Events

100 points Wine Advocate
The 2020 Haut-Brion is a blend of 42.8% Merlot, 39.7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17.5% Cabernet Franc, harvested from 7th to 29th September, with an estimated alcohol of 15% and a pH of 3.8. Opaque purple-black colored, it leaps from the glass with a first wave of vibrant black raspberries, ripe blackberries and mulberries scents, followed by a powerful core of warm cassis, dark chocolate and violets, before bursting into an array of crushed rocks, iron ore, tree bark and black truffles notes. The concentrated, densely packed, full-bodied palate is not in the least bit heavy, delivering a refreshing backbone of red berry and dried herbs suggestions, framed by seamless acidity and very finely grained tannins, finishing on an epically long, fragrant earth note. Simply stunning. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

100 points James Suckling
This is a superb Haut-Brion with incredible tannins that are wonderfully fine-grained. It?????s really powerful. This is very primary with so much grape-generated tannin structure. Very, very long, going on for minutes. Seductive and friendly at the start and then takes you on at the finish with so much structure. Wine of the vintage?

100 points Jeb Dunnuck
Unquestionably one of the top wines in this impressive vintage, the 2020 Chateau Haut-Brion checks in as 42.8% Merlot, 39.7% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the balance Cabernet Franc, all of which will spend 15-18 months in 77% new French oak. Its deep purple color is followed by a thrilling nose of mineral-laced blackcurrants, black raspberries, toast, spice, scorched earth, and graphite. Possessing an almost Lafite-like elegance on the palate, it nevertheless has huge dry extract, full-bodied richness, flawless balance, and beautiful tannins. Per the spec sheet, the alcohol is an estimated 15% with a pH of 3.78, so it?????s no shrinking violet, yet it never shows a hint of headiness or being over the top. I finished my note with ?????Where can I buy some?????? I suspect this wine will require a solid decade to hit the early stages of maturity and will be a 30-, 40-, or possibly a 50-year wine.

100 points Wine Advocate
Surpassing the 2019 and rivaling the 2016 as this estate's finest vintage of the last few decades, the 2020 Montrose is a monument in the making. Wafting from the glass with aromas of violets, dark berries, licorice, loamy soil, black truffle and subtle spices, it's full-bodied, deep and layered, with a seamless, elegantly muscular profile, terrific purity and energy, beautifully powdery tannins and a long, resonant finish. It checks in at 13.7% alcohol, the same as the superb 2009, but it is even deeper, more vibrant and more complex than the 2009. This will be worth a special effort to seek out and only confirms Montrose's status as one of the contemporary Medoc's leading estates and a de facto first growth.

99 points Vinous
The 2020 Montrose was bottled in July 2022. The alcohol is 13.4%, a whole degree less than the previous year but with the same concentration (IPT is 80). It has a fabulous bouquet that delivers on all that promise from when I finally tasted the wine around a year earlier from barrel, a cornucopia of blackberry, bilberry, crushed stone, Indian ink and loamy/undergrowth scents. Very mercurial in the glass, it seems to shapeshift with every minute. The palate is medium-bodied with such a precise entry. This is far more detailed than either the 2019 or 2018, a symmetrical Montrose with unerring detail and mineralite, its silky texture belying the power underneath. This is unequivocally a brilliant wine and a benchmark in recent years. Contender for wine of the vintage. Neal Martin (2/2023)

The cognac house Chateau de Montifaud has been in the Vallet family for six generations, since 1866. With their Vieux Rouge Pineau des Charentes, the Colombard grape provides persistence and delicate fruitiness and Ugni-Blanc provides finesse, elegance and a slight acidity. The marriage of these two grape varieties lends a perfect balance to the palate, with aromas of dried fruits and almond that mingle with notes of honey.

"The wine shows a superb, golden yellow color with a beautiful luminosity and a fine and persistent mousse. The nose is clean and intense with warm, rich notes of brioche, French toast and roasted almonds. On the palate the wine is very supple and harmonious, with notes of honey and minerals on the long, sustained finish. Ruinart Blanc de Blancs is produced from a blend of 100% premiers crus Chardonnay grapes from the best of recent vintages. Grapes from the estate vineyards in Sillery and Brimont (ancestral home of the Ruinart family) are joined by carefully selected grapes from other premiers crus vineyards in the Cote de Blancs and the Montagne de Reims." Winemaker notes

85-89 Points -The Wine Enthusiast

"Tropical fruit, citrusy and mango-like aromas. Light, acidic and very tart at palate entry; the midpalate is refreshing, intensely juicy and almost sour. Aftertaste leans heavily on the tartness."

ELABORATION OF THE CELEBRATION VINTAGE
Grapes exclusively coming from the property and from a single year.
Home-made and single distillation, grape variety by grape variety.
The only Armagnac House coopering its own casks, from Gascony oak, to ensure the finest maturing process.
Complete traceability of the eaux-de-vie.
The blend differs from a year to another.
A unique range selection of rare vintages that are aged 15 to 50 years old.

98+pts Wine Advocate:
"Along with the Medoc first growths, Leoville Barton, Chateau Montrose, Sociando Mallet, and a handful of other producers, Leoville Las Cases continues to make a wine meant for very long-term cellaring. When I did my earlier tastings of the 2000, my projected maturity dates were 2012-2040, but it is looking more like 2020-2050. This full-bodied blend of nearly 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.4% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc still has a youthful ruby/purple color, notes of graphite, kirsch liqueur, black currants, and lead pencil shavings, with good acidity, the tell-tale purity, layered ripeness and intensity, and a profound finish. However, with its high level of tannin and brooding backwardness, this superb effort needs to be forgotten for up to a decade."

Organic

#99 on The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines Of 2025

93 points Wine Spectator
There’s brilliant freshness to this impressively concentrated, plump Chenin, with apple, pear, peach and star fruit notes showing ripeness yet crunchiness at the edges. Offers just the right hints of toasted, candied almond and pie crust, adding a pleasing element of decadence that’s well-balanced by a well of mineral, saline energy. Stunning. Drink now through 2040.

Organic / Biodynamic

#10 on The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines Of 2025

94 points Wine Spectator
Supple and mouthfilling, with silky tannins upholding cherry, plum and pretty lavender notes. Grilled garrigue plays out on the finish, which shows sneaky length and elegance. Seductive in feel, with impressive energy, too, for a balanced, harmonious impression. Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Mourvedre. Drink now through 2040.

Isabel Ferrando has drawn attention since her debut 2003 vintage. Despite being a newcomer to the region, leaving a career in finance to learn winemaking, she has become a leading face of Chateauneuf-du-Pape’s modern era. Fans know her wines under the Domaine St.-Prefert label, but in 2020 she began a new chapter, changing the name to Famille Isabel Ferrando. Joined by daughter Guillemette, she returned to the Chateauneuf tradition of blending her vineyard parcels into a single cuvee. Sourced from Ferrando’s original holdings in the Les Serres lieu-dit planted to Grenache, Cinsault and Mourvedre in the hottest, driest part of the appellation, it’s a wine of elegance and freshness.

93 points Vinous
The 2005 Leoville Barton has a delightful bouquet with more red fruit than the Langoa, wild strawberry, redcurrant, light cedar and wild mint. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins and modest depth, quite fresh with a slightly rustic finish. It becomes a little medicinal with time. The 2005 is cut from a different cloth to contemporary Leoville Barton but it is still worth seeking out. Tasted at the chateau. - By Neal Martin on June 2025. Drinking Window 2025-2045

96 points Vinous
The 2005 Leoville-Barton is clearly one of the wines of the vintage. Powerful and strapping in the glass, the 2005 is a big, big wine. Huge swaths of tannin wrap around a core of inky black fruit, new leather, spice, gravel, mocha and licorice. The wine's sheer density is impressive, but its balance is even more compelling. I might be temped to give this another few years in the cellar. Readers lucky enough to own it will find a thrilling, potent Saint-Julien that overdelivers big time. I loved it. - By Antonio Galloni on April 2021

100% Cote dOr fruit (Hautes Ctes de Beaune and Hautes Ctes de Nuits) - 75% Pinot Noir, 10% Gamay, 10% Aligot, 5% Chardonnay. .40 year old vines on average. Fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks. Aged 20 months on the lees

Tasting Notes: Bright, sculpted and beautifully lifted with notes of blood orange, lemon confit and hazelnut. Crispy and mouth-watering.

Organic / Natural

100% Syrah from the northern Rhone, 30 year-old vines.
Vinification Method: Grapes are hand-harvested and undergo a very long maceration at a low temperature—without destemming. The wine is fermented in wooden tanks and aged on fine lees in second-hand oak casks for eight months. The wine is bottled without filtration. The wine has a total SO2 of only 25mg/L.

Hervé Souhaut created Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet in 1993. Hervé works 5-hectares of old and ancient vines—between 50 to 100 years old. He is very fortunate to own two vineyards in the Rhône Valley just opposite the storied hills of Hermitage in Saint Joseph. This region is widely recognized as being one of the finest areas for wine production on the planet; thanks in part to its elevation, ancient vineyard sites, and southeastern and southern exposures. The domaine is located further into the hills of the Northern Ardeche in the tiny town of Arlebosc, about a 30-minute drive, winding through the hills from St Joseph. The winery is underneath the 16th century “les romaneaux” fortified farm and sits in the middle of the vines that make up the Souteronne, Syrah, and white cuvées.

Hervé works entirely on whole grape bunches and semi-carbonic maceration. His philosophy is to extract a delicate balance of tannins from the grapes, to make a wine with subtlety and finesse. This stands in contrast to many of the storied wines of the Northern Rhone that are made with much more extraction of tannin, where they are designed to be practically undrinkable in their youth, as time is needed for them to soften and open up. Hervé prefers to make a wine that is drinkable right away, but we must say his wines have such a fantastic level of purity and acidity, that the older bottles we have tasted have incredible potential to evolve into what we find to be one of the most spectacular natural wines in existence

Organic / Natural

The grapes are from old vines (60-90 years old) with granite soils and average altitudes of 400m, ocated in the "La Madone" plot in Villi??-Morgon, Beaujolais, France. The harvest is manual and the
grapes are destemmed and gently pressed. The must ferments in stainless steel tanks at controlled temperatures and the wine is aged for 10 months in French oak barrels. 13.5% abv

Having lived and worked among the ?????superstars????? of Beaujolais, Joseph Chamonard created a wonderful environment for his vines in Morgon. On the hill of Morgon, his vines stayed healthy without chemical assistance, remaining in their natural living soils alongside the packed earth and starved vines of his neighbors. Sadly, Joseph passed away in 1990, leaving his daughter Genevieve and her husband Jean-Claude Chanudet to carry on the health of his 4 hectare parcels, located in Corcelette, near the town of Ville-Morgon. With each successive vintage the duo has strictly kept to disavowing chemical treatments, in or out of the vineyards. Harvest is done by hand late in the season for full natural ripeness and complexity, with only natural yeasts used for fermentation and little else done outside of patient guidance to its natural end. The wine is made the traditional way with respect to nature. As some of the others of his era passing on as well (Marcel LaPierre in 2010), there is a sense that the pattern set here in Beaujolais will be altered. With so much natural beauty remaining, it will take more than a gang of four to do so, after all, it's now almost tradition.

Orange Wine

Made from 100% Semillon harvested from 25-year-old vines, and allowed four weeks of skin contact.

95-97+ points Jeb Dunnuck
I was able to taste the 2022 Ch??teau Beychevelle on multiple occasions, and it never failed to impress me. Based on 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot that will see 18 months in 70% new oak, it's one of those wines that makes you stop and say "wow" due to its purity, depth, and texture. Sporting a dense purple hue as well as lots of blueberry and black cherry fruits, it's full-bodied and has a layered, seamless mouthfeel, building yet gorgeous tannins, and subtle background notes of crushed violets, flowers, and graphite. This is a sensational effort from director Philippe Blanc.

95-97 points Vinous
The 2022 Beychevelle was picked between 12-29 September at 36hL/ha, matured in 70% new oak. It has an intense bouquet with black cherries, blueberry and touches of cassis and violet. Not as ostentatious as some other Saint-Julien wines at this early stage, but delineated, and it positively brims with energy. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit framed by beautifully-sculpted tannins. The 2022 is very harmonious, satin-like in texture, and gently fans out toward the finish. It ends up being one of the most seductive Beychevelles I have tasted from barrel, one not to be overlooked. Chapeau, Mr. White! 14.08% alcohol. (Neal Martin)

92 points Vinous
The NV Brut Nature Blanc de Noirs, an unusual blend of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Meunier, is so expressive right out of the gate. Dried pear, spice, mint, crushed leaves and kirsch caress the palate. All the elements are so well balanced. This release is a blend of 2022 and 2021 in equal parts. No dosage. Disgorged: January 2024.

50% Pinot Meunier, 50% Pinot Noir.
Grapes are picked by hand when fully ripe, and traditionally pressed. Fermented and aged in barrels and foudres on the lees. 100% malolactic fermentation, minimum use of sulfur (25mg total sulfur). Aged sur lie for 6 months before bottling. 24-30 months sur lattes, zero dosage. Disgorged April 2024

Jean-Baptiste Laherte set up the family estate in 1889, planting most of the vines in the village of Chavost, which was to become Chavot. The estate gradually grew over generations, and covers today over 11 hectares through the Champagne region. The sixth and seventh generations are now working together to create wines that are just like them - pure, sincere and authentic. They share their experience and combine their efforts to make the most of this beautiful heritage. Since 2005, Aurélien Laherte - the seventh generation - has been giving a new dimension to the estate, while following in the footsteps of his father Thierry and his uncle Christian, the Laherte brothers. Passionately, they promote the family’s values and continue to bring the best out of the terroir.

A blend of 50% Chenin Blanc, 25% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay, this Champagne-method sparkler is a stellar value for the money! Lean and crisp with a fresh minerality, it shows green apple, pear, and white nectarine fruit with a gentle mousse and medium body. An excellent value that way over-delivers for the modest price!

Organic

93 points Jeb Dunnuck
Not yet bottled, the 2022 Châteauneuf Du Pape is liquid Provence in a bottle, offering a massive nose of mulled red and black cherries, peppery garrigue, leather, and smoked meat-like aromas and flavors. With medium to full-bodied richness on the palate, it has solid overall balance, a meaty, mouth-filling texture, and enough tannins to warrant short-term cellaring. The blend is 70% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre, and the rest a mix of varieties, and this cuvée will spend two years in foudre before bottling.

Perhaps even better than this estate’s 2000 or 1996, one may have to go back to the monumental 1990 to find a Grand-Puy-Lacoste this classic and well-endowed. It is a beautiful, dense purple-tinged effort displaying a sweet, pure perfume of creme de cassis, flowers, and wet stones, fabulous ripeness, a full-bodied, fleshy attack, mid-palate, and finish, and gorgeous length as well as richness. There is not a coarse, hard edge to be found in this well-endowed, tannic beauty. A fabulous value in the scheme of 2005 Bordeaux prices, it should be at its peak between 2014-2030+. - WA(93-95)

Organic

90-92 points Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the reds, the 2020 Gigondas La Gille is the base Gigondas and has a medium-bodied, supple, seamless style as well as classic spice, peppery herbs, and red and black fruits. It’s well worth seeking out and should easily be an outstanding wine.

The grapes for this cuvée (95% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Sémillon) come from a four hectare hillside parcel of clay and limestone soil with a full southern exposure that overlooks the Garonne River in Sainte-Croix-du-Mont. The vines have an average age of 25 years. After a manual harvest, the grapes are fermented in temperature-controlled vats and left on the fine lees for six months prior to bottling.

Comprising roughly 60% of Fleury’s production, the workhorse Blanc de Noirs Brut is 100% Pinot Noir from the area’s distinctive Kimmeridgian soils. Our inaugural release is built around the 2019 harvest, which comprises 45% of the blend; 55% of the blend is from a 65-hectoliter oak foudre—a perpetual reserve of Pinot Noir dating back to 2006. Bottled for secondary fermentation in June 2020 and disgorged in November 2023 with 3.2 grams per liter of dosage, this release of the Blanc de Noirs Brut offers stunning balance and depth, leading with crunchy apples, cinnamon, and subtle notes of pastry, and featuring a saliva-inducing mineral undergirding which broadens on the wine’s lengthy finish.