This is a huge week here at JamesSuckling.com with our Top 100 Wines of 2020 just published. Our annual Top 100 is the most popular and important piece we publish every year and this year we have a staggering 27 100-point wines on the list with the balance rating 99 and 98 points. Leading up to this moment we have tasted around 18,000 wines which has been tough but rewarding and we will continue to taste at a strong pace.
In this week’s highlights we have another 300+ wines tasted and rated and we have covered Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, the United States and Portugal. There’s a theme of very old vines in many of our top rated wines this week with the oldest dating back to 1867 in Australia’s Hunter Valley region.
That parcel of 1867 vineyard produced the Tyrrell’s Shiraz Hunter Valley Old Patch 2019 (100 points) and this marks the fourth consecutive release of Old Patch to score a perfect 100-point rating. This is all about depth and purity with such dialed in style that is driven with intense blueberry, blackberry and violet characters. Flavors last for minutes in a vintage that is very concentrated yet has been delivered in immaculately elegant mode.
Then the Tyrrell’s Shiraz Hunter Valley 4 Acres 2019 (99 points) is an essay in tannin length and focus with “an immaculately concentrated” palate that has “measured shape and unwaveringly pure red-plum and blueberry flavors.” This is a special wine for fine-tuned palates that appreciate detailed structure and is from vines that were planted in 1879. From a sandy site, the Tyrrell’s Shiraz Hunter Valley Johnno’s 2019 (98 points) is lacy and floral and “bursting with intense, fresh red plums, blueberries, red cherries and some stone fruit.” Elegant and mouth-wateringly fresh, this is from a parcel planted in 1908 and is really unique in the Tyrrell’s collection of top reds.
Tyrrell’s Shiraz Hunter Valley 8 Acres 2019 (96 points) is from a parcel adjacent to 4 acres and planted in 1892. These rows run north to south and produce a style that is round and fleshy, in contrast to the long tannin drive of 4 Acres whose rows run east to west. And there’s a very special Tyrrell’s Semillon Hunter Valley Johnno’s 2019 (99 points) reviewed this week, which is an x-factor version of Hunter semillon that is “super intense and fresh” with “a bracingly flavorful core that is so neatly contained, textural and long.” These vines were also planted in 1908 along with the Johnno’s shiraz.
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- The Etna Rosso wines from Terre Nere that James tasted showed bright intensity of fruit with fine tannins and a long finish.
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- This lineup of Tyrrell’s shiraz wines scored an average of 98.25 points, with the Old Patch wine scoring a perfect 100.
Leading the charge in Alsace with a perfect 100-point rating, the Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune 2019 which could well be “the greatest Clos Ste. Hune ever.” This marries beauty and elegance with “great concentration and such finesse” and carries an extremely long and precise finish. Clos Ste. Hune always needs time in bottle to reach it full potential and this is no exception so be patient.
Close behind, the Domaine Weinbach Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée Ste. Catherine 2018 (99 points) is a “masterpiece of concentrated minerality” with exotic stone fruit aromas and “tons of structure.” The palate is “so beautifully interwoven” with “textural complexity at the very long finish” and is sourced from the estate’s oldest vines on the granitic Grand Cru Schlossberg.
The Domaine Marcel Deiss Alsace Grand Cru Schoenenbourg 2017 (98 points) is a co-fermented field-blend of varieties and is “fresh” and “so cool and tightly-wound for the warm and sometimes overblown vintage.” The palate is profoundly mineral and concentrated. Trimbach’s Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Geisberg 2019 (98 points) is a “deep and complex,” riesling in a full-bodied style with “monumental depth and great minerality.”
A sweet and “unctuous yet lively” Domaine Weinbach Pinot Gris Alsace Sélection de Grains Nobles 2017 (98 points) shows the potential for the 2017 vintage to reach such heights in these extreme sweet, botrytized styles. This is “precise and polished “ with “a cornucopia of caramelized fruit.” The quality of pinot noir in Alsace continues to impress with the Albert Mann Pinot Noir Alsace Grand H 2018 (98 points) showing immense depth of fruit as well as “perfectly judged balance” and “near-perfect harmony at the pristine finish.”
An old vine treasure from Sicily is also one of the highlights tasted this week. The Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso Prephylloxera La Vigna di Don Peppino 2018 (98 points) is a wine with “purity and intensity of fruit” that sets a high standard for balancing depth and focus. James loved the “cherries, perfectly ripe strawberries, flowers and stones” and the glorious “fine tannins and a beautiful, long finish” on this old vine wine. It is an amalgam of two parcels that are more than 130 years old and wields such power with such finesse.
The Ochota Barrels Grenache McLaren Vale Fugazi Vineyard 2020 (99 points) is a very intense expression of vines planted on ironstone-rich soils in 1947. It has a wealth of red and blue fruits but it is the “taut, powerful tannins and attractive, pastry-like layers, building into the long, powerful and unwavering finish” that really make this wine so impressive. This is an exciting and energetic old vine grenache from what is shaping up to be an exceptional vintage for McLaren Vale grenache.
A wine of “finesse, length and complexity,” the Niepoort Douro Charme 2018 (98 points) is a standout medium-to full-bodied Portuguese red with berries, flowers, minerals and stones on offer. James particularly liked the “creamy texture and underlying acidity” that give this wine impressive length and purity. It is from vines aged between 70 and 100 years of age in the Vale de Mendiz and made by foot treading exclusively whole bunches of grapes in traditional stone lagares, producing something really unique in style.
And from old vines by New Zealand standards, the Rippon Pinot Noir Central Otago Mature Vine 2017 (99 points) is a “really taut, fully ripe and mouthwateringly intense pinot noir” with fine-leaved complexity. This has violets, blue fruits, peppery fragrance and schist-driven aromas of wet dark stones. The palate is always compressed when this wine is young but it unwinds with reliable consistency to open at eight to 10 years from vintage. Put these away until then.
Very old vines in many parts of the wine world all share a common ability to produce wines of unique and distinctive character. Across such broadly different genres and styles they exude balance and harmony and X-factor appeal and are among the greatest wines to study, collect and share.
Enjoy this weeks’ highlights and stay safe.
– Nick Stock, executive editor
