James Suckling (98)

This is intense and complex yet subtle with fantastic aromas of rose petal, plum, clove and fresh mushroom. Hints of stems. Full body, focused and polished with a linear line of tannins and fabulous length. A beauty. Better after 2021 but already a joy to taste.

Decanter (99)

Created in 1876 to satisfy the demanding tastes of Tsar Alexander II, Louis Roederer’s Cristal has since become a symbol of luxury all around the world. Produced only during the best years, it’s made from 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, the grapes coming from 45 of the finest lieux-dits in the region. 2013 was a late bloomer, with flowering only taking place in July after a cool spring. The summer was ideal with long periods of dry and warm weather. One third of the wine is aged in oak and there’s no malolactic fermentation. Vincenzo Arnese: Packed with elegant yet powerful aromas of ripe orchard trees that merge with brioche and dry cookies. This is a harmonious and well-defined Champagne with integrated residual sugar and astonishing acidity. Divine! Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW: Lemon coloured with a pink hue. Like a blanc de noirs, with cherries and white fruit aromas. Balanced and suave. Goes from less to more, with an exceptionally long and complex finish. Amanda Barnes: Appealing notes on the nose of pastry dough and apple tart that are very open. On the palate there’s beautiful concentration with lingering savoury notes. Minerally and sophisticated. Nominated by Peter Liem

Vinous (99)

Tasted from magnum, the 2013 Cristal Rosé is ravishing. Dense, creamy and powerful, the 2013 captures all the qualities of the vintage, specifically the interplay of rich fruit from the warm summer and cooler inflections from a year that started late and ended late with a rare October harvest. Today, the 2013 is deep and beautifully seamless, but it is also young – far too young to be at its best. Dosage is 6.5 grams per liter, a bit less than for the standard bottlings, a decision taken to balance longer aging on the lees and a bit more residual sugar that is always left in the magnums after fermentation. Readers who can find the 2013 in magnum will experience one of the greatest thrills in wine.

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 Enthusiast (96)

Exquisitely pure and aromatic notes of baked pear gleam in the glass along with something heady and ethereal that is reminiscent of freshly cut citrus zest. The off-dry palate has a balm-like viscosity and brings out honeyed ripe Mirabelles, but it all happens at such a gentle clean pure level that this feels like sublimated ripe fruit framed by vivid citrus. Despite some residual sweetness this stays fresh. This is a wine that explains in one small sip and sniff what a good field blend can be all about. It is lovely now and only just starting to evolve. Drink until 2040.

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.

Vinous (90)

Bright medium red. Sexy spicy lift to the aromas of red raspberry, underbrush and wild herbs. Broad, dry and classic in a savory Burgundian style, conveying a restrained sweetness to its flavors of raspberry, spices and earth. This very suave, long wine finishes with fine-grained tannins and lovely perfumed lift. Seems more firmly structured than the 2012 version but remains light on its feet.

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.

Wine Enthusiast (98)

Hailing from one of the most celebrated vineyards in the entire denomination, this focused beauty boasts layers of complexity and depth, starting with its classic Nebbiolo aromas of forest floor, new leather, violet and wild berry. Balanced and firmly structured, the palate shows tension, power and elegance, delivering succulent Morello cherry, crushed raspberry, tobacco and licorice alongside firm, aristocratic tannins. It's still young but already beautifully balanced, with bright acidity.

Wine Enthusiast (96)

All you need is a few swirls of the glass to release the perfumed aromas of wild berry, forest floor, new leather and crushed herb. The palate shows precision and finesse, offering red cherry, cranberry, baking spice and tobacco set against taut refined tannins and bright acidity. It's still youthfully austere but will bloom with more bottle aging.

Vinous (93)

Pale bright yellow. Pear, apple and stone on the nose. Juicy and intense on the palate, showing lovely energy and minerality. A major step up in intensity and length from the Charmes, displaying lovely definition and a saline quality. Offers a rather refined texture, with its harmonious acidity well supported by flesh. Finishes with good lingering fruit and stone flavors.

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.

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+.

Decanter (100)

I love the 2012, but honestly the 2013 just has the edge, because it is just as concentrated and full of fruit but acidity and floral nuance balances out the richness. Dark deep rosemary spice and black olive paste deepens the flavours through the mid-palate and you just have to hang on as this goes spiralling through, drawing the flavours out to a lengthy finish. 2% Malbec, 6% Petit Verdot completes the blend. 18 days skin contact.

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.

Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (93)

Grabs you from the first moment your nose hovers over the glass. Smudged charcoal runs into raspberry, underbrush and mandarin orange peel that speaks of Tuscan sun. Excellent quality, good persistency in the glass as it stretches out through the palate. Everything feels in balance, and this provides another indicator that 2020 is a great vintage in this corner of Italy - Le Volte is (almost) 100% Merlot but has freshness and nuance. Director Axel Heinz, oenologist Olga Fusari.

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.

Wine Advocate (98)

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard displays loads of charcoal, barbecue smoke, blueberry and blackberry fruit, an opulent, full-bodied mouthfeel, and hints of charcoal and subtle oak in a full-bodied, multi-dimensional style. Drink it over the next 20 years.

Wine Advocate (100)

The second perfect score I have given to a Hobbs Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (the other was the 2002), the 2013 is as spectacular as his 2002 was. There are 638 cases of this massive wine that comes across like a first-growth Pauillac. Lead pencil shavings, cedar wood, blueberry and blackberry liqueur as well as hints of forest floor and tobacco leaf are all present in this fragrant, sumptuously textured, full-bodied, massively rich yet sensationally well-balanced Cabernet Sauvignon. It has a finish of well over 55 seconds. This is amazing work, and interestingly, I believe Hobbs was the first to offer a Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard designated Cabernet Sauvignon.

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.

Wine Advocate (96-98)

I was even more impressed by the 2020 Châteauneuf du Pape Cuvée Réservée than the 2019. Boasting crazily complex floral scents, garrigue, raspberries and cherries, this is one incredibly perfumed example of Pegau. Medium to full-bodied, silky, elegant and long, this is quintessential Pegau.

Matthew Jukes (19)

Drawn from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Padthaway, this is nothing short of an awesome Bin 389 and the Cabernet fruit that would have made it into both Bin 707 and Bin 169 had it been imperceptibly finer is shining like a beacon in this wine. The glorious flavours are so perfect and balanced, and there is spectacular refinement here. I have long since stopped looking for the weld between these two noble red grapes in this legendary The Great Australian Red blend because it is second nature for these two varieties to fuse perfectly in this wine.