Jeb Dunnuck (98)

As to the Grand Vin 2019 Château Pape Clement, it reveals a dense purple hue to go with stunning aromatics of crème de cassis, graphite, lead pencils shavings, scorched earth, and tobacco. Beautifully balanced, with flawless tannins, this full-bodied Pessac has that rare mix of elegance and power, a great mid-palate, and again, perfect balance. It's one of the gems of the vintage and has some accessibility today given its purity and balance, yet deserves 4-5 years of bottle age and will cruise for 20-25 years or more in cold cellars. The blend is equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, brought up in two-thirds new French oak.

James Suckling (98)

Lots of blackberry, iodine and crushed stone here. Some black pepper and graphite, too. Full body and medium, fine tannins that have a powdery texture and open in the mouth. So much going on. Iodine and iron undertones with some raw mushroom bring you back for more. Muscular. This is for the cellar. Drink after 2027.

Wine Advocate (98)

Arguably the dry white wine of the vintage along with Laville, this is an extraordinary wine with the texture of a grand cru white Burgundy, the so-called gout de petrol that one finds in Coche-Dury Meursault-Perrieres, or one of the top Montrachets from the likes of Domaine Leflaive or Romanee-Conti. Honeyed orange, sweet melons, subtle smoke, stunning concentration, and a full-bodied mouthfeel make for an extraordinary expression of white Graves that should age beautifully for 15-20 years. The final blend from the tiny 7.5-acre parcel of this historic vineyard was 50% Sauvignon Blanc, 40% Semillon, 5% each of Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle.

Jeb Dunnuck (98)

Among the whites of the vintage, the 2016 Château Pape Clément Blanc is one of the most concentrated, deep, and full-bodied whites out there, offering up a red wine-like structure to go with beautiful notes of white grapefruit, Meyer lemon, crushed rocks, and exotic flowers. A blend of 50% Sauvignon Blanc, 36% Sémillon, 9% Sauvignon Gris, and 5% Muscadelle, all from deep gravelly soils and brought up in 55% new French oak, this incredibly textured, pure, balanced white needs 3-4 years of bottle age and will keep for two decades or more.

James Suckling (98)

Beautiful aromas of lime curd, dried pear, grilled white peach and flint on the nose. So exotic on the nose. Some cream and honey, too. It’s medium-bodied with bright, tangy acidity. Creamy and focused with lingering dried-citrus and crushed-gravel notes. Long. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (96)

Very exotic Parusso Barolo as always, with dried fruit, strawberries and tangerines. Full-bodied with chewy tannins and a powerful, intense finish. This is really structured. Needs four or five years to soften. Try in 2025.

Vinous (96)

Inky ruby. Powerful, spice- and smoke-accented aromas of fresh black and blue fruits, candied violet, licorice and cola, along with a hint of exotic spices that builds in the glass. Sweet, palate-staining cassis, boysenberry, floral pastille and licorice flavors turn livelier with air. Impressively concentrated but surprisingly energetic, courtesy of its spine of smoky minerality. Finishes sappy, youthfully chewy and extremely long, with steadily mounting tannins and lingering florality. 25% new oak.

Vinous (96)

Inky ruby. Powerful, spice- and smoke-accented aromas of fresh black and blue fruits, candied violet, licorice and cola, along with a hint of exotic spices that builds in the glass. Sweet, palate-staining cassis, boysenberry, floral pastille and licorice flavors turn livelier with air. Impressively concentrated but surprisingly energetic, courtesy of its spine of smoky minerality. Finishes sappy, youthfully chewy and extremely long, with steadily mounting tannins and lingering florality. 25% new oak.

Vinous (95)

Saturated ruby. An expansive bouquet evokes ripe black and blue fruits, baking spices, candied flowers and licorice, and a smoky mineral quality builds in the glass. Seamless, sweet and broad on the palate, offering deeply concentrated black currant, boysenberry and fruitcake flavors that spread out and take on a spicy nuance with aeration. Manages to be rich and powerful but elegant as well, showing superb balance and velvety, even tannins that shape an extremely long, floral- and dark-fruit-driven finish. 20% new oak.

Wine Advocate (100)

Produced from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and sporting a deep garnet-purple color, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr Crane Vineyard offers up a profound and singular nose of loam, rocks and iron ore over a core of black cherries, baked black berries and preserved plums with hints of licorice, dark chocolate, cedar, sautéed herbs and beef broth. Full-bodied, rich and demonstrating great depth with a wonderfully compelling personality, it delivers a multitude of savory meat and toast layers, framed by firm, fine-grained tannins. It finishes with incredible persistence, allowing those provocative mineral nuances to shine through.

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.

Wine Advocate (98+)

Deep garnet-purple in color, the nose of the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard starts off with soft-spoken scents of ripe red and black plums, cassis, black raspberries and mulberries, followed by gentle wafts of cedar and pencil lead and finally bursting out with Sichuan pepper and hoisin notes. The medium to full-bodied palate is opulent, plushly textured and brimming with spicy red and blackberry layers, going beautifully perfumed on the long finish. Paul Hobbs mentioned that he backed off on the new oak this year, aging the wine in 85% new French oak (as opposed to 100%). I love this more elegant, nuanced expression a lot. 688 cases were made.

Vinous (91)

The 2017 Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley) is bright, floral and nicely lifted, with plenty of red cherry pie and berry character. Medium in body and wiry - perhaps because of its recent bottling - the 2017 has plenty to recommend it. This is a gorgeous wine in its peer group.

Wine Advocate (100)

As heavenly and profound as it gets, the still youthful-colored 1978 Hermitage la Chapelle exhibits an insane bouquet of sweet cassis, truffle, smoked meats and licorice. Full-bodied, multidimensional, decadent and massive on the palate, with a stacked mid-palate and still present, sweet tannin, it tastes like a mix of the more fruit-loaded '90 and the more evolved, smoky and soy-laced '61. You could easily run out of adjectives describing this beauty, but it's a perfect wine any way you look at it. I see no reason to hold off, and it's drinking perfectly for my palate today, but it certainly won't fall off a cliff anytime soon.

James Suckling (97)

A gorgeous intensity of plum, spice and grilled meat on the nose. Cloves and hints of dried spices. This is a big, structured La Chappelle. Full and powerful with chewy tannins and a long, long finish. A bit austere and muscular but gorgeous. Tar, spice, dried meat and asphalt. Needs to be aged for at least another five or six years. This is another 1991 in the making.

Jeb Dunnuck (99)

The 2017 Hermitage La Chapelle showed incredibly well and is a brilliant wine that's reminiscent of a richer, denser 2011. Loads of sun-kissed dark fruits, leather, graphite, and flowers, with ample spice and sandalwood nuances, give way to a full-bodied, pure, deep, multi-dimensional Hermitage that’s just about as good as it gets. The balance, length, and depth of this is something to behold, and while it unquestionably offers pleasure today, it has another 20-30 years of prime drinking ahead of it.

Matthew Jukes (20++)

Like La Maison Bleue, La Chapelle barely moved an inch over the five days that it sat open (and gradually oxidising) on my tasting bench. This is a monumental wine with the finest Syrah nose I have seen since the ethereal and intriguing beauty of the remarkable 2016 vintage and also the monolithic stance of the legendary 1990. However, this is not to say that this vintage can be directly compared to either year. There is a latent power about this wine that is as elusive as it is impressive. This solaire vintage has certainly given La Chapelle a sense of foreboding power and yet there is so much grace here, too. You could be sniffing a handful of granite and gravel, a bouquet of freshly picked herbs, a mortar of freshly ground pepper or a punnet of juicy black fruit and yet there is so much more to discover here. What I find so remarkable about this wine is that it does not show any trace of over-ripeness nor does it have any unwanted oiliness or excessive alcohol. In spite of its richness and depth, this is a pristinely refreshing wine with crunch and crackle of filigree tannin which enlivens every sip. In this regard, it is a far less obvious superstar than the preening 1990 and it is a more erudite and statuesque model than the esoteric 2016. In short, this is one of only a handful of vintages of La Chapelle to which I have awarded a perfect score and who is to say that this will not happen again before too long? The care and attention in this entire portfolio of wines are evident and the hard work and holistic approach are not only paying off in the vineyards but also in the glass, too, and this makes 2019 another phenomenally successful vintage for Jaboulet.

Matthew Jukes (19++)

I fell for this wine in a microsecond – the very moment the first molecule of perfume exploded on my receptors. This is a step-change vintage for La Maison Bleue because I have not seen this degree of single-mindedness and overriding intention before in this wine. 2019 La Maison Bleue seems as if it has realised that it does not need to sit behind La Chapelle in Caroline Frey’s portfolio. It signals, loud and clear, that it ought to be seated alongside its more renowned stablemate and be accorded the opportunity to address the masses as an equal, not a subordinate. This is a bold move from this honed, sleek wine. In 2019, with just that little bit more power and ambition under its belt, it has broken free and it looks absolutely sensational. The fruit is regal and layered and the tannins are precision-cut and perfectly positioned making it every inch a superstar. By the end of day five of my tasting these amazing wines, La Maison Bleue seemed as if it were saying, let’s keep going! While this is a ‘finished barrel sample’, this wine wanted to be tested to its limits and I cannot fault its enthusiasm and excellence. You simply must track it down!

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 (19+)

There is extraordinary equilibrium in this sensational wine. It is so finely balanced it is baffling, and the depth and richness is offset with the most dramatic acid and strident minerality I have seen in a wine of this style. There are profound meadow-flower and stone fruit flavour here which enchant the senses but they are marshalled brilliantly by the citrus pith and green apple skin raspiness on the finish. This is the most exciting Chevalier I have ever tasted and it rivals the very best whites from this region and others besides.

Wine Advocate (100)

Deep garnet in color, the 2009 Pavie drifts effortlessly and profoundly from the glass with baked plums, spice cake, sandalwood, Black Forest cake and blueberry pie scents followed up with a fragrant undercurrent of potpourri, unsmoked cigars and bouquet garni. Full-bodied, rich and plush, this is pure seduction in the mouth, offering a taut yet velvety texture and oodles of freshness to frame the opulent fruit, finishing very long and mineral laced.

The Wine Independent (100)

Pavie 2016 is deep garnet-purple in color. It has an atomic nose of stewed plums, blackberry pie, Indian spices, and chocolate mint, plus suggestions of crushed stones, underbrush, red roses, and oolong tea, with a touch of beef dripping. Full-bodied, rich and decadent, the palate is a powerhouse of muscular black fruit flavor, supported by super-firm, super-ripe tannins and lovely freshness, finishing with epic length and depth. Needs a good 6-7 years and then keep it for the next 50 years+.

The Wine Independent (100)

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2020 Pavie sashays out with flamboyant notes of black and red cherries, black raspberries, and juicy plums opening out to fragrant underlying scents of forest floor, Sichuan pepper, and rose oil plus a hint of lavender. The medium to full-bodied palate is tightly wound and super-intense, delivering very fine-grained tannins and beautiful tension, finishing long and minerally. This is gorgeous!

Wine Advocate (93)

Gerard Perse’s tiny vineyard was cropped at 26 hectoliters per hectare, and the final blend was 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc (14.5% alcohol). It boasts great intensity, a dense purple color, and beautiful aromas of sweet mulberries, black cherries, cedar, crushed rocks, and white chocolate as well as a chalky character (which gives the wine superb minerality). The wine is expansively flavored, and the tannins are remarkably sweet and well-integrated. An atypical blockbuster for the 2007 vintage, it should drink beautifully for 15-20 years.

James Suckling (99)

Amazing, pure cherries, plums and flowers, as well as crushed stones. It jumps out of the glass. Full body, powerful tannins and a freshness and roundness to it. Lightly salty on the finish. Great structure with finesse. Try after 2024.

Vinous - Antonio Galloni (95)

The 2012 Pavie-Macquin shows how appealing the best wines from this vintage are. Bright, floral and racy, the 2012 is drinking beautifully today. Readers who prefer more aromatic complexity might prefer to cellar the 2012 for another few years, but there is something about the wine's raciness and immediacy that makes it a pure pleasure to taste today.

Jeb Dunnuck (97-99)

From a cooler, pure limestone terroir just over the hill from Château Pavie, the 2018 Château Pavie Macquin offers an incredible assortment of red and black fruits, cedary spice, white truffle, graphite, and beautiful minerality. Showing the cooler, complex, concentrated style of the vineyard, it's full-bodied and powerful on the palate, with no shortage of extract or tannins. The wine always has a healthy pH and needs bottle age to show at its best. A solid 7-8 years are warranted here, and it will keep for 2-3 decades. The 2018 is 78% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, representing 90% of the total production. I think this estate has been underrated in the market and it can still be found for reasonable prices. It ages beautifully and I doubt you could have too much in the cellar.

Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (97)

Rich and deep in colour, this is inky damson, layered and luscious in its aromatics, both restrained and generous, performing the limestone magic trick of push and pull, giving and taking. Blackberry, blueberry and liquorice upfront, with tannins that are bristling and muscular but well honed and discreet. As it softens through the mid palate, the creamy fruits arrive, and you relax for a moment before the limestone grip is turned on again. This will close up soon, as the 2016 has done, but right now is singing with liquorice, black chocolate, blackcurrant, turmeric, spiced black truffles, mandarin peel and slate. Totally lives up to its En Primeur brilliance. 50% new oak. Part of the outstanding vintages series within this vertical.

The Wine Independent (95)

With 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot, the 2016 Pavillon Rouge from Chateau Margaux is deep garnet in color, with a touch of purple. It needs a fair bit of swirling to reveal notes of crushed black plums, black cherry preserves, and wild blueberries, followed by hints of unsmoked cigars, sandalwood, and dusty soil, with a waft of roses. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is so elegant, perfumed and energetic, featuring finely pixilated tannins and bold freshness, finishing long and mineral-laced.