James Suckling

This is a stunning Beaucastel. A classic! Has a superb array of fruit, ranging from red, through to blue, darker purple, and black. Nuances of dark, stony minerals, spices, wildflowers, and herbs. So fleshy. This has impeccable balance, super-silky tannins, and an extraordinarily long finish. This has decades ahead of it. Drink or hold. 

97 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Bottled only a week before my visit, I was blown away by how well Beaucastel’s 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape was showing. It’s full-bodied, creamy, lush, and rich, with layers of raspberry fruit, garrigue, and spice that unfold across a seamless palate. No doubt it will go through cycles of being open and closed throughout its lifespan, but it would be a mistake to simply order a case, put it into storage, and forget about it without trying one first and swooning over the sheer lusciousness and youthful complexity. 

97 Pointz Wine Spectator

“WS Top 10 – #6 Wine of the Year: 

Youthfully reticent, but warm and polished in feel, with a large core of cassis, raspberry, and cherry puree notes lying in wait for now. Threads of red licorice, warm stone and singed mesquite and cedar emerge steadily through the lengthy finish as the fruit unwinds slowly. Concentrated yet precise. Sock this away in the cellar. 

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

Being bottled the day of my visit, the 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape checks in as a blend of 30% Mourvèdre, 30% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise, and the rest a mix of permitted varieties. It offers a ripe, sexy, rounded style that quickly shows more structure, minerality, and tannin with time in the glass. Blackberries, blueberries, smoked earth, violets, and garrigue all give way to a full-bodied, deep, structured Beaucastel that’s going to benefit from 5-7 years of bottle age and keep for two decades. It reminds me of the 2001. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Deep brilliant crimson. Aromas of ripe red and dark berries, musky flowers, and garrigue develop a spicecake nuance as the wine opens up. Juicy and seamless on the palate, offering sweet black raspberry, cherry compote, licorice, and lavender pastille flavors that display superb depth as well as unlikely energy. Doesn’t let up on the impressively long, spice-tinged finish, which features smoothly interwoven tannins and a lingering cherry note. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

96 Pointz Decanter

The nose is tightly wound for now, but shows fresh black fruits and an underlying herbal seam. It’s full-bodied but immediately lifted and fresh on the palate, with powerful fruit and a dense lattice of ripe tannins. It is beautifully textured, very straight in style, with great length and energy. It’s already very well integrated and balanced. Tight, refreshing, mineral, and intense. A truly excellent Beaucastel. 

18/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

30% Mourvèdre, 30% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise, and all the other varieties. Some reductive notes on the nose. Floral and rich on the palate with gorgeous spice mix and effortless balance. A great wine, with great pedigree – you can taste this in the sheer elegance and intensity. 

2015 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

97 Pointz James Suckling

“Top 100 of 2017”

All 13 grapes. This has a dark fruited, blueberry and blue plum nose with wide swinging tannins. Some white peppery elements, violets, brooding dark spices, blue fruits and dark plums. Builds from the ground up. Dark stones. Impressive, powerful wine. Drink from 2025. 

97 Pointz Wine Spectator

A stunner from the get-go, with waves of thoroughly seductive boysenberry, plum, blueberry, and raspberry reduction forming the core, while roasted apple wood, rooibos tea, bergamot, and anise notes flash throughout. Has plenty of bass, with a Turkish coffee accent and a hint of alder driving underneath. Everything moves in lockstep through the seriously long finish. Best from 2020 through 2045. 

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

The 2015 Châteauneuf-du-Pape checks in as a blend of 30% each of Mourvèdre and Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise and the rest a mix of permitted varieties, and they’re more and more keeping the stems with Syrah component. This is a beauty that offers more depth and richness than just about every other wine in the vintage. Blackberry, black raspberries, garrigue, spice, and hints of saddle leather all flow to a full-bodied, rich, layered 2015 that has a stacked, concentrated mid-palate, ripe, sweet tannin and an undeniable opulence that’s missing from too many 2015s. Marc Perrin compared this cuvée to 2001, and I can’t disagree with him. Drink this blockbuster beauty anytime over the coming two decades. The Perrin family continues to knock it out of the park and have produced some of the wines of the vintage in 2015. 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Bottled in late July, the 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape is an amazing effort, especially when one considers the production volume. Loaded with black cherry fruit and cola-like spice, this full-bodied, richly textured wine never seems heavy or warm, while exotic Indian spice notes linger on the finish. It should drink well for at least 20 years. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Brilliant ruby. Spice-accented aromas of ripe red fruits, candied flowers, earth, and smoky minerals; a zesty white pepper quality emerges with aeration. Sweet, expansive, and energetic on the palate, offering intense raspberry, spicecake and lavender flavors and a subtle touch of smoke. Completely stains the palate and shows outstanding clarity on the strikingly long, focused finish, where smooth tannins make a late appearance. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

95 Pointz Decanter

Depth and detail on the dark-fruit nose. Stylish, balanced, and very persistent, delivers crunchy, spicy fruit. Drinking Window 2020-2044. 

2014 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2014 Châteauneuf du Pape is a beautiful wine in the vintage, and Marc compares it to the 2012. I’m not sure I agree, but there’s no denying the quality in this 2014. Sporting a deep ruby color and terrific notes of blackberries, ground herbs, pepper, and Provençal spice, it shows the more forward, charming nature of the vintage and is medium to full-bodied, pure, and balanced. 

93 Pointz Vinous

Deep ruby. Potent smoke- and peppery spice-tinged cherry and black raspberry aromas are complemented by suggestions of licorice, smoked meat, and candied flowers. Densely packed and taut on entry, unfolding quickly to offer sweet black raspberry and cherry-cola flavors that are given vivacity and spine by juicy acidity. Concentrated yet energetic in style, offering excellent closing thrust, smooth tannins, and lingering notes of sweet dark berries and spice cake. 

91 Pointz Wine Spectator

A solid core of kirsch and raspberry compote stands out here, with light savory, pepper and shiso leaf notes. Stays fresh and sleek through the finish. 

 

2013 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

94 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Inky ruby. Expressive aromas of cherry, black raspberry, licorice and smoky minerals, with a dark chocolate element building slowly. Then tightly wound and focused on the palate, offering intense flavors of dark berries, bitter cherry and candied flowers. Powerful but at the same time quite elegant, finishing with wonderful clarity and length and smooth tannins. 

94 Pointz Vinous

Inky ruby. Expressive aromas of cherry, black raspberry, licorice, and smoky minerals, with a dark chocolate element building slowly. Then tightly wound and focused on the palate, offering intense flavors of dark berries, bitter cherry and candied flowers. Powerful but at the same time quite elegant, finishing with wonderful clarity and length and smooth tannins.  

93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2013 Châteauneuf du Pape is a beauty and has a rare level of concentration and depth in the vintage. Blueberry, crushed flowers, pepper, and violet aromas and flavors flow nicely to a medium to full-bodied, structured, and tannic Beaucastel that has impressive purity and plenty of length. It’s not massive, but still needs 4-5 years of cellaring and will keep for a decade after that. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

17.5+/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah, Counoise plus a ‘medley’ of other permitted varieties. Extremely sweet on the front palate and unusually claret-like in its build (more obvious tannins than most?). A heady cocktail. Lots of tannins and acidity — pretty bruising on the finish. 

 

2012 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

What I think might end up being the best Beaucastel since the 1990 or 2001, the 2012 Châteauneuf du Pape offers a full-bodied, decadent style to go with awesome black and blue fruits, garrigue, licorice, crushed flowers and violets. The purity here is truly something, and it has fabulous mid-palate concentration, building tannin, and massive texture. Given all of the fruit and texture here, it will no doubt drink well in its youth, but it should still be alive and kicking after two decades as well. 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

 “Highly Recommended” 

Warm raspberry and boysenberry confiture aromas and flavors are dominant in this lush, inviting style, but there’s plenty of dried star anise, bay leaf, licorice root, worn leather, and roasted juniper notes to fill out the chorus. The finish turns youthfully grippy, with a tarry edge holding sway and adding serious length. Try now, but cellar for maximum effect. Best from 2018 through 2030. 

 

94 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Brilliant ruby. Powerful aromas of candied blackberry, blueberry, and licorice, with suggestions of lavender and cracked pepper. Lush, intensely flavored, and supple in texture, offering spicy dark berry and cherry compote and olive tapenade flavors complicated by a subtle floral nuance. Finishes sappy and very long, with resonating spiciness, a hint of licorice, and chewy, slow-building tannins. 

2011 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

94 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

An impressive wine by any measure, this shows ample complexity in its mix of black cherry, dark earth, and briery notes. The tannins frame the wine’s opulent fruit, while remaining wonderfully unobtrusive. This should drink well for at least 15 years from the vintage 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

“Top 100 Wines of 2014”

Very sleek and refined despite the obvious heft, featuring steeped red and black currant fruit studded with bergamot, blood orange, sweet tobacco, and alder notes. The long, racy finish has a lovely echo of singed mesquite. 

93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Showing attractive aged notes of black truffle balanced against red raspberries, Beaucastel’s medium to full-bodied 2011 Chateauneuf du Pape appears to be at its peak. Silky and elegant, it’s not a huge powerhouse but is a charming effort that remains reasonably fresh. 

93 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Although the hot spring and cool, wet July of 2011 made for some challenges (yields were down 50 percent from 2010), this is a lush and inviting vintage of Beaucastel. It stands out not only for the exuberance of its cassis flavor but its purity; if that flavor were a color, it’d be cadmium red. While it should hold well in the cellar for a few years, it is so appealing now it’s hard to think of a reason to wait. 

92 Pointz Vinous

Deep ruby. Dark berries, dried cherry, anise, and lavender on the highly perfumed nose. Offers intense cassis and bitter cherry flavors with sexy floral pastille and spice cake nuances. Aeration brings out a smoky quality that carries through the long, smooth, gently tannic finish. There’s 40% Mourvedre here but I wouldn’t have guessed it based on this wine’s forward, voluptuous character. 

 

2010 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

#43 in Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Cellar Selections of 2015”

The 2010 Beaucastel is a tour de force, brilliantly combining espresso and black olive notes with bright raspberry fruit, while dark earthy notes provide a solid base. The feel on the palate is ample, with tannins that are a bit dusty but not tough or chewy. The long, mouthwatering finish bodes well for the future. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

“Collectible”

#8 in Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2013

Dark, dense, and very closed now, this has a tremendous core of crushed plum, linzer torte, and blackberry confiture waiting in reserve. Ample singed cedar and mesquite, warm paving stone, and black tea notes lurk in the background and glide through the finish. Features serious grip, but wonderful integration. Should cruise in the cellar. 

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

This is a gorgeous wine, a classic blend of 30% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise, and the balance the other permitted varietals in the appellation. Deep purple, with loads of bouquet garni, beef blood, blackberry, kirsch, smoke, and truffle, this wine is full-bodied, rich, and showing even better than it did last year. I still think it needs 3-5 years of cellaring, and it should last for 25-30 years, as most of the top vintages of Beaucastel do. 

94 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

Outer quote mark A wine compared to the 2015 by Marc Perrin, the 2010 Châteauneuf-du-Pape is already drinking nicely, with notable complexity and depth in its garrigue, sweet spice, incense, and both black cherry and currant-like fruit. The 2010s are just now starting to open up and drink well, and this full-bodied effort has impressive purity, notable mid-palate density, and ripe tannin, all suggesting it has a long life ahead of it. 

94 Pointz Vinous

Bright ruby. Sexy, spice- and mineral-accented aromas of red and dark fruit preserves and garrigue. Juicy and expansive on the palate, offering vibrant black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors, a hint of smokiness, and intense minerality. Tannins come on late and are quickly sucked up by this wine’s intense fruit. Rich and lively, with excellent finishing clarity and length. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

97 Pointz Decanter

According to François Perrin this was the perfect year, with rain at the perfect time and an Indian summer in September. This is so graceful, with blackberry aromas and black olive notes. It’s fleshy and expressive, with no lack of grip and tension. The fruit profile on the palate mirrors that on the nose. This masterpiece is vivid and harmonious with a chalky acidity and remarkable length. One to forget in the cellar for at least two decades. 

17.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Outer quote mark Dried fruit, musty, dank aromas – not in a tainted way, but certainly shows its age. The fruit stays intact on the palate with dried cherry and bramble jam, plus chocolate, seared beef, and pepper spice. I’d be tempted to enjoy this soon. 

2009 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

The 2009 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape had just been bottled at the time of the tasting but you wouldn’t know it by tasting it. A blend of 30% Mourvèdre, 30% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise, and 20% assorted varieties, the wine delivers a superb aromatic display of kirsch and black cherry-like fruits to go with a solid dose of underlying meat, truffle, earth, and leather. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator “Collectible”

One of the more endowed 2009s, this is packed with dark smoldering cocoa, mesquite, tobacco and roasted fig notes, all inlaid with pure cassis and plum preserves fruit flavors. Long and authoritative on the finish, with singed vanilla bean and tar adding length and dimension. 

94 Pointz James Suckling

A very warm year, this has extremely expressive Grenache fruits, raspberry, some honey, and a lithe juicy core. There’s a late creeping wave of smooth tannins. Darker plum fruits exude power through the finish. Stunning wine from a very ripe vintage.  

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2009 Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape is reminiscent of their brilliant 1985. It will be one of the rare Beaucastels that is drinkable upon release. Made from this estate’s classic blend, it possesses soft tannins as well as a silky, open-knit seductiveness, a dense plum/purple color and a beautiful perfume of smoky Provencal herbs intermixed with grilled steak juices, garrigue, kirsch and blue as well as black fruits. The wine is full-bodied, unctuously textured, and silky smooth (the latter characteristic being somewhat atypical for a young Beaucastel). 

93 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Bright ruby. Perfumed, expressive aromas of red and dark berry preserves, smoky herbs, and lavender, with a touch of licorice adding depth. Fleshy and supple in texture, offering intense black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors lifted by a spicy quality. Shows the richness of the vintage but carries no excess fat. The finish lingers with impressive tenacity and echoes the floral and smoke notes. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

17.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Juicy redcurrant and raspberry fruit with charred meat and earth showing complexity, and a long, fragrant persistence with attractive juniper and liquorice character. Long, layered, engaging, and justifies the weight and heat thanks to powerful fruit concentration. 17.5/20 points 

 

2008 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

Ripe and very sleek, with a dense core of cassis, blackberry and anise framed by violet and spice. The long finish drips with juicy fruit and subtle toast, with a flash of iron boding well for cellaring. Shows great freshness and balance for the vintage. Drink now through 2024. 

91 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Vivid ruby. Enticing aromas of raspberry, dried flowers and spice cake. Sweet and penetrating, offering sappy flavors of red and dark berries, candied flowers and chewing tobacco. Combines depth and juiciness smoothly, finishing with gentle grip and persistent florality. 

90 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2008 Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape is one of the few outstanding wines produced in this vintage. More evolved than Beaucastel’s wines tend to be, it reveals a healthy dark plum/ruby color, notes of licorice, meat juices, smoked game, black currants and garrigue, medium to full body, silky tannins, good freshness, surprising depth for the vintage and a long finish. Drink it over the next decade. 

2007 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

A straight-up, phenomenal wine, this bottle of 2007 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape was double decanted (poured into a decanter and then back into the bottle) 12 hours prior to drinking and boasted gorgeous aromatics (blackberry, cassis, lavender, garrigue and roasted meat), full bodied power, serious concentration and unreal purity. Very polished and almost civilized by Beaucastel standards, this beauty should drink beautifully for 3 decades. Wow. 

96 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Beaucastel’s 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape has turned out even better out of bottle than I predicted. An inky/ruby/purple color is followed by a glorious nose of blue and black fruits, truffles, pen ink, licorice, and meat juices as well as glorious levels of acidity and sweet tannin, buttressing the fruit’s fabulous freshness and vibrancy. This full-bodied effort still displays considerable tannin, no doubt because of the relatively high Mourvèdre content. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator “Collectible”

This extremely dense red delivers layers of melted fig, mulled boysenberry and black currant fruit, all laced with notes of charred mesquite, hoisin sauce and Kenya AA coffee. The long, silky mouthfeel belies the latent power in reserve and there’s a lot of it, with waves of grip driving the finish. 

94 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Powerful, pungent aromas evoke kirsch, blackberry, smoky herbs and dried flowers. Energetic, penetrating cherry and dark berry flavors are enlivened by juicy acidity and given spine by a tangy mineral quality. A floral quality sneaks in with air, along with notes of allspice and star anise. The finish is sappy, focused and very long, with herbs and flowers lingering. 

93 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

At first glance, this is not particularly impressive; it’s slightly herbal and rustic, with a raisiny edge to the fruit. But this really improves with air, fleshing out on the midpalate and losing the raisiny notes in favor of plum and savory notes. 

 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

17.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Wonderful coffee, cream, and opulent red fruit with smoke and spice. Lovely softness to the tannin, and there is loads of appeal here – although there is a bit of warmth to finish. 

 

2006 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

95 Pointz Vinous

The 2006 Beaucastel shows the textbook character of a mature Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It has expansive raspberry and cherry scents with suggestions of succulent herbs, pungent flowers, cigar box, and just a hint of earth. Given the high percentage of Mourvèdre (almost a third of the blend), I would have thought that the earthy aspect would have been more pronounced, but that is not the case here.

The 2006 is silky in texture, and the suave blend of depth and energy highlights its red fruit along with floral pastille and baking spice flavors. It finishes extremely long and precise, with superb clarity and just a hint of finely polished tannins adding gentle grip. Beaucastel often shows some gamy character when the wines are young; however, the 2006 did not in barrel nor after it was bottled, and there’s no trace of it now. I noted almost twelve years ago that this was a wine that “beguiles rather than brutalizes”, and I’m happy with that assessment today.

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

As I stated last year, there is no Hommage a Jacques Perrin in 2006, but Beaucastel’s 2006 Châteauneuf du Pape is performing even better from bottle than it did last year. Its dense plum/ruby/purple color is followed by a big, sweet perfume of black truffles, camphor, earth, incense, new saddle leather, and loads of peppery, blackberry, and herb-infused, meaty, black cherry fruit. Deep, full-bodied, and dense, with sweet tannin, this explosively rich Chateauneuf is a stronger effort than the 2005, 2004, or 2003. 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator “Collectible” 

Powerful, with a round, almost creamy core of blackberry and raspberry fruit all layered with cocoa, sweet toast, mesquite, and fig paste. Long and rich through the finish. Still quite primal, with lots in reserve. 

94 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

A fantastic wine, the 2006 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape fleshes out with air and displays deep, earthy aromatics of dark fruit, roasted meat, graphite, mushroom, and old wood. In the mouth, the wine displays a medium to full bodied, structured personality to go with a fantastic texture, concentrated fruit, and a long finish. If drinking anytime soon this needs plenty of air. 

91 Pointz Wine & Spirits

This is a beautiful wine, holding a perfect balance between bright, fresh fruit and savory notes of leather and spice. The blackberry flavors have a cool, foresty feel; the minerality runs deep, as smooth and overt as the galets that pave Beaucastel’s vineyards. It’s completely welcoming right now, especially with a rack of lamb. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom  

17.5/20 Pointz  Jancis Robinson MW

Very attractive overripe fruit aroma with a touch of compost and farmyard – yet not overtly bretty or funky. Balanced, rounded, succulent and finely balanced – this is a great example of the style in the prime of its life, full of fruit but showing tertiary development too. 

2005 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

Young but far from unapproachable, the 2005 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape has screaming aromatics of bloody meats, iron, and truffle that are wrapped around a gorgeously fruited core. Medium to full-bodied with beautiful structure, a solid, full mid-palate, a smooth, precise texture, and a long finish, this is a smoking bottle of wine! 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator “Collectible” 

#8 of the Top 100 Wines of 2008 

Really dense and locked up now, this is packed with dark fig, currant, and blackberry fruit shrouded by layers of tar, hot stone, bittersweet licorice, and espresso. The long, dense finish has a great tug of iron buried within it. 

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Reminiscent of the 1995, the 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape is tight, structured, and backward, with high acidity and tannin. Showing notes of blackcurrants, black raspberry, truffle, damp earth, and cedar, with medium to full-bodied richness and depth, it needs another 3-5 years to reach the early stages of maturity, at which point it will hold for another decade or more. 

94 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Ruby-red. Blackberry and cassis on the nose, with a complex set of earth, herb an,d floral qualities adding complexity. Deep and sweet, with bitter cherry and candied licorice flavors and youthfully firm tannins but no hardness. Turns more lively on the finish, picking up a spicy red berry character and leaving a long, pungent herbal trail behind. This needs time. 

92 Pointz Wine & Spirits

An elegant Châteauneuf, this is as fresh as its fuchsia color predicts, with plenty of red raspberry flavor underlined by cocoa darkness. Rose hip and herbal notes keep it feeling bright and brisk. For roast game birds. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

95 Pointz Decanter

Château de Beaucastel is located in the northeast of the appellation, and owns 100 hectares of vines that have been farmed organically for over 50 years. All possible red varieties are used for their classic red cuvée. It’s beautifully perfumed, with aromas of potpourri and dried autumn leaves. A soft style, it has generous fruit sweetness and good balancing acidity, and this is drinking very well at 12 years of age – a real pleasure. It’s very much a creature of its warm, dry, exceptional vintage, and unmistakably Beaucastel. 

18/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson

Fabulous aromas of sweet fruit, beginning of leather and then really meaty on the palate, seasoned with pepper and spice. Silky texture. Mouthwatering and elegant. Still so much more to come. 

 

2004 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

96 Pointz Wine Spectator  “Collectible” 

Thoroughly primal, with a torrent of raspberry and boysenberry fruit rushing forth. Only shows hints of its full range, with licorice, incense, graphite, and mocha flavors fluttering in the background. Has an iron-clad structure, with a long finish that shows great cut and grip. 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

 Showing brilliantly, with a deep, rich, and layered profile, the straight 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape has gorgeous black cherry, earth, underbrush, and background meatiness that gives way to a full-bodied, concentrated and pure feel on the palate.  

93 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

Rich and meaty with stunning dark fruit, licorice, truffle, and earthy notes; the 2004 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape has beautiful purity and impressive richness given the vintage. The palate is medium to full-bodied with a tight, young, and structured feel, plenty of fruit, and ripe tannins on the finish. I’d be happy to have a couple of these in the cellar. 

93 Pointz Vinous

Ruby-red. Powerful red and dark berry aromas verge on liqueur-like but are enlivened by zesty mineral and anise accents. Lush, supple, and sweet, with deep raspberry and cherry flavors, fine-grained tannins, and complicating herb and smoked meat tones. Very smooth on the finish, which is sappy, deep in cherry flavor, and impressively long. 

91 Pointz Wine & Spirits

This takes hours in the glass to reveal its potential. Then its silken texture begins to let up aromas of cedar and spice and the flavors deepen, becoming meatier even while brighter notes of red cherry begin to shine. Those flavors last, strong and long, feeling complete. Put it away for another five to 15 years. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

17.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Still quite dark crimson. Strong balsamic notes – as though they were going all out for maximum ripeness in this era. Big and beefy. Quite chewy finish after meat extract and blackberries. 

 

2003 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

95 Pointz Wine Enthusiast “Editors’ Choice”

One of the big names of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and this wine justifies the fame of the Perrin family’s property. It is a rich style, but, more importantly, it is beautifully made, structured, and dense, with red jelly fruits, a touch of vanilla, and a fat, full-bodied, but firm aftertaste. 

94 Pointz Wine Spectator

“Highly Recommended”

Young and tight, with garrigue and roasted game aromas peeking out from a core of ripe black currant, plum, and fig fruit. Lots of toast tobacco and iron as well. The finish is well-endowed with tannins, but they are ripe and pure. 

93 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Deep, dense red color. Vibrant aromas of cherry, wild herbs, fresh flowers, and minerals. Energetic and sweet, showing no overripe qualities; offers a silky, suave texture and wonderfully pure red berry, fresh plum, kirsch, and fig flavors. Those with an aversion to the funky, gamey character that can characterize Beaucastel in “typical” vintages owe it to themselves to check this out. Clearly, the Perrins know what to do with Grenache, even if it’s not their favorite grape. 

92 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

 

91 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Beaucastel’s 2003 is assertive and intense, its black fruit flavors acquiring leathery, peppery overtones. Its brooding power is complemented by a silky texture, and it finishes with ripe, suave tannins. 

90 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

One of the weaker vintages for this estate yet still outstanding, the 2003 Château de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape delivers a surprisingly fresh profile, yet ten years after the vintage, it is entering the early stages of maturity. Loaded with red and black currants, iron, beef blood, rolled stone, and garrigue on the nose, with no roasted fruit or over-ripeness, it shines on the palate with excellent depth and richness. Medium to full-bodied, supple, and integrated, with plenty of ripe fruit, it should continue to evolve for a handful of years. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

17/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW 

Bricky garnet. Smells very mature with its rich, seductive undergrowth and cigar-box peppery spice. Extremely inviting. Rounded and still a little chewy in the mouth but surprisingly fresh for a warm vintage. 

2002 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

No Wine Produced

 

2001 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

96 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

Still incredibly youthful and a touch reserved (especially when compared to the ’00), the 2001 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape still needs another 5 years to truly shine. At present, it delivers a dense, pure bouquet of meaty dark fruits, game, ripe herb, and licorice, medium to full -body, brilliant concentration, and a long, classic finish. This gradually opens in the glass so if drinking anytime soon, a short decant or longer double decant is recommended. 

96 Pointz James Suckling

Earthy, subtly leathery, tobacco, mushroom, and rosehip nuances with potpourri and violets, too. This moves more to the soil from the fruit. A pretty red and darker cherry core. Tannins echo late again. Brilliant. 

96 Points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Beaucastel has been on a terrific qualitative roll over the last four vintages, and the 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape (which Francois Perrin feels is similar to the 1990, although I don’t see that as of yet) is a 15,000-case blend of 30% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise, and the balance split among the other permitted varietals of the appellation.

This inky/ruby/purple-colored cuvee offers a classic Beaucastel bouquet of new saddle leather, cigar smoke, roasted herbs, black truffles, underbrush, and blackberry as well as cherry fruit. It is a superb, earthy expression of this Mourvedre-dominated cuvee. Full-bodied and powerful, it will undoubtedly close down over the next several years, not to re-emerge for 7-8 years.

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

Ripe and fleshy, with lots of black cherry, plum, anise, and tar flavors riding along a succulent palate. Sweet and velvety on the finish; this is drinkable now but will age easily.

92 Pointz Vinous

 Bright ruby-red. Liqueur-like raspberry, licorice, and a medicinal quality on the nose. Then quite backward in the mouth, with very primary dark berry and black cherry flavors hinting at great ripeness. Quite primary today and less animal than usual for a young Beaucastel. Elegant, slow-building finish features fine-grained tannins and excellent grip. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

17/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW 

Much more developed than the 2005. A lot more undergrowth and leather and tertiary characters. Very leathery on the palate but not at all lean. No primary fruit remaining but the fruit flesh is still there. And the tannins still surprisingly present. 

 

2000 Château de Beaucastel

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reviews

97 Pointz Jeb Dunnuck

Absolutely firing on all cylinders and with an open, borderline slutty profile, the 2000 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a dream on the nose, showing complex, meaty aromas of black truffle, spice rack, charcuterie, and garrigue. There’s fantastic intensity here and you can smell this wine as soon as the bottle is opened. Just as good on the palate, the wine sports a medium to full-bodied, ripe profile, perfect balance, and a dazzling finish that has you looking for another glass. I’m a fan and while this will no doubt continue to shine, don’t hesitate to pop bottles now.

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The opaque ruby/purple-colored 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape offers a profoundly sweet perfume of melted licorice, blackberries, and black cherries backed up by loads of glycerin, full body, and moderately high but sweet, well-integrated tannin. There is a seamlessness to the 2000 that will make it accessible early in life, and thus atypical for Beaucastel. The 1985 behaved in this manner when young, but the 2000 possesses even more stuffing. 

93 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Red-ruby. Roasted aromas of black fruits, leather, maple syrup, and mocha. Initially a bit tight on the palate, but showed a lush, seamless texture as it opened in the glass, without losing its definition. Not quite as dense as the 2001 but very full in the mouth, with a higher-pH impression. Finishes very long, with the ripe tannins coating the front teeth. 

90 Pointz Wine Spectator

Clean and fresh, bursting with fruit and spices. Full-bodied, it delivers some game, truffle, and vanilla notes. It’s distinctive and ought to reveal wonderful terroir with age, but for now, it hasn’t come together. Needs time. Drink now through 2020. 16,665 cases made.

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

 94 Pointz Decanter

A sunshine vintage resulting in early harvesting at the end of August. Reasonably sweet on the nose, with jammy red and black fruit aromas and spice notes. The palate is full-bodied and round with a fine acidity and subtle oak character. Precise, with depth of fruit and well-integrated tannins.

17.5/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW

Dried fruit, musty, dank aromas – not in a tainted way, but certainly shows its age. The fruit stays intact on the palate with dried cherry and bramble jam, plus chocolate, seared beef, and pepper spice. I’d be tempted to enjoy this soon. 

 

Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

 

Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon

Learn More About  Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon Through its Reviews.

2009 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Made entirely of Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2009 Shafer Hillside Select has a deep garnet color. Wow—it explodes from the glass with this atomic nose of crème de cassis, Black Forest cake, baked plums, and boysenberries plus hints of licorice, mocha, cedar chest, and pencil lead with a waft of garrigue. Full-bodied, the palate is a concentrated, full-on behemoth, possessing fantastic balance and expressiveness, finishing with epic length and a fantastically velvety texture. 

97 Pointz James Suckling

This is mind-blowing stuff. Notes of mint, minerals, currants, and blackberries, with hints of cedar. Full-bodied, very velvety, and chewy. This won’t be out until 2013. Winemaker believes this could be the best one yet, and I have to agree. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

This is clearly one of the greatest Shafer Hillside Selects ever. It shows incredibly concentrated blackberry, dark chocolate, and ripe cassis flavors, wrapped into impeccably rich tannins. Made from 100% Cabernet, it’s a superb example of Hillside. Tasted from the same bottle a day later, the wine was even richer and more satisfying, which is a solid indicator of age-worthiness. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

A monumental effort, offering a striking crescendo of dense, rich flavors, beginning with pure dark berry, mocha, tobacco leaf, cigar box, dried herb, and crushed rock notes. The tannins are full-strength as well, drying and gripping on the finish as they hold the road tar and cedar details in place. 

93 Pointz Vinous

Aromas of black cherry, cassis, blackberry, and licorice are lifted by a violet element. Concentrated, chewy, and penetrating, with its powerful dark fruit flavors enlivened by wild herbs, spices, and violet. Not a particularly thick vintage for this consistently outstanding bottling: as savory as it is sweet and light on its feet. The wine’s strong fruit blows past the firm, harmonious tannins on the very long back end. Still a youngster, and evolving even more slowly than I predicted a few years ago. 

 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

18/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW 

Similar geography and geology to those of SLV. 32 months in 100% new, 60-gallon French oak barrels. Very sweet blueberry and cassis with a lot of oak spice. Much finer on the palate, with finer tannins, drier and better balanced overall than the majority of these massive Cabs. Much more elegant in its freshness. 

2008 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

97 Pointz James Suckling

I can’t wait to taste this in bottle. Bright fruit, with currants and plums on the nose. A powerful and structured palate, with plenty of tannins and a long flavorful finish. This is precise, a combination of the 2006 and 2007. 

96 Pointz Vinous

The estate’s 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is one of those rare wines that looks like it will be absolutely delicious pretty much at any point in its life. Super-refined and silky, the 2008 caresses the palate with layers of deeply expressive dark fruit. The 2008 is a wine of exceptional textural finesse and pedigree. According to Doug Shafer, cool weather in the spring resulted in small clusters with high skin to juice ratios, always a plus for high quality wines. Today the 2008 does not look like a huge Hillside Select, but is rather a wine built on polish and elegance. It will be interesting to see if the 2008 fills out in bottle, or it remains more restrained in its personality. 

96 Points Wine Spectator “Collectible”

Muscular and tightly wound, yet beautifully focused and proportioned, dense and chewy, delivering rich layers of dried currant, blackberry, spice, and licorice flavors. Demands cellaring. 

94 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Rich and fragrant, this wine has all the succulent depths of black currant fruit and layers of savory, chocolate-scented tannins that cult cabernets have tried to emulate and perfect. Since 1978, this series of rocky knolls under the Stag’s Leap Escarpment have produced one of Napa Valley’s signature red wines; the generosity and concentration come naturally. This is a vibrant 2008, one that reaches over the top while staying grounded, earthy, and real. 

94 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

Another great Hillside Select from selected blocks in Shafer’s vineyard. It’s a perfect illustration of the ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’ description of Stags Leap Cabernet, with perhaps more emphasis this year on the velvet glove than the iron. 

93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Vanilla, toast, blackcurrants, graphite, earth, and foresty notes are all present in the 2008 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. It has great fruit, a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel, and quite a perfumed personality, but not quite the intensity and length of its predecessor. It could be one of those troublesome pairings where this just happened to follow an out-of-this-world compelling wine. 

 

2007 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

 

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Deep purple-black colored, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select exudes beautiful notions of violets, dark chocolate, black olives, spice cake, and cedar chest with a core of crème de cassis, blackberry pie, plum preserves, and fragrant earth plus a waft of unsmoked cigars. Full-bodied, super concentrated, and jam-packed with multilayered black and blue fruits, it has a rock-solid frame of grainy tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing long with tons of exotic spice and savory sparks. 

97 Pointz James Suckling

This won’t be out until next year and will mark 25 years of Hillside Select. Nice aromas of mint, mineral, dark fruits, and delicious currants. Full-bodied, with a soft beginning that just builds and builds. This is muscular and toned, very impressive. Save your money to get plenty of this. Thought-provoking wine. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

In keeping with the voluptuous approachability of the 2007 vintage, this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon is simply fabulous now for its flood of the ripest, sweetest blackberries, cherries, cassis, and chocolate imaginable. Especially noble is the tannin structure, firm and soft, dry and sweet, a combination of opposites. The depth is vast, and the spicy finish goes on for a long time, suggesting the wine’s concentration. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Saturated bright ruby. Very deep, dark, almost liqueur-like aromas of cassis, black cherry, cocoa powder, and mocha. A huge, chocolatey-ripe wine with an obvious warmth and compelling sweetness to its fine-grained cherry liqueur and dark berry flavors. Big but harmonious tannins spread out to saturate the entire palate on the very long back end. This wine is just now embarking on its plane of peak maturity and will probably remain there for quite some time. Some critics of flamboyantly ripe Napa Cabernets may find this wine a bit extreme (as is the case with numerous other 2007s) yet it manages to retain its balance–and its depth of fruit is extraordinary. 

92 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Lusty richness drives this vintage of Hillside Select, from vines John and Doug Shafer planted in the 1970s on a series of knolls tucked under the Stag’s Leap escarpment. It has the site’s trademark tannins, as soft and savory as a bittersweet chocolate cake. The dark cherry-scented fruit is hidden behind the oak and the tannin for now, needing a decade to show its detail. For the cellar.

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

94 Pointz Decanter

The ruby-black, unctuously-textured 2007 Hillside Select is a large-scaled wine, even by the standards of this extravagant cuvée. It bursts from the glass with ripe aromas of kirsch, cassis, blueberries, charcoal, and subtle woodsmoke. On the palate the acids are fresh, and the wine’s vast volume is nicely balanced out by mid-palate depth. This seems to bear a close kinship to the Rubenesque 2002 vintage, and is a real success in that paradigm. 

 

2006 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

95 Pointz James Suckling

Bay leaf, dark fruits, and almonds on the nose. This wine is powerful, with a full body, and with flavors of mineral, mint, and lead pencil. I’m thinking Pauillac but tasting California. A very long finish, but needs some time. 

94 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Like the best vintages of Hillside Select, this wine has tremendous structural power that remains almost imperceptible. On the surface, the tannins are pillowy soft, their supple richness surrounding a core of dark fruit. The wine is black but not hyper extracted—the layers of dark chocolate flavor seem to come from the soil rather than from oak. 

92 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

A slightly more compact version of the great Hillside, but nevertheless youthful, the 2006 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select has a dense purple color, some notes of damp earth, cedar wood, forest floor, red and black currants, and toast. Some austere tannins kicks in at the finish, but the wine is full-bodied, ripe, and rich. An outstanding effort, but not one of the monumental vintages for Hillside Select, it should be drunk over the next 20 years. 

92 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Young, tannic, and juicy, filled with sweet blackberry, cherry, and cassis flavors, and well oaked, having been aged in 100% new French barrels. Those are the raw facts. The wine itself shows the pedigree of this fine estate, and will no doubt pick up bottle nuances over the years. 

91 Pointz Vinous

Good dark red. Stubbornly reticent, unevolved nose hints at dark fruits, coffee, tar, and sea salt. Extremely backward on the palate, conveying a distinctly medicinal character to its flavors of dark cherry, tar, and dried herbs. Savory more than sweet and evolving very slowly. Finishes with substantial tannins and a repeating saline character. 

91 Pointz Wine Spectator

Firm, dense and chunky, with chewy, extracted tannins and dark berry, gravelly earth, mocha, and anise notes, this seems unevolved. No sign of fading or gaining. Ends with gripping tannins. 

 

2005 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

99 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

One of the world’s great wines and profound expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. This wine spends more than 30 months in 100% new oak, and, year in year out, has been one of the most singular and profound examples of Cabernet Sauvignon in the world. It seems Shafer began to ratchet up performance during the 1990s, and the first decade of the 21st century has provided a treasure trove of either perfect or nearly perfect wines, including the 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, and more recently the 2010, 2012 and, in all likelihood, the 2013. 

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select (about 2,000 cases produced) is another one of those ‘wow’ wines, but it does it with a sort of measured richness and restraint and extraordinary subtle character, like the Gary Cooper of Napa Cabernet Sauvignons — authentic, tall, straight-boned, but substantial and worthy of introspection. Inky purple, with a classic nose of creme de cassis, licorice, a touch of vanilla, and forest floor, the wine hits the palate with a gorgeous display of measured, but substantial fruit, body, and intensity. Not a component is out of place, and the wine remarkably pure and persuasive. Combine great winemaking with great viticulture and a special terroir, and this is the result. Readers are in the presence of genius when tasting this wine. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Bright, saturated ruby to the rim. Deep, ripe aromas of black cherry, tobacco, mocha, and earth, plus a complicating note of musky espresso. Plush, suave, and very sweet but with terrific harmonious acidity framing the dark berry, spice, dark chocolate, and mocha flavors. Wonderfully concentrated, broad, utterly seamless wine with noble tannins and outstanding length. Offers great appeal today but this may yet gain in complexity with more time in bottle. At my vertical tasting at Shafer in March, another outstanding bottle of the 2005 still needed a few more years of aging. 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

A seamless effort, very rich, polished, and sophisticated, with pure, ripe wild berry and blackberry fruit and subtle notes of cedar, spice, and mocha. A strong presence of black licorice emerges on the finish. The flavors keep on unfolding.

94 Pointz James Suckling

Menthol, eucalyptus, and dark fruits with sweet tobacco jump out of the glass. Full-bodied, with a soft velvety texture and lots of sweet, juicy fruit. Makes you think and relax. Hard to not to drink this but you should wait a few years if you can. 

94 Pointz Wine & Spirits

The texture is often what sets Hillside Select apart from other Napa Valley Cabernets, the gentleness of its tannins managing to maintain the wine’s shape and contour without flattening out. It appears to be seamless, sleek in the best sense of the word-a luxurious wine that feels authentic. Part of that is the cool, foresty mushroom flavor at the heart of the tannin; another part the beautiful balance between the tannins and the layers of dark fruit. A fine vintage of Hillside Select, this glows with the contemporary ripeness of Napa Valley Cabernet without overreaching. 

 

2004 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

100 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

A perfect score has to be considered in the context of its region. Shafer’s 2004 Hillside Select is tremendous as a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that competes with its peers at the highest levels. It’s always a fabulous wine, but in warm 2004, Shafer’s amphitheater vineyard sheltered the grapes, ripening them to perfection yet protecting the “iron fist in a velvet glove” structure that André Tchelistcheff defined as Stags Leap. This 100% Cabernet is tremendous in cassis, black currant, and mocha flavors, and the 100% new French oak provides perfect additions of smoke and caramel. 

 

99 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

This vintage shocked me when I did my retrospective earlier this year, and the 2004 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select acquitted itself brilliantly in the vertical of Hillside Selects. It was a hot year, a relatively early harvest and there were worries that the heat had stressed the grapes, and there would be a lack of physiological ripeness and nuance. Those worries have not manifested themselves in this great Cabernet Sauvignon. Inky/purple-colored with notes of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, spring flowers, and a touch of toast, the wine is opulent, voluptuous, and full-bodied with sweet tannin, just enough acidity to provide freshness, vibrancy, and delineation, and a spectacular finish that goes on 40+ seconds. 

96 Pointz Vinous

Brilliantly pure, animated nose offers scents of redcurrant, spices, cedary cigar box, and musky underbrush. Boasts outstanding thickness and depth of flavor and an uncanny balance of sweetness and acidity. At once bone-dry and incredibly plush, with the superconcentrated plum and redcurrant flavors complicated by sexy saline soil tones and a note of dark chocolate. Perhaps most impressive today on the suavely tannic, endless finish. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

This remains a bold, opulent, fleshy style, with explosive layers of spice, blackberry, cedar, and crushed rock, ending with firm, ripe tannins and touches of mocha. Tannins lock in the finish and hold the flavors in place. 

 

2003 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Solidly in the Hillside Select model, this vigorous young Cab is dramatically ripe and powerful. The flavors of red and black currants, milk chocolate, figs, and smoky vanilla erupt in the mouth, making the tastebuds jump with joy. However, there is also the structure, among the greatest in California Cabs. The acidity is fine, but the tannins are stupendously rich, sweet, and complex, practically a food group in themselves. 

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2003 is a singular style of wine, but by no means wimpy or undernourished. The 2003 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select has a dense, purple color, notes of creosote, graphite, blackberry and cassis fruit, charcoal, and scorched earth. It has a full-bodied mouthfeel and excellent purity, while some rather noticeable tannins kick in on the finish. 

93 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Elias Fernandez produces a powerful, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the hillside blocks John Shafer planted in the 1970s. The 2003 vintage is about as potent as they come, its austere, mineral structure managing to hold all the richness of tannin and crushed berry fruit. Layers of flavor begin to take shape with air, from chocolate cake to blackberries and a hint of strawberry-a complex impression that lasts. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

Big and expressive, with intense notes of dark berry fruit, cedar, crushed rock, and loamy earth, gaining depth, velocity, and texture. Impressive on the finish, where the flavors taper and weave into the tannins. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

92 Pointz Decanter

Black raspberries, creamy new oak, liquorice, and cherry compote meld in an expressive bouquet, introducing a ripe, open-knit, and flamboyant palate. While a large-scaled, full-bodied wine, this ranks as a comparative middleweight in the context of Hillside Select. 

 

2002 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

In contrast to the more linear, structured, but massive 2001, the 2002 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is pure fruit-bomb material, but stunningly proportioned, beautifully pure, with notes of melted chocolate, blackcurrant jam, sweet black cherries, licorice, camphor, and charcoal. Very full-bodied, like the 2001, but much more lavishly fruited, it is more accessible and hedonistically, as well as intellectually, satisfying. If the 2001 is the long-distance runner, this comes across more like a middle-distancer. It had performed fabulously well since it was released by the winery, and even though it’s still an adolescent in terms of its evolution, this wine is a head-turner in wine tastings, and a spectacular effort from Napa. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection” 

The impression is of a young, tannicly closed but enormously promising Cabernet. Floods the mouth with dramatic black currant, cherry, and chocolate flavors, masses of toasty, caramelized new oak, and a rich, minerally earthiness. For all the power, there’s elegance and refinement. 

97 Pointz Wine Spectator

Very young, rich, and extracted, this boasts a dense, powerful presence and tannic core flavors of blackberry, black licorice, cedar, mocha, roasted coffee, loamy earth, vanilla, and dried herb. A tour de force of flavor, ending with ripe, muscular tannins. 

96 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Brooding aromas of cassis, black raspberry, smoke, chocolate, graphite and minerals. Thoroughly ripe, rich, and tactile, but with captivating lift to its flavors of blackberry, black raspberry, cassis, and flowers. Highly impressive mounting finish saturates the palate with flavor. Already shows great sweetness, but the wine’s tight core of fruit suggests it will develop slowly and gracefully in bottle. Boasts a combination of lushness and energy that’s rare for California Cabernet. 

95 Pointz Wine & Spirits

The vines that produced John Shafer’s first Cabernet in 1978 now form the core of Hillside Select, from the small knolls surrounding the winery. They grow in a sweet spot of the Stags Leap District, farmed since the mid-eighties by Doug Shafer and winemaker Elias Fernandez; since 1991, they have consistently produced one of the top wines of the Napa Valley. Those vines yielded an intensely structured 2002, posh with supple Cabernet fruit and dark minerality in the tannins. It feels sleek even as the delicious berry flavors burst out of the tannins and last. Extremely young and fresh, this will start to reach peak drinking 10 to 15 years from the vintage. 

94 Pointz Vinous

Perfumed, liqueur-like aromas of black plum, dark berries, licorice and cocoa powder. Dense, thick, and very ripe but still a bit youthfully brooding; shows the darkest fruit character to this point in the tasting. This extremely dense, thick, youthfully brooding Cabernet finishes with serious ripe tannins and good medicinal reserve. If the 2001 is claret-like in the context of this bottling, then the 2002 is classic liqueur-like Napa Cabernet, even if it’s in a bit of a shell today. Less detailed today than the 2001 but I’d love to try these wines side by side again in six or seven years. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

94 Pointz Decanter

Shafer’s 2002 Hillside Select is a brazen, decadent wine, oozing with super-ripe blue and black fruits, smoke, and hints of chocolate and liquorice. Sumptuous and supple, it has fine-grained tannins and massive volume on the palate. This is a particularly ripe, precocious, and almost confected vintage of Hillside – not a wine for classicists, but it’s a great success in its paradigm. 

 

2001 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2001 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is the first of these back-to-back perfect wines from Shafer that, at age 13, is still a baby, but, wow, what an amazing wine. A fabulous growing season produced a wine with inky/purple black color, stunning crème de cassis notes, with additional hints of lead pencil shavings, spring flowers, cedar wood, and forest floor. It is full-bodied, sensationally concentrated, with a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, wood, and alcohol. This is a great, monumental Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that is still an infant, at age 13, going on 14. This has got at least three decades of life left in it, and probably won’t hit its peak for another 5-7 years. 

98 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”  

 

No Cabernet smells better. This is an enormously attractive, well-oaked wine constituted from the best possible fruit. In the mouth, it immediately seduces. Shafer knows it has to rise to expectations with this wine, and the 2001 does not disappoint. The fruit is spectacular, all cassis. The oak is rich, flamboyant, and delicious. Structurally, the wine has the best tannin-acid structure Napa is capable of. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

Amazing for its richness, depth, and concentration, with a wealth of flavors extending to espresso bean, mocha, dark berry, raspberry, and cedar, intense and persistent on the long, detailed finish. An immense wine that’s gracefully balanced. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Impressive bright ruby-red to the rim. Sexy, complex nose melds scents of plum, currant, dried herbs, game, coffee bean, Baker’s chocolate, and tobacco; smells sweet! Plush, sweet, and broad from entry through to powerful, building finish. Strong plum, currant, tar, graphite, chocolate, and spice flavors are complicated by soil and mineral nuances. Quite generous and thick without going over the top. This has reached its peak but should hold for at least another 10 to 15 years owing to its firm, claret-like spine of fully ripe, broad tannins. Actually less sweet on the palate than the nose suggests–and an answer to those tasters who consider Shafer’s flagship wine to be a bit too sweet and exotic. This is downright classic. 

 

2000 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

A mouthful, this wine gushes with pure, ripe Cabernet fruit. Tiers of currant, anise, blackberry, cherry, and wild berry flavors are supported by pretty mocha-scented oak and plush, velvety tannins that firm up on the finish, giving it a solid backbone, yet the persistent flavors keep pushing through. 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2000 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is another beautiful vintage from a challenging year. The brilliant winemaking and great terroir of the Hillside Select overcame the vintage deficiencies. A touch of herbaceousness is a rarity in a Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon, but one can taste it in the 2000. It adds complexity as opposed to any distraction. 

90 Pointz Vinous 

Ruby-red. Deep, slightly medicinal aromas of black cherry, mocha, and menthol. Smooth and round on the palate, with noteworthy sweetness and texture for the vintage. Coolish flavors of black cherry, currant, and tobacco. This can’t match the best recent vintages of this bottling for depth and flavor authority, but it neatly avoids the green cast and drying tannins of so many 2000 Napa Valley Cabernets.

89 Pointz Wine Enthusiast 

Extremely well-oaked, with lovely tannins that are soft and gentle, and subtle flavors of blackcurrants and herbs that finish a little thin. It’s a very good wine but certainly not on a par with the magnificent ‘99. Drink now.

 

Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon

Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

Learn More About  Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon Through its Reviews.

2009 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

98 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Made entirely of Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2009 Shafer Hillside Select has a deep garnet color. Wow—it explodes from the glass with this atomic nose of crème de cassis, Black Forest cake, baked plums, and boysenberries plus hints of licorice, mocha, cedar chest, and pencil lead with a waft of garrigue. Full-bodied, the palate is a concentrated, full-on behemoth, possessing fantastic balance and expressiveness, finishing with epic length and a fantastically velvety texture. 

97 Pointz James Suckling

This is mind-blowing stuff. Notes of mint, minerals, currants, and blackberries, with hints of cedar. Full-bodied, very velvety, and chewy. This won’t be out until 2013. Winemaker believes this could be the best one yet, and I have to agree. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

This is clearly one of the greatest Shafer Hillside Selects ever. It shows incredibly concentrated blackberry, dark chocolate, and ripe cassis flavors, wrapped into impeccably rich tannins. Made from 100% Cabernet, it’s a superb example of Hillside. Tasted from the same bottle a day later, the wine was even richer and more satisfying, which is a solid indicator of age-worthiness. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

A monumental effort, offering a striking crescendo of dense, rich flavors, beginning with pure dark berry, mocha, tobacco leaf, cigar box, dried herb, and crushed rock notes. The tannins are full-strength as well, drying and gripping on the finish as they hold the road tar and cedar details in place. 

93 Pointz Vinous

Aromas of black cherry, cassis, blackberry, and licorice are lifted by a violet element. Concentrated, chewy, and penetrating, with its powerful dark fruit flavors enlivened by wild herbs, spices, and violet. Not a particularly thick vintage for this consistently outstanding bottling: as savory as it is sweet and light on its feet. The wine’s strong fruit blows past the firm, harmonious tannins on the very long back end. Still a youngster, and evolving even more slowly than I predicted a few years ago. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

18/20 Pointz Jancis Robinson MW 

Similar geography and geology to those of SLV. 32 months in 100% new, 60-gallon French oak barrels. Very sweet blueberry and cassis with a lot of oak spice. Much finer on the palate, with finer tannins, drier and better balanced overall than the majority of these massive Cabs. Much more elegant in its freshness. 

2008 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

97 Pointz James Suckling

I can’t wait to taste this in bottle. Bright fruit, with currants and plums on the nose. A powerful and structured palate, with plenty of tannins and a long flavorful finish. This is precise, a combination of the 2006 and 2007. 

96 Pointz Vinous

The estate’s 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is one of those rare wines that looks like it will be absolutely delicious pretty much at any point in its life. Super-refined and silky, the 2008 caresses the palate with layers of deeply expressive dark fruit. The 2008 is a wine of exceptional textural finesse and pedigree. According to Doug Shafer, cool weather in the spring resulted in small clusters with high skin to juice ratios, always a plus for high quality wines. Today the 2008 does not look like a huge Hillside Select, but is rather a wine built on polish and elegance. It will be interesting to see if the 2008 fills out in bottle, or it remains more restrained in its personality. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator “Collectible”

Muscular and tightly wound, yet beautifully focused and proportioned, dense and chewy, delivering rich layers of dried currant, blackberry, spice, and licorice flavors. Demands cellaring. 

94 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Rich and fragrant, this wine has all the succulent depths of black currant fruit and layers of savory, chocolate-scented tannins that cult cabernets have tried to emulate and perfect. Since 1978, this series of rocky knolls under the Stag’s Leap Escarpment have produced one of Napa Valley’s signature red wines; the generosity and concentration come naturally. This is a vibrant 2008, one that reaches over the top while staying grounded, earthy, and real. 

94 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

Another great Hillside Select from selected blocks in Shafer’s vineyard. It’s a perfect illustration of the ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’ description of Stags Leap Cabernet, with perhaps more emphasis this year on the velvet glove than the iron. 

93 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Vanilla, toast, blackcurrants, graphite, earth, and foresty notes are all present in the 2008 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. It has great fruit, a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel, and quite a perfumed personality, but not quite the intensity and length of its predecessor. It could be one of those troublesome pairings where this just happened to follow an out-of-this-world compelling wine. 

 

2007 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

 

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Deep purple-black colored, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select exudes beautiful notions of violets, dark chocolate, black olives, spice cake, and cedar chest with a core of crème de cassis, blackberry pie, plum preserves, and fragrant earth plus a waft of unsmoked cigars. Full-bodied, super concentrated, and jam-packed with multilayered black and blue fruits, it has a rock-solid frame of grainy tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing long with tons of exotic spice and savory sparks. 

97 Pointz James Suckling

This won’t be out until next year and will mark 25 years of Hillside Select. Nice aromas of mint, mineral, dark fruits, and delicious currants. Full-bodied, with a soft beginning that just builds and builds. This is muscular and toned, very impressive. Save your money to get plenty of this. Thought-provoking wine. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

In keeping with the voluptuous approachability of the 2007 vintage, this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon is simply fabulous now for its flood of the ripest, sweetest blackberries, cherries, cassis, and chocolate imaginable. Especially noble is the tannin structure, firm and soft, dry and sweet, a combination of opposites. The depth is vast, and the spicy finish goes on for a long time, suggesting the wine’s concentration. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Saturated bright ruby. Very deep, dark, almost liqueur-like aromas of cassis, black cherry, cocoa powder, and mocha. A huge, chocolatey-ripe wine with an obvious warmth and compelling sweetness to its fine-grained cherry liqueur and dark berry flavors. Big but harmonious tannins spread out to saturate the entire palate on the very long back end. This wine is just now embarking on its plane of peak maturity and will probably remain there for quite some time. Some critics of flamboyantly ripe Napa Cabernets may find this wine a bit extreme (as is the case with numerous other 2007s) yet it manages to retain its balance–and its depth of fruit is extraordinary. 

92 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Lusty richness drives this vintage of Hillside Select, from vines John and Doug Shafer planted in the 1970s on a series of knolls tucked under the Stag’s Leap escarpment. It has the site’s trademark tannins, as soft and savory as a bittersweet chocolate cake. The dark cherry-scented fruit is hidden behind the oak and the tannin for now, needing a decade to show its detail. For the cellar.

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

94 Pointz Decanter

The ruby-black, unctuously-textured 2007 Hillside Select is a large-scaled wine, even by the standards of this extravagant cuvée. It bursts from the glass with ripe aromas of kirsch, cassis, blueberries, charcoal, and subtle woodsmoke. On the palate the acids are fresh, and the wine’s vast volume is nicely balanced out by mid-palate depth. This seems to bear a close kinship to the Rubenesque 2002 vintage, and is a real success in that paradigm. 

 

2006 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

95 Pointz James Suckling

Bay leaf, dark fruits, and almonds on the nose. This wine is powerful, with a full body, and with flavors of mineral, mint, and lead pencil. I’m thinking Pauillac but tasting California. A very long finish, but needs some time. 

94 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Like the best vintages of Hillside Select, this wine has tremendous structural power that remains almost imperceptible. On the surface, the tannins are pillowy soft, their supple richness surrounding a core of dark fruit. The wine is black but not hyper extracted—the layers of dark chocolate flavor seem to come from the soil rather than from oak. 

92 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

A slightly more compact version of the great Hillside, but nevertheless youthful, the 2006 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select has a dense purple color, some notes of damp earth, cedar wood, forest floor, red and black currants, and toast. Some austere tannins kicks in at the finish, but the wine is full-bodied, ripe, and rich. An outstanding effort, but not one of the monumental vintages for Hillside Select, it should be drunk over the next 20 years. 

92 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Young, tannic, and juicy, filled with sweet blackberry, cherry, and cassis flavors, and well oaked, having been aged in 100% new French barrels. Those are the raw facts. The wine itself shows the pedigree of this fine estate, and will no doubt pick up bottle nuances over the years. 

91 Pointz Vinous

Good dark red. Stubbornly reticent, unevolved nose hints at dark fruits, coffee, tar, and sea salt. Extremely backward on the palate, conveying a distinctly medicinal character to its flavors of dark cherry, tar, and dried herbs. Savory more than sweet and evolving very slowly. Finishes with substantial tannins and a repeating saline character. 

91 Pointz Wine Spectator

Firm, dense and chunky, with chewy, extracted tannins and dark berry, gravelly earth, mocha, and anise notes, this seems unevolved. No sign of fading or gaining. Ends with gripping tannins. 

 

2005 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

99 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

One of the world’s great wines and profound expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. This wine spends more than 30 months in 100% new oak, and, year in year out, has been one of the most singular and profound examples of Cabernet Sauvignon in the world. It seems Shafer began to ratchet up performance during the 1990s, and the first decade of the 21st century has provided a treasure trove of either perfect or nearly perfect wines, including the 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, and more recently the 2010, 2012 and, in all likelihood, the 2013. 

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select (about 2,000 cases produced) is another one of those ‘wow’ wines, but it does it with a sort of measured richness and restraint and extraordinary subtle character, like the Gary Cooper of Napa Cabernet Sauvignons — authentic, tall, straight-boned, but substantial and worthy of introspection. Inky purple, with a classic nose of creme de cassis, licorice, a touch of vanilla, and forest floor, the wine hits the palate with a gorgeous display of measured, but substantial fruit, body, and intensity. Not a component is out of place, and the wine remarkably pure and persuasive. Combine great winemaking with great viticulture and a special terroir, and this is the result. Readers are in the presence of genius when tasting this wine. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Bright, saturated ruby to the rim. Deep, ripe aromas of black cherry, tobacco, mocha, and earth, plus a complicating note of musky espresso. Plush, suave, and very sweet but with terrific harmonious acidity framing the dark berry, spice, dark chocolate, and mocha flavors. Wonderfully concentrated, broad, utterly seamless wine with noble tannins and outstanding length. Offers great appeal today but this may yet gain in complexity with more time in bottle. At my vertical tasting at Shafer in March, another outstanding bottle of the 2005 still needed a few more years of aging. 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

A seamless effort, very rich, polished, and sophisticated, with pure, ripe wild berry and blackberry fruit and subtle notes of cedar, spice, and mocha. A strong presence of black licorice emerges on the finish. The flavors keep on unfolding.

94 Pointz James Suckling

Menthol, eucalyptus, and dark fruits with sweet tobacco jump out of the glass. Full-bodied, with a soft velvety texture and lots of sweet, juicy fruit. Makes you think and relax. Hard to not to drink this but you should wait a few years if you can. 

94 Pointz Wine & Spirits

The texture is often what sets Hillside Select apart from other Napa Valley Cabernets, the gentleness of its tannins managing to maintain the wine’s shape and contour without flattening out. It appears to be seamless, sleek in the best sense of the word-a luxurious wine that feels authentic. Part of that is the cool, foresty mushroom flavor at the heart of the tannin; another part the beautiful balance between the tannins and the layers of dark fruit. A fine vintage of Hillside Select, this glows with the contemporary ripeness of Napa Valley Cabernet without overreaching. 

 

2004 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

100 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

A perfect score has to be considered in the context of its region. Shafer’s 2004 Hillside Select is tremendous as a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that competes with its peers at the highest levels. It’s always a fabulous wine, but in warm 2004, Shafer’s amphitheater vineyard sheltered the grapes, ripening them to perfection yet protecting the “iron fist in a velvet glove” structure that André Tchelistcheff defined as Stags Leap. This 100% Cabernet is tremendous in cassis, black currant, and mocha flavors, and the 100% new French oak provides perfect additions of smoke and caramel. 

99 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

This vintage shocked me when I did my retrospective earlier this year, and the 2004 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select acquitted itself brilliantly in the vertical of Hillside Selects. It was a hot year, a relatively early harvest and there were worries that the heat had stressed the grapes, and there would be a lack of physiological ripeness and nuance. Those worries have not manifested themselves in this great Cabernet Sauvignon. Inky/purple-colored with notes of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, spring flowers, and a touch of toast, the wine is opulent, voluptuous, and full-bodied with sweet tannin, just enough acidity to provide freshness, vibrancy, and delineation, and a spectacular finish that goes on 40+ seconds. 

96 Pointz Vinous

Brilliantly pure, animated nose offers scents of redcurrant, spices, cedary cigar box, and musky underbrush. Boasts outstanding thickness and depth of flavor and an uncanny balance of sweetness and acidity. At once bone-dry and incredibly plush, with the superconcentrated plum and redcurrant flavors complicated by sexy saline soil tones and a note of dark chocolate. Perhaps most impressive today on the suavely tannic, endless finish. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

This remains a bold, opulent, fleshy style, with explosive layers of spice, blackberry, cedar, and crushed rock, ending with firm, ripe tannins and touches of mocha. Tannins lock in the finish and hold the flavors in place. 

 

2003 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

96 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”

Solidly in the Hillside Select model, this vigorous young Cab is dramatically ripe and powerful. The flavors of red and black currants, milk chocolate, figs, and smoky vanilla erupt in the mouth, making the tastebuds jump with joy. However, there is also the structure, among the greatest in California Cabs. The acidity is fine, but the tannins are stupendously rich, sweet, and complex, practically a food group in themselves. 

95 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2003 is a singular style of wine, but by no means wimpy or undernourished. The 2003 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select has a dense, purple color, notes of creosote, graphite, blackberry and cassis fruit, charcoal, and scorched earth. It has a full-bodied mouthfeel and excellent purity, while some rather noticeable tannins kick in on the finish. 

93 Pointz Wine & Spirits

Elias Fernandez produces a powerful, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the hillside blocks John Shafer planted in the 1970s. The 2003 vintage is about as potent as they come, its austere, mineral structure managing to hold all the richness of tannin and crushed berry fruit. Layers of flavor begin to take shape with air, from chocolate cake to blackberries and a hint of strawberry-a complex impression that lasts. 

93 Pointz Wine Spectator

Big and expressive, with intense notes of dark berry fruit, cedar, crushed rock, and loamy earth, gaining depth, velocity, and texture. Impressive on the finish, where the flavors taper and weave into the tannins. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom

92 Pointz Decanter

Black raspberries, creamy new oak, liquorice, and cherry compote meld in an expressive bouquet, introducing a ripe, open-knit, and flamboyant palate. While a large-scaled, full-bodied wine, this ranks as a comparative middleweight in the context of Hillside Select. 

 

2002 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

In contrast to the more linear, structured, but massive 2001, the 2002 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is pure fruit-bomb material, but stunningly proportioned, beautifully pure, with notes of melted chocolate, blackcurrant jam, sweet black cherries, licorice, camphor, and charcoal. Very full-bodied, like the 2001, but much more lavishly fruited, it is more accessible and hedonistically, as well as intellectually, satisfying. If the 2001 is the long-distance runner, this comes across more like a middle-distancer. It had performed fabulously well since it was released by the winery, and even though it’s still an adolescent in terms of its evolution, this wine is a head-turner in wine tastings, and a spectacular effort from Napa. 

97 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection” 

The impression is of a young, tannicly closed but enormously promising Cabernet. Floods the mouth with dramatic black currant, cherry, and chocolate flavors, masses of toasty, caramelized new oak, and a rich, minerally earthiness. For all the power, there’s elegance and refinement. 

97 Pointz Wine Spectator

Very young, rich, and extracted, this boasts a dense, powerful presence and tannic core flavors of blackberry, black licorice, cedar, mocha, roasted coffee, loamy earth, vanilla, and dried herb. A tour de force of flavor, ending with ripe, muscular tannins. 

96 Pointz Stephen Tanzer’s

International Wine Cellar

Brooding aromas of cassis, black raspberry, smoke, chocolate, graphite and minerals. Thoroughly ripe, rich, and tactile, but with captivating lift to its flavors of blackberry, black raspberry, cassis, and flowers. Highly impressive mounting finish saturates the palate with flavor. Already shows great sweetness, but the wine’s tight core of fruit suggests it will develop slowly and gracefully in bottle. Boasts a combination of lushness and energy that’s rare for California Cabernet. 

95 Pointz Wine & Spirits

The vines that produced John Shafer’s first Cabernet in 1978 now form the core of Hillside Select, from the small knolls surrounding the winery. They grow in a sweet spot of the Stags Leap District, farmed since the mid-eighties by Doug Shafer and winemaker Elias Fernandez; since 1991, they have consistently produced one of the top wines of the Napa Valley. Those vines yielded an intensely structured 2002, posh with supple Cabernet fruit and dark minerality in the tannins. It feels sleek even as the delicious berry flavors burst out of the tannins and last. Extremely young and fresh, this will start to reach peak drinking 10 to 15 years from the vintage. 

94 Pointz Vinous

Perfumed, liqueur-like aromas of black plum, dark berries, licorice and cocoa powder. Dense, thick, and very ripe but still a bit youthfully brooding; shows the darkest fruit character to this point in the tasting. This extremely dense, thick, youthfully brooding Cabernet finishes with serious ripe tannins and good medicinal reserve. If the 2001 is claret-like in the context of this bottling, then the 2002 is classic liqueur-like Napa Cabernet, even if it’s in a bit of a shell today. Less detailed today than the 2001 but I’d love to try these wines side by side again in six or seven years. 

Bonus Reviews

United Kingdom 

94 Pointz Decanter

Shafer’s 2002 Hillside Select is a brazen, decadent wine, oozing with super-ripe blue and black fruits, smoke, and hints of chocolate and liquorice. Sumptuous and supple, it has fine-grained tannins and massive volume on the palate. This is a particularly ripe, precocious, and almost confected vintage of Hillside – not a wine for classicists, but it’s a great success in its paradigm. 

 

2001 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

100 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2001 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is the first of these back-to-back perfect wines from Shafer that, at age 13, is still a baby, but, wow, what an amazing wine. A fabulous growing season produced a wine with inky/purple black color, stunning crème de cassis notes, with additional hints of lead pencil shavings, spring flowers, cedar wood, and forest floor. It is full-bodied, sensationally concentrated, with a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, wood, and alcohol. This is a great, monumental Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that is still an infant, at age 13, going on 14. This has got at least three decades of life left in it, and probably won’t hit its peak for another 5-7 years. 

 

98 Pointz Wine Enthusiast

“Cellar Selection”  

 

No Cabernet smells better. This is an enormously attractive, well-oaked wine constituted from the best possible fruit. In the mouth, it immediately seduces. Shafer knows it has to rise to expectations with this wine, and the 2001 does not disappoint. The fruit is spectacular, all cassis. The oak is rich, flamboyant, and delicious. Structurally, the wine has the best tannin-acid structure Napa is capable of. 

96 Pointz Wine Spectator

Amazing for its richness, depth, and concentration, with a wealth of flavors extending to espresso bean, mocha, dark berry, raspberry, and cedar, intense and persistent on the long, detailed finish. An immense wine that’s gracefully balanced. 

95 Pointz Vinous

Impressive bright ruby-red to the rim. Sexy, complex nose melds scents of plum, currant, dried herbs, game, coffee bean, Baker’s chocolate, and tobacco; smells sweet! Plush, sweet, and broad from entry through to powerful, building finish. Strong plum, currant, tar, graphite, chocolate, and spice flavors are complicated by soil and mineral nuances. Quite generous and thick without going over the top. This has reached its peak but should hold for at least another 10 to 15 years owing to its firm, claret-like spine of fully ripe, broad tannins. Actually less sweet on the palate than the nose suggests–and an answer to those tasters who consider Shafer’s flagship wine to be a bit too sweet and exotic. This is downright classic. 

 

2000 Shafer Hillside Select

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews 

 

95 Pointz Wine Spectator

A mouthful, this wine gushes with pure, ripe Cabernet fruit. Tiers of currant, anise, blackberry, cherry, and wild berry flavors are supported by pretty mocha-scented oak and plush, velvety tannins that firm up on the finish, giving it a solid backbone, yet the persistent flavors keep pushing through. 

94 Pointz Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2000 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is another beautiful vintage from a challenging year. The brilliant winemaking and great terroir of the Hillside Select overcame the vintage deficiencies. A touch of herbaceousness is a rarity in a Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon, but one can taste it in the 2000. It adds complexity as opposed to any distraction. 

90 Pointz Vinous 

Ruby-red. Deep, slightly medicinal aromas of black cherry, mocha, and menthol. Smooth and round on the palate, with noteworthy sweetness and texture for the vintage. Coolish flavors of black cherry, currant, and tobacco. This can’t match the best recent vintages of this bottling for depth and flavor authority, but it neatly avoids the green cast and drying tannins of so many 2000 Napa Valley Cabernets.

89 Pointz Wine Enthusiast 

Extremely well-oaked, with lovely tannins that are soft and gentle, and subtle flavors of blackcurrants and herbs that finish a little thin. It’s a very good wine but certainly not on a par with the magnificent ‘99. Drink now.