Vinous - Antonio Galloni (94)

The NV (2017) Brut Nature Amplitude is 100% Chardonnay from old vines in Vrigny and Janvry. It is also one of the most impressive wines I have tasted from Lamblot. There's terrific energy and plenty of cut, not to mention tons of character. Readers should find a powerful, broad Champagne built on textural richness and saline-infused vibrancy. The 2017 finishes with real palate-staining intensity. The style is a bit rustic and assertive, but it all works. Disgorged: February 7, 2022.

James Suckling (98)

This is a selection of the estate-vineyard pinot noir that is planted on a solid sheet of parent rock. It has an air of restraint from the first impression of crushed roses and violets with some sappy, fresh and attractive leaves and succulent plant notes and plenty of finely fragrant spices, cocoa, blueberry and dried dark cherry. The palate has a very smooth-honed tannin texture with cherry-pip flavor and a very silky, polished mouth feel. The grain of tannin is super tight and lustrous. The core of this intense tannin creates a sensation of enlivened tension that sets this wine apart, not only in the Antica Terra family, but from the vast majority of wines per se. It is so expressive, within a focused spectrum of characters, and has such energy and presence. A striking expression of pinot noir. Try from 2024.

James Suckling (99)

This is big and powerful, without being ripe and heavy. So much apple, stone, and hints of toffee. Aromatic. Full-bodied, layered and framed with phenolic tension and a great finish. Muscular and agile at the same time. One of the best I have tasted. Drink or hold.

Wine Advocate (97)

From a warm and sunny vintage that produced darkly concentrated fruit, the Tenuta Guado al Tasso 2017 Bolgheri Superiore Guado al Tasso is a teaser and a super pleaser. This is one flashy wine. This carefully calculated blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc and 15% Merlot pours from the bottle with a beautifully saturated and rich color. I double-decanted my sample before writing this review, and the wine's aromas showed immediate harmony and intensity. The wine seduces and flirts with all your senses. This vintage caps many years of study regarding blending: The Merlot is slightly decreased here, and the Cabernet Franc is slowly taking on a more important supporting role. The Petit Verdot that was used as a peppery accent two years ago has now been removed altogether. The results are pliant, seamless and fluid, and that's the big takeaway here. The wine is bountiful, round, supple and full-bodied. Unless you are decidedly not a fan of this style, there's nothing not to love. I had anticipated more tightness in terms of possible hot-vintage tannins, but I am very pleased by the general integration of the mouthfeel. The Guado al Tasso vineyards are located not too far from the sea, at a low elevation of about 60 meters above sea level. The soils are alluvial with a unique mix of limestone clay and sand, with pockets of rocks and are generally known as the Bolgheri Agglomerate. Some 120,000 bottles of this vintage hit the market in February 2020.

James Suckling (94-95)

A focused and tight red with a currant, blackberry and mineral character. Medium to full body with tight and pretty tannins. Shows class in this vintage.

Wine Orbit (98)

Offering graceful power and immense complexity, the wine shows dark cherry, dark mushroom, floral, fragrant spice and toasted almond characters on the nose with nuances of charcuterie and floral. It’s elegant and sophisticated on the palate with exceptional depth and concentration, seamlessly structured by silky tannins, finishing impressively long and engaging.

Tim Atkin MW (95)

Using vineyards that go up to 399 metres - some of the highest in the Hemelen-Aarde Valley - this estate Chardonnay is consistently excellent. Made without malolactic because of the heat of the vintage, it’s bready, leesy and refreshing, with Puligny-Montrachet-like elegance and beautifully weighted oak

Wine Advocate (98)

The deep garnet-purple colored 2017 Ausone is a blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot. It sashays out of the glass with gregarious scents of baked red and black plums, wild blueberries and boysenberries plus touches of violets, espresso, licorice and melted chocolate with wafts of iron ore and tilled soil. Medium-bodied, the palate is an exercise in poise, featuring beautifully ripe, silken tannins and bold freshness to support the fragrant multi-layers, finishing very long and very minerally.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

On another level, the brilliant 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape Hommage A Jacques Perrin is just about all Mourvèdre (there are small amounts of Grenache, Syrah, and Counoise) brought up in a large foudre. It reveals a saturated purple color as well as a super-rich, blockbuster-styled bouquet of blackcurrants, blackberries, ground pepper, truffle, charcuterie, and God knows what else. With full-bodied richness, a stacked, opulent mid-palate, building tannins, and a sensational finish, it’s another perfect wine from this team and is unquestionably in the same realm as the 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2016. Give bottles 7-8 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following 40-50 years.

Vinous - Antonio Galloni (95)

The 2017 Beychevelle is a luscious, extroverted beauty. An exotic mélange of super-ripe dark cherry, red plum, pomegranate, espresso, licorice and blood orange build as this potent, unctuous Saint-Julien opens up in the glass. The tannins need time to soften but should not be much of an issue in another few years' time. I very much like the push and pull of ripeness and energy in the 2017. In a word: memorable. Tasted two times.

Matthew Jukes (19+)

Created in 1988 as a tribute to Elisabeth Salmon, one of the House’s founders, this is the latest release and it has already benefitted from a remarkable ten years on its lees, because my sample was disgorged in October 2020. Made from 76% Grands Crus and 24% Premiers Crus, 55% Pinot Noir comes from Bouzy, Ambonnay, Verzy, Verzenay, Mareuil-sur-Äy and Äy and 45% Chardonnay comes from Chouilly, Cramant and Mesnil-sur-Oger. 9% red wine was added from Valofroy, a parcel of particularly old vines (60+ years old in 2008) situated high up on the hill above the winery in Mareuil. And 17% of the wine was vinified at low temperature in oak barrels which are, on average, 15 years old. The dosage is 7g/L. For the very first time, Elisabeth is available in magnums. I enjoyed an energetic tasting with Mathieu Roland-Billecart and he explained that this 2008 vintage seems like it has stolen the finest parts of each of the 1996 (tension), 2002 (layers of flavour) and the 2007 (refinement) and rolled them all into one wine! In a way, this is a fabulous analogy, but there is more to this vintage than meets the eye. The freshness and acidity here are both spectacular. These notes underpin the refined flavour with jolts of electricity which gather to form bolts of lightning. This is a young wine and yet the tenderness of the fruit is perfectly counterpointed by the shocking youthfulness on the finish. I cannot believe that 13 years have passed in the blink of an eye and so this means that 2008 Elisabeth might well be one of the slowest to age and longest-lived wines under this label to date. Having said this, the fruit is already magnificent. Mathieu asked me if I was familiar with the great French dessert clafoutis! At once a cherry clafoutis aroma arose from the glass, with faint notes of ginger blossom, saffron and white pepper. This is a crystalline and yet kaleidoscopic wine with fractals of flavour which splinter and shiver on the palate. It is high-tensile at the same time as being fragile and demure. It is everything Elisabeth would have wanted in her namesake wine.

Matthew Jukes (20++)

Made from 100% Chardonnay and coming from Chouilly (40%), Cramant (33%), Mesnil-sur-Oger (22%) and Avize (7%), with one-third fermented and aged in old oak barrels and a dosage of 7 g/L, this is becoming a relatively familiar recipe for this elite House and yet there is nothing familiar about the flavour of this epic new release. Billecart-Salmon’s elite Blanc de Blancs is named after Louis, the brother of Elisabeth Salmon, who co-founded this illustrious Champagne house over two centuries ago with her husband, Nicolas François Billecart. This is the third release of Louis, and it is, again, completely different in shape and size to the beautiful 2006 (19/20) and crystalline 2007 (19.5/20). The oak was enhanced from 5% in the 2006 vintage to 50% in the 2007 and now it has been knocked back a touch, and this certainly serves to enhance the splendour of the sensational 2008 vintage fruit. I didn’t note that Avize fruit was used in the 2007, but I think it was in the 2006. Either way, I am confident that this tinkering around the edges has heightened the attack of this incredible wine. The delivery here is something to behold. It is clear from the nose that this wine is made with a horologist’s precision, and while everything starts quietly, there is an uncommon determination here that keeps on coming, leaving you panting with pleasure. On the palate, 2008 Louis perfectly balances extreme tension and white-knuckle drama with the most enchanting and serene jasmine, white tea, and linden blossom notes. It seems mesmerisingly composed from one side of the glass and hellbent on rearranging your taste buds via a national grid-sized electric shock from the other. I am not suggesting that this wine is too young to approach now because, at fourteen years of age, you can drink it, just be aware that this might be one of the wines with the most potential I have ever tasted from this incredible estate. As always with Billecart, the bubbles are minuscule, and the colour is as pale as can be, so there are no particular visual clues as to the greatness in the glass, but once the perfume takes hold and it pulls you to the glass, you are entirely within its control. I venture that Blanc de Blancs fans will go gaga when they taste this wine. It further improves on the magnificence of the two preceding vintages, and whether or not this is to do with the oak regime or the exact percentage of fruit drawn from each of the Grands Crus villages, I don’t know. However, I am certain that 2008 is a jaw-droppingly serious vintage and eclipses both 2006 and 2007 in terms of sheer class. Therefore, even at this early age, I am convinced that this is the birth of another perfect wine from Billecart-Salmon, and it is certainly the finest value 20/20 from this magnificent House, too.

Jeb Dunnuck (99)

The 2008 La Grande Année is another brilliant 2008 that delivers the goods. Straight-up awesome notes of stone fruits, white flowers, honeysuckle, and an incredible, liquid rock-like minerality all emerge from the glass, and it develops more nuance, spice, toasted bread, and an almost Alsatian Riesling-like petrol character over the course of the evening. It’s a full-bodied, rich, powerful Champagne, yet like the top 2008s, it has brilliant precision, purity, and focus. It’s unquestionably one of the finest versions of this cuvée ever produced, although it needs another 4-5 years of bottle age to hit prime time. It should keep for 3-4 decades. Bravo!

Wine Advocate (97-99)

I was blown away by the prodigious fruit in the 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Chante le Merle Vieilles Vignes. Quantities are only maybe half of the 2016, so you can imagine how concentrated and rich this baby is. Waves of raspberry and cherry fruit are seductive on the nose, then crash over the palate with a tsunami of concentration and power. If time in the cellar can coax some additional elegance out of the wine, it could be a candidate for perfection.

Wine Enthusiast (96)

This perfumed wine is rich in dark tannins and black currant flavors. It has lifted acidity and a wonderful juicy, balanced character. Very pure and well structured, this will be a great wine for aging. Drink after 2025.

Wine Enthusiast (96)

This perfumed wine is rich in dark tannins and black currant flavors. It has lifted acidity and a wonderful juicy, balanced character. Very pure and well structured, this will be a great wine for aging. Drink after 2025.

Vinous - Antonio Galloni (97)

Nicolas Audebert and his team have done it again. The 2017 Canon is shaping up to be one of the wines of the vintage. Rich and vertical in construction, the 2017 possesses off-the-charts richness and intensity in all of its dimensions. In the glass, the 2017 is sumptuous and layered, with superb detail and tons of sheer pedigree. In 20 years, readers will have a fabulous time tasting the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 together and debating their respective merits. Dark plum fruit, striking Franc aromatics and the clean, focused energy of Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau make for a ravishing, exquisite wine of the highest level. In a word: breathtaking.

James Suckling (97)

This is one of the most direct and clear Caros in a long time with blue-fruit, violet and sandalwood aromas and flavors. Crushed-stone, too. Full-bodied, yet tight and contracted with a level of shyness to its strength. The length derives from the excellence of the cabernet. One for the cellar. Blend of 74% malbec and 26% cabernet sauvignon. Try after 2023, but exciting to drink all the same.

Wine Advocate (95)

The Mazzei family is introducing quite a few new and ambitious changes to its portfolio this year. This wine is one of them. Previously known as Mix 36, it represents a complicated blend of 36 biotypes of Sangiovese, all planted in an experimental vineyard not too far from the estate's high-technology winery. With this vintage, the wine has been upgraded from IGT status to Gran Selezione, at the top of the Chianti Classico quality pyramid. The 2017 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vicoregio 36 offers great purity and focus. The bouquet is redolent of wild blueberry, spice, cola, grilled herb, blue flower and tilled earth. There is a pretty menthol-like note on the close.

Jeb Dunnuck (96)

The 2017 Barolo Bricco Boschis is highly aromatic with anise, dried leather, and burnt orange. Ripe and structured, it offers ripe cherry, turned forest floor, and a long finish. The warmth of the vintage is felt while remaining fresh. Drink 2024-2042.

Jeb Dunnuck (98)

The 2017 Syrah Bionic Frog is in the running for the wine of the vintage. An incredibly elegant expression of this cuvée, it reveals an almost opaque purple hue to go with stunning, Jamet Cote Rotie-like notes of black raspberries, spring flowers, bacon fat, green olives, and sweet mulch. More cured meats and salted pork notes develop with time in the glass, and it’s a wonderfully complex, layered, nuanced Syrah. Boasting medium to full-bodied richness on the palate, flawless balance, and a great, great finish, it’s the polish, elegance, and silky feel to the tannins that set this beauty above just about every other wine out there. It’s unquestionably gorgeous today (give it an hour or more in a decanter) yet has a solid 15-20 years of prime drinking ahead of it.

Wine Advocate (100)

As in 2016, my favorite of the white parcel selections this year is the 2017 Ermitage l'Ermite Blanc (231 cases produced), as it perfectly balances richness and power with refinement and structure. Toasted brioche and citrus marmalade, honey and truffle notes deliver sheer full-bodied, mouth-filling decadence, supported by austere notes of crushed granite, zesty grapefruit rind and cooling brine. Huge and intense yet refreshing, it's the essence of granite-grown Marsanne.

Wine Enthusiast (97)

Aged for 10 years on its lees before disgorgement, this impressive vintage Champagne is perfectly mature. The touches of maturity have moved the wine into richness, the fruit and acidity filling out and deepening. This is a great Champagne from a great vintage, ready to drink.

Decanter (98)

The formerly little-known appellation of Cabardès made it into our Decanter World Wine Awards 'Best in Show' selection in London in spring 2018, and now the AOP has done it again, with yet another outstanding effort, this time impressing our Asian judges. This blend of 60% Cabernet Franc with 30% Syrah and 10% Grenache is saturatedly black-red in colour, surrendering fresh, floral aromas backed by enticing black-raspberry and mulberry fruits. On the palate, the wine is deep yet full of lively charm, perfectly summarising the 'crossover' appeal of this appellation, which lies half-way between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Fine-grained tannins and lacy, billowing acidity carry that raspberry/mulberry fruit all the way to a fresh, graceful finish. Cabernet Franc fans should seek it out. Drink 2018-2026

James Suckling (100)

This is the greatest Cheval des Andes ever. Discrete aromas of blackberries, flowers, stone and licorice. So perfumed. The integration of fruit, tannins and acidity is fantastic. Full-bodied, tight and solid with beautiful depth and integrity. Extremely long and exciting. Complex and compelling with such refinement and length. A blend of 62% malbec and 38% cabernet sauvignon. Available in September 2020. Better after 2024.

This is sensational with blackberries, blueberries and mineral. Extremely floral, too. Full-bodied but so seamless and refined with polished tannins that just melts into the wine. Goes on for minutes. A subtle and glorious wine that will be a new classic for Napa Valley. An emotional red that touches your soul. Energy. 46% cabernet sauvignon, 31% cabernet franc, 17% petit verdot, and 6% merlot. Very approachable now but better in 2022.

Vinous - Neal Martin (94)

The 2017 Pommard Clos des Epeneaux 1er Cru has a wonderful bouquet that fulfills its potential from barrel, offering immediately seductive brambly red fruit, crushed minerals and pressed rose petals. The 25–30% new oak is so neatly folded into the fruit that it is barely noticeable. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and quite citrus-driven, revealing orange peel and blood orange notes. Linear at first and then gently fans out and gains depth toward the persistent finish. Superb.

Wine Advocate (98+)

Composed of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc, yields for the grand vin in 2017 were 43 hectoliters per hectare, and it was aged in 60% new oak. It came in at an alcohol of 13% and an IPT of 68. Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Cos d'Estournel needs a little coaxing to unfurl, revealing beautiful expressions of preserved plums, boysenberries, blackcurrant pastilles and wild blueberries with hints of Indian spices, menthol, lilacs and mossy tree bark plus a compelling suggestion of iron ore. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a solid backbone of firm, grainy tannins and well-knit freshness supporting the tightly wound blue and black fruits layers, finishing long and fragrant. This wine will need a good 5-7 years in bottle before it begins to blossom and should go on for at least another 40 years. I expect this wine to be a blockbuster of a head-turner when I come back and taste it at 10 years of age!