Wines (12 View)

93 pts Wine Advocate
The Argiano 2017 Brunello di Montalcino is a wine of considerable bandwidth with lots of dark fruit, rich plum and spice. It carries medium fruit weight and concentration that proves more than enough to surround and soften the spicy oak notes and toast that also play an important role in this hot-vintage Brunello. The results are plump and slightly round, but you also get the acidity and the tannic structure of an age-worthy Sangiovese. Organically farmed fruit is selected from across the best parcels of the estate, and some of the vines are up to 55 years old. Production is 130,000 bottles, and I would recommend setting this bottle aside for near- to medium-term drinking.

Wine Advocate, 94pts. - "The 2016 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Castello di Brolio is a beautiful wine, dense, rich and lasting. The bouquet is intense and profound with layers of red and purple fruit that cede softly to spice, leather and sweet tobacco. The classic 2016 vintage is characterized by its freshness, precision and cellar-worthiness. You get all those qualities here in one very elegant but also food-friendly package. The wine is made with 95% Sangiovese and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and grapes come from a south-facing parcel at an ideal 250 to 450 meters above sea level. Some 50,000 bottles were produced."

Wine Spectator, 92pts. - "Aromas and flavors of iron, leather and earth swirl around the core of plum and black cherry in this broad-shouldered red. Dusty tannins congregate on the finish, where the flavors echo. Best from 2023 through 2037. 3,570 cases made, 200 cases imported."

95 points Vinous
The 2020 Old Hill Heritage Wine shows why this site is considered one of the very best in all of Sonoma. The pedigree is evident. A wine of volume textural depth and intensity the 2020 is a showstopper. Black cherry chocolate licorice and dark spice lend tons of complexity to this statuesque Zinfandel-based field blend. All the elements come together so beautifully. It's hard to fully capture the Old Hill with words as it really transcends descriptors. But when you taste it you know. You know you are tasting a wine from a very special place.

92 points Wine Spectator
Ripe, overflowing with red cherry and raspberry flavors backed by luscious acidity and medium-grained tannins. Offers kirsch and allspice notes that coat the midpalate, with chocolate mousse notes on the finish. Drink now through 2025

"Deep ruby red in color with scarlet highlights, Clark & Telephone opens with bountiful aromas of red fruits of cranberry and raspberry jam, laced with clove, cedar, and holiday baking spices. Bold and complex flavors of crushed ripe cherry, cranberry and blueberry pie linger on the palate. The texture is rich and lively and leads into a warm and structured finish." -Winemaker Note

91pts- Wine Spectator:
(40% pinot meunier, 30% pinot noir and 30% chardonnay) "This bright Champagne is sleek and mouthwatering, with tightly knit flavors of glazed apricot, biscuit, nectarine and verbena. Clean-cut and lacy on the finish. Drink now through 2018."

The Brut Reserve is a light, fine and harmonious champagne. Its blend is made with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier from three different years, sourced from the best sites in the Champagne region.

93pts Wine Spectator:
(45% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir and 25% Pinot Meunier; 8 g/l dosage) "A lovely rose in an almost vinous style, with mouthwatering acidity and a fine, lacy mousse carrying appealing flavors of ripe raspberry, white cherry fruit, star anise, mandarin orange peel and honeysuckle. Lightly chalky on the lasting finish. Enjoy with food. Drink now through 2020."

The production secrets and the vinification method of this cuvee go back to the origins of the House of BILLECART-SALMON and have been handed down for seven generations. The Brut Rose is a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir vinified as red wine.

Founded in the early 1990s by the Arzuaga Navarro family, the cellar stands near the Duero River, adorning a road as Castilian as the one connecting Soria and Valladolid. The building is an ode to stone, solid and rustic, forming arcades of monastic reminiscence, with towers at the sides and a belfry crowned by a weathercock at the centre. The stone in the outside and the warm elm wood inside welcome visitors, increasing the mood for special wines. Florentino Arzuaga, a great wine lover, founded Bodegas Arzuaga-Navarro after purchasing the Finca La Planta, an estate located in the town of Quintanilla de Onesimo (Valladolid), where the fauna and flora of the area coexist. With pines, oaks and Spanish cedars, wild boars and deer, Florentino realized the great potential of an estate large enough to have a horizon of its own. Then came the vines, the cellar and the wine-red wines as he liked them, with a backbone yet elegant, well-rounded yet complex. The spirit of the Arzuaga family combines an entrepreneurial tenacity with a sensibility for aesthetics and perfection.

Red wine wholly made using the Tempranillo variety. After the alcoholic fermentation, the malolactic process is carried out with 30% in barrels and the remaining 70% in tanks. The ageing takes place in extrafine and fine grain French wood, the majority in new barrels and the rest in one-wine barrels. It remains in wood for 15 months and then in bottles until it is sold.

94 pts Wine Advocate
I tasted the 2014 Macan once again, as they are holding the top wine to give it one more year in bottle before being released. It fermented in oak vats with inoculated yeasts and aged in new barrique for 16 to 18 months. They want to give this cuvee no less than three years in bottle. This 2014 was bottled in May 2016, not quite three years ago yet, but it can provide a good idea of the development the wine is going to have when it's released. It's evolving at a very slow pace; it's a tight red with plenty of tannins, and the time in bottle seems to be doing it good. There is concentration and power, as well as typicity from the variety and the zone, with that austerity from this part of Rioja. It's a serious, modern and nicely crafted Tempranillo with a touch of sweet spices and smoke. It should continue evolving nicely in bottle.

"Aromatic, with accents of bread dough, smoked almond and creme de cassis, this creamy Champagne is lightly chalky in texture and framed by firm acidity, with flavors of glazed apricot, orange blossom and rich hints of clover honey and coffee liqueur. Drink now through 2022. 11,000 cases imported." 93pts WS

62% Pinot Noir, 24% Chardonnay, 14% Meunier Only 5 to 6% red wine added due to its power Over 85% Grands and Premiers crus. Cellar aged for more than twice the time required by the appellation. Moderate, 7 to 8 grams per liter.

The Bollinger champagne House has created prestigious champagnes with character, distinguished by their elegance and complexity, since 1829. These outstanding wines are the result of rigorous attention to detail, for Bollinger accepts nothing less than excellence. Each and every detail represents a quest for a certain form of perfection.This uncompromisingly independent spirit, dedicated to unostentatious achievement, exemplifies the inimitable elegance for which the Champagne region is renowned and which has so impressed the Court of England that the House has been awarded the Royal Warrant since 1884. In 2008, for the first time in its history, the House placed its future into the care of a Chairman who was not a family member. Their choice fell on Jerome Philipon, originally from the Champagne region, who had led an impressive career with large industrial groups. The choice might be unexpected - but Bollinger has never hesitated to reject conformity for the good of the House and its wines! With the Bollinger family?????s support, Jerome Philipon has extended his predecessor?????s programme of modernisation and investment. With him, the House has continued to preserve its traditional expertise while incorporating the best of new technologies for the future development of the brand, both in terms of quality and commercial growth.

92 pts Jeb Dunnuck
The base Cabernet from this terrific estate is the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, which checks in as 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, and the balance Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. It has beautiful notes of creme de cassis, graphite, tobacco, and ground herbs as well as a dense, rich, concentrated style on the palate.

Camille Savés rosé Cuvée from the Bouzy Grand Cru terroir with a blend of two years. The NV Brut Rosè Grand Cru is arguably the most complex wine in this range. A vinous, deeply resonant Champagne, the NV Brut Rosè Grand Cru blossoms in the glass with gorgeous depth and richness. The Rosè is 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir, with the Pinot driving the wine's texture and pure sense of volume. Saves's Rosè is often one of the best, as it is again this year. Dosage was 8 grams/liter. Alc: 12%.