Wine Advocate (93)

The Ornellaia 2020 Bolgheri Rosso Le Serre Nuove dell'Ornellaia (a proprietary blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) is a generous and darkly toned red blend that has the extra fruit fiber, sweetness and generous plumpness of a warm vintage. The fullness of the fruit is on full display, but in a very relaxed and natural manner. The wine never feels like too much. The tannins are yielding and velvety, and this purebred Tuscan red wraps thickly over the palate. It's poised for near- and medium-term drinking.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (86)

Made from 10 plots covering 13 ha, vinified and aged in a mix of stainless steel, concrete, demi-muids and foudres for one year, then all is blended in tank before bottling in January. A fairly full yellow in colour with some sunshine alongside the definite reductive character. The bouquet grows in richness, with ripe apple notes. A juicy quality of fruit, even a little bit buttery, salted butter for sure. 13.2% alcohol.

Vinous - Antonio Galloni (100)

The 2020 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a total stunner. For the first time I can remember, Les Carmes Haut-Brion marries all of its elements so well that nothing stands out. In the past, the high percentage of Franc and/or the whole clusters were evident. The 2020 is the first modern vintage in which all the elements are so well balanced. Dark red/purplish fruit, rose petal, mint, lavender, dried herbs and incense all build in a ravishing Pessac-Léognan that will take your breath away.

Decanter (94)

Stands out from La Chenade in the vintage, with its velvet texture and a more serious sculpted feel overall. Tobacco and liquorice notes besides black cherry and raspberry fruits, good tension, serious but with Lalande-de-Pomerol unfussy appeal. 3.72pH. A yield of 38hl/ha.

Wine Advocate (93-95)

Made from 100% Merlot, the 2020 Les Gravieres has a deep purple-black color, rolling out of the glass with ready-for-business scents of plum preserves, baked black cherries and blueberry pie, plus hints of violets, clove oil and camphor, with a waft of tree bark. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers velvety tannins and a lively backbone to support the generous black and blue fruits, finishing long and spicy.

Fulfilling even the refined palate of the most insatiable vinophile, the Les Horees Bourgogne Aligote En Couzelain 2020 is a superbly crafted, spirited, and eloquent expression of the hallowed terroirs of Bourgogne (Burgundy). It is cultivated by Les Horees, a remarkable vineyard revered for its commitment to organic and biodynamic practices, and respect for the environment.

The wine is harvested from the tiny En Couzelain vineyard plot, a place of pure calcareous soil blessings that give this Aligote its indomitable character. Aged 'sur lie' to augment richness, this hand-harvested varietal undergoes stringent sorting to ensure optimal purity and natural fermentation.

The Les Horees Bourgogne Aligote En Couzelain 2020 reveals a generous bouquet of citrus and white flowers, leading to a concentrated palate that resonates with delightful freshness, minerality, and an admirable, lingering finish. This is a limited-production wine, making each sip an indulgence in exclusivity and grace.

Wine Advocate (95)

The red flagship 2006 Viña Tondonia Reserva was inspired by the vineyards of the Médoc but produced with local grapes, 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho, 5% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo, which achieved 13% alcohol in 2006. It always matures in used American oak barriques for some six years. The oldest of all the reds I tasted, it was also the one with more freshness, which speaks to the quality of the vineyard. This takes the lion's share of the 400,000 bottles the winery produces, with some 220,000 bottles filled over a period of 12 consecutive days in May 2014.

Vinous - Antonio Galloni (97)

The 2006 Cristal is a rich, explosive wine that captures all of the natural radiance of this warm year. Ample and full-bodied, the 2006 is one of the more extroverted recent Cristals. As such, it will drink well now, even though it has more than enough body to drink well for another 20 years or more. This shows real density and tons of character. It’s a big wine. “In retrospect, we might have preferred a lower dosage, but the wine was quite difficult to balance in blending, so we had to go for a higher dosage,” Lécaillon adds. Dosage is 9 grams per liter. Disgorged: 2014.

Vinous (92-94)

The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet Virondot 1er Cru, which unlike the other Premier Crus was taken from barrel, has a lovely bouquet with hazelnut, orange rind, wet granite and just a touch of praline. The palate is very well balanced with an irresistible peachy entry that segues into a gorgeous quince-tinged finish. Often one of the Domaine best offerings, this Virondot is another to add in a succession of great wines from this climat.

Wine Advocate (97+)

The 2020 Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese *** (Golden Capsule) is precise and clear on the concentrated, remarkably fresh, lemon-scented and zesty nose. Precise and fresh on the palate, this is a savory, enormously salty and zesty Auslese with great definition and a salivating character yet (still?) not the pristine and noble elegance of the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese ***. The finish is stimulating due to its freshness and grapefruit bitterness. A promising Sonnenuhr that is still on its way. 7.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 49 22 in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (97+)

The 2020 Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese *** (White Capsule) is deep, super intense and aromatic in its precise and elegant fruit but also refined and nuanced, with slate and chamomile flowers highlighting this utterly complex yet pure and "classic," fruity bouquet. Pure and fresh on the palate, this is a precise, crystalline and saline, very elegant and salivating Sonnenuhr that will need some years on the bottle to refine. The finish is very intense, aromatic and precise, revealing a crunchy slate character and mouth-watering salinity. A great dry Sonnenuhr from Wehlen and incomparable with any WSU I know. 12% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 52 21 in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (93)

The 2020 Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett (Golden Capsule) offers an intense, pure, deep and finely flinty nose that is still discreet and but very fine. Lush and savory on the palate, this is a sweet, fresh and zesty WSU with precise and linear mineral acidity and a salivating finish that indicates excellent aging potential. 7.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted from AP 30 21 at the domaine in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (94)

The 2020 Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese (Golden Capsule) started pretty reductive and timid on the nose when I first tasted it straight from the bottle, but it became beautifully pure and refined after three days of aeration. Lush and voluptuous on the palate, this is an intense and sweet yet also very fine, balanced and elegant, subtly concentrated and finely tensioned Spätlese with good mineral length and fine salinity on the finish. The 2020 drinks very beautifully today (if you like it sweet and refined), but it will still taste fine in 10 to 15 years and be more complex. 7.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 18 21 in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (98)

The dry 2020 Riesling Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese *** (White Capsule) shows great purity paired with intensity, depth and noblesse, exhibiting ripe and concentrated but savory Riesling fruit intertwined with flinty notes of finely weathered blue slate and lush peach aromas. Rich and intense but highly refined and elegant on the palate, this is a crystalline, very delicate and saline-finishing ZSU with great terroir expression and balance. 12% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 30 21 in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (99)

The 2020 Riesling Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese *** (Golden Capsule) opens with a highly delicate and filigreed bouquet with beautifully clear nuances of apricot and very fine slate on the deep and complex, beautifully refined and precise nose. On the palate, this is a tender, highly finessed and saline Auslese with a concentrated but balanced and seamless texture. Quite sweet still but utterly refined and noble, this delicate, saline and crystalline Auslese doesn't show anything like power or confiture but celebrates its elegance, finesse and definition. A fabulous, pristine Auslese. 7.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 28 22 in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (95)

The 2020 Riesling Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Kabinett (Golden Capsule) opens with a deep, pure and complex bouquet with concentrated fruit and lemon aromas intermingled with delicate and coolish slate aromas. Full-bodied, crystalline and fresh on the palate, this is a pure, saline and terribly fresh but mouth-watering ZSU Kabinett with fine and precise acidity and a tight and tensioned finish that needs some years to refine. 7.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 33 21 in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (95)

The Masseto 2020 Massetino (Merlot with a touch of Cabernet Franc) is extremely generous and rich. This wine puts it all out there in full view with a bouquet that is stitched together with ripe blackberry and black cherry preserves, black stone or pencil shaving, sweet spice, cigar, smoke and tar. This was a warm and sunny vintage, and you feel the power of those sunbeams locked within the dark, opulent and concentrated fruit on display here. This is a special treat, and the 2020 edition offers a clear identity for Massetino. This vintage comes close to out-powering the bouquet of the 2019 Masseto also hitting the market now.

Vinous (93)

Produced from a flint site that needed to be blown up to make the terroir and made from relatively young vines, this is initially a tender and supple style with a whiff of gunsmoke/flint, a taut line of precision that runs through its core, a mere hint of green herbs reminding you that Pouilly is a Sauvignon producer and even a hint of white pepper. It's a powerful style that has an attractive sense of bitterness holding it together. At just 13%, this is wonderfully balanced, aromatic and driven in this vintage. You may even feel this sense of spice that warms the palate, almost like you've had a warming Indian curry - it's not the alcohol but something else - maybe it's the lint. Unique and intriguing.

Decanter (94)

So full of deeply-drawn berry fruit, fresh and juicy with touches of liquorice bud and rosemary, thirst quenching and yet thirst inducing in that amazing way that limestone can both refresh and make you thirst for more at the same time. An excellent Moulin St Georges, and such a step up from the more sandy soils that you find at Fonbel and the two Simard estates in this year's range of Vauthier-owned wines that this alone can help you understand how to navigate 2020.

James Suckling (98)

This is amazing traditional Rioja with a complexity and beauty of ripe fruit and long aging. Unique. Full body, ultra-fine tannins, tobacco, vanilla, plums and prunes. It lasts for minutes on the palate. Three years aged in oak and three years in bottle. 80% tempranillo with the rest of the classic varieties. All from high altitude vineyards.

Greg Sherwood MW (95)

Bottled after 12 months, this is a very, very pretty vintage with lower yields but also beautiful fruit purity, precision and a wonderful fruit – acid balance. The aromatics are ripe, succulent and opulent showing honeysuckle, white blossom, lemon cordial, dried herbs and lovely white peach and pineapple pastille notes. Nevertheless, the stand out feature on the palate is undoubtedly the textural sophistication, harmony and chalky minerality combined with super tangy acids bursting with lemon rock candy, white peach and crystalline citrus flavours. Simply an incredible intensity with a harmoniously weightless balance combined with a long, piercing finish. This is definitely a noticeable step up on previous vintages and an incredible achievement for the Mullineuxs! Drink now to 2034+.

Vinous - Stephen Tanzer (90-93)

Good deep red. Slightly reduced aromas of strawberry, smoke, mocha and minerals. Supple and sweet, but with a peppery element and firm tannic spine giving shape to the raspberry and strawberry fruit. Finishes solid, aromatic and long, with tannins that reach the front teeth.

Matthew Jukes (20+)

An long-forgotten image flashed into my mind when I first tasted this wine. It took me back to a visit, as a child, to a stately home. Goodness knows where this place was, but I remember walking down a long corridor when a huge door opened to my left. As I walked past, I caught a glimpse of the most glamorous and beautifully decorated room beyond the person holding the door ajar. The door closed, and I passed by, but this image has stuck with me ever since. This momentary glimpse of incredible splendour is echoed in this magnificent wine. It starts midnight black in the glass, then as one focuses on the surface, can one see stars? Interestingly, it finishes black, too, in the form of ultra-fine sooty tannins that caress the taste buds as the flavour senesces. Between these two moments of perfect calm, there is layer upon layer of splendour and magnificence. The keyword for this vintage is ‘proportion’, as I found out half an hour through the presentation. It is an inspired choice because every element of 2020 Ornellaia is in scintillating proportion. 2020 Ornellaia represents more than harmony or balance and more than composure and equilibrium – it is truly in perfect proportion. In fact, I have never tasted a vintage of Ornellaia like it. There is a sense of greatness here, both in the intensity of the fruit and also its freshness and lift on the nose and palate – it is astonishing. The Cabernet theme (the blend is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot) is dominant both in the primary fruit notes but also in the signature flavours. Merlot adds glossiness and also traction, while Cabernet Franc appears to add grace and also crispness and aromatic flourishes. Petit Verdot acts as the invisible welds that pin this magnificent structure together – a complete three-dimensional flavour with no apparent flaws whatsoever. This wine will undoubtedly drink early in its life, given the silkiness and generosity on display, but it will not genuinely get into its stride for a decade, and I feel it will take another decade for it to blossom fully. My childlike fascination with today’s glimpse into the glass will no doubt grow into a full-blown stroll around this wine with the door flung open wide in years to come. This wine will prove to those with the good fortune to own it that its best is yet to come, so be patient in spite of its early allure. Until then, I do not doubt that it is a work of perfect proportion, so I am delighted to award it my first-ever perfect score for Ornellaia.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

One of the whites of the vintage, the 2020 Château Pape Clément Blanc is based on 62% Sauvignon Blanc, 33% Semillon, 4% Sauvignon Gris, and the remaining 1% Muscadelle, all of which was raised in a mix of new and used oak. This beauty stopped me in my tracks and offers a massive nose of honeyed limes, white flowers, tropical fruit, crushed stone, and orange marmalade. With the vintage’s vibrant sense of freshness, full-bodied richness, a stacked mid-palate, and a fabulous mouthfeel, this truly sensational white is an incredible achievement, and hats off to the team at Pape Clement! Give bottles 2-3 years and enjoy over the following two decades or so.

Matthew Jukes (18.5+)

With epic balance and stunning poise, La Maison Bleue is a Burgundian-shaped Hermitage in 2020, making it all the more intriguing and memorable. Like the others in this portfolio, the control here is remarkable, and the weight and length are astounding, too. Iodine and menthol hints coupled with garrigue and sanguineous moments add drama and detail to the sleek black core, but this is not an over-ripe or over-enthusiastic wine but a measured and contemplative soul. Delicious.

Matthew Jukes (18.5+)

Drawn from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, Padthaway and Wrattonbully, this is a seriously focussed and complete Bin 407 with impressive length, and it manages to retain control to the very end. There was no Bin 169 or Bin 707 made in 2020, so this wine (and Bin 389 below) has scooped up the very best Cabernet from the estate, and there is no doubt it is a very special creature indeed. Delicious and savoury, the tannins pinch the palate, and it remains reassuringly dry and firm while on the finish, allowing the palate to open up beautifully on the nose. This is a huge success in 2020.

Wine Advocate (98+)

Made from fruit coming predominantly from the Barossa Valley this year (97%) and containing 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2006 Grange has been added to my list of favorite recent vintages. Deep garnet-purple colored, it’s still a little youthfully mute, offering notes of warm cherries, black currants, anise, coffee and toast with underlying hints of soy, yeast extract, black olives and Indian spices. Tight-knit and solidly structured on the medium to full bodied palate, the concentrated fruit is densely coiled around the firm grainy tannins and very crisp acidity at this stage, but promises something very special in the years to come. It finishes very long, complex and layered with the cedar poking though the fruit purity. Patience is required for this vintage; it should begin opening out around 2016 and drink to 2030+.

Wine Advocate (95)

The 2020 Inseparable comes from a warm and dry year, when they picked earlier and achieved a wine with lower alcohol than the 2019 that I tasted next to it, 14% here versus 14.5% in 2019—half a degree that was noticeable. It's juicier and more approachable too, and it feels fine-boned and balanced, with good acidity. Since 2019, the wine is kept unoaked, fermented and matured in concrete for 12 months. It's a more approachable vintage with fine-grained tannins. 6,000 bottles were filled in February 2021, as it was a lower-yielding year.

Wine Advocate (99)

The 2020 La Craie was also picked earlier, and the wine achieved lower alcohol (14%) than the 2019 through fermenting the destemmed grapes in their new crylon vats. It matured in used 225-liter barrels for 16 months, the same barrels they have always used from the beginning. It's a less austere expression of LaCraie, more open, aromatic and gentler but keeping the personality, the delicate tannins and the DNA from the place, the large bones with little meat. Great effort for the vintage. 912 bottles were filled in December 2021.