Wines (24 View)

91 points Wine Advocate
A terrific value proposition, the organic Valle dell'Acate 2022 Sicilia Vittoria Il Frappato shows a light appearance with shiny ruby colors. This wine is fragrant and punchy with lots of vibrant cherry fruit, wild berry and sour cassis. Hints of caper or green olive also appear. You get energy and tension in this easy-drinking red. Valle dell'Acate makes a really fun bottle of Frappato that hits all the right marks.

Organic

The review is on the previous vintage.

94 points Wine Advocate
The granite soils from Montsant used for the 2021 Dido accentuates more the effect of the years, so this 2021 is sharp, austere and reductive, with a paler color. It has moderate ripeness and 12.8% alcohol, a nuanced and subtle nose with herbal and floral notes, a spicy pinch and a medium-bodied palate with some grainy tannins with a chalky texture. They play a lot with concrete, with about 40% of the volume, and the rest is in oak containers of different sizes, from 300- to 4,000-liter ones. This is a serious, mineral red that transcends its price point. 101,892 bottles and some larger formats were produced. It was bottled between December 2020 and January 2021.

Venus La Universal is the project from Sara Pérez and René Barbier in Montsant, where they work with nine hectares of their own vineyards plus 35 hectares from 14 growers, all certified organic and exclusively with those grapes (they don't buy other grapes).

#42 On The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines Of 2024!

91 points Wine Spectator
Vanilla and resin accents frame the core flavors of boysenberry, blackberry and plum in this firmly structured red. Flashes of violet and spices emerge as this fades gracefully on the long aftertaste.

So you hear it bandied about: “There are thousands of native grape varieties in Italy!” That’s true, but a lot of them are merely cute. The most serious native variety Timorasso deserves another category (and it’s white to boot). It’s utterly unique, complex, capable of aging, and transparent to where it’s grown. Walter Massa is the contadino straordinario who brought the grape back to life in the early 1980s. He remains the leading producer and go-to grower for Timorasso.

For Timorasso as a variety: It’s native and unique to the Colli Tortonesi (southeast Piemonte). Before 1980s, most growers were ripping out Timorasso and planting Cortese, as the latter produces more and Gavi was all the rage, so they could sell the grapes easily. Timorasso is one of those grapes (unlike, say, Cortese) that really is delicious and refreshing to eat right off the vine, due to its high sugar content and acidity. When Timorasso is vinified, you get lots of complexity and structure (from alcohol and from tannins – skin contact and thick skins!). Yet there’s plenty of acidity to keep things fresh and a definite counterpoint of what we call ‘honeyed minerality.’ When Timorasso is young, it can be really tight. As it ages, it loses some of its baby fat, and riesling-ish, petrol-like notes emerge. As far as terroir, Walter vinifies each vineyard separately (or tries to if he has enough tanks) and bottles a small portion of three of the vineyards separately.

Native yeasts. Maceration with skins 48-60 hours. Fermentation 18-22°C. Batonnage. Light filtration. Minimum six months bottle aging before release.

Derthona is the ancient name for Tortona, the town in southeast Piemonte after which the appellation Colli Tortonesi (Tortona Hills) is named.

90 points James Suckling
Bright and fruity with crisp notes of lemongrass, passion fruit, lemons and white grapefruit on the nose. Vibrant acidity with a medium body and juicy finish.

90 points Decanter
Bright tropical fruits, fresh goosberry, citrus and dried herbs, with a plump, generous concentration and a zingy, salivating finish.

91 pts James Suckling
A creamy and fruiyt white with sliced apples and pears, as well as some flint, parsley, and fennel undertones. Medium-bodied, fresh and satisfying. Drink now.

#39 On The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines Of 2024!

92 points Wine Spectator
A medium-bodied red, with a graphite and cigar box underpinning to the generous core of plum and cassis, which lengthens around fresh acidity, adding notes of dried sage and anise on the long finish around precise tannins. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Syrah. Drink now through 2036.

Cocodrilo comprised of 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Malbec, and 24% Cabernet Franc. It is rich, complex, and yet elegant on the palate. Coming from higher altitude regions, this wine highlights the potential of each varietal that composes it. Deep ruby ??red with darker highlights. Aromas of blueberries, plums, sweet spices, and graphite are present on the nose. Balanced medium body with firm tannins and a long finish. Aged for 15 months in French oak barrels, 14% first use. Unclarified.

Organic

Review is on the previous vintage.
93 points Wine Advocate
The varietal white 2021 Garnacha Blanca, from one of their favorite vintages, was picked early to produce the fresh profile they like, with 12.9% alcohol, a pH of 3.15 and 6.55 grams of acidity. They used grapes from the village of Fitero to ferment the must in stainless with indigenous yeasts. The wine matured mostly in concrete, a 2,000-liter Stockinger foudre and five new 500-liter French oak barrels. It's fresh, floral and elegant, with purity and balance, a spicy touch from the wood. It has a very tasty finish and even a salty twist, super fresh with lots of finesse. It has volume and freshness, the vibrancy from an early harvest and the contained ripeness and alcohol. This is the style they wanted for this wine and took the time to find it; it's more Burgundian than Mediterranean, to me. It should age nicely in bottle. And a bargain. 19,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2022

Winemaker Notes:
Deep garnet red color. An expressive nose shows red fresh fruits like plums and cherries, accompanied by soft, delicious vanilla and tobacco notes. On the palate it is fresh, with ripe, soft tannins leading a pleasant, slightly sweet finish.

Organic

100% Grüner Veltliner, grown in loess soils. Just over half of the grapes for this wine come from Silke's family's vineyards; the rest are sourced from neighboring growers in Krems and Dross. This is bottled and made in the shared Buchegger-Mayr winery. Full-bunch pressing; fermented in stainless steel at cool temperatures, aged on the lees in tank until February of the following year.

This is a straightforward, spicy Gruner; light in body and fruit-driven, this is a stellar white "table wine", able to pair well with just about anything white wine goes with.

Organic

Natural

A carbonic maceration, fermented with indigenous yeast, no filtering or fining. Estate grown grapes.

Vegan friendly.

The Traminette is a fruity and light hybrid grape based on Gewurtztraminer. It's off-dry at 1.5% residual sugar. - Winery

Vegan friendly.

Very crisp and dry, with notes of lime, and honeydew melon, this is officially the best white wine in the Hudson Valley. We won Best White in show for this at the Hudson Valley Wine Competition in 2022! - Winery

Vegan friendly.

Organic / Natural

Red and blue fruit with fine herbs and well-integrated tannins.
Our attempt to make a more structured red wine from an amazing site. Extended maceration and aging have led to beautifully integrated tannins and some more density than you may be used to in our wines. - Winery