The JamesSuckling.com Tasting Team spent the majority of their time in Australia and New Zealand during October, and our tasting notes reflect that: out of the more than 3,700 bottles we rated, nearly 2,500 were from the two antipodean countries. And the best thing about the top wines from the two countries in general is their transparency and balance.
Australia’s Barossa Valley is a standout in this regard. Its shiraz is among the finest in the world, with some wines coming from ancient vines of more than 150 years old that truly reflect place and precision. One of these is Stephen Henschke’s extraordinary shiraz-based Hill of Grace, which was originally planted in the 1860s and gives the lie to the notion that Australia should be considered a “New World” wine region. Another is the single-vineyard Spinifex Shiraz Barossa Valley Moppa Single Vineyard 2020. Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was so impressed with this one he simply said he was “stunned by its extraordinary beauty.”
The purity of fruit and depth of earth and terroir also come shining through in the incredible shiraz from vintners like The Standish Wine Company, Tyrrell’s, Sami-Odi, Torbreck, Clarendon Hills, Jasper Hill and Rockford, among others. What is their goal? In the words of owner/winemaker Fraser McKinley of Sami-Odi, it is simply “to make my wines delicious.”
What’s even more refreshing than McKinley’s attitude toward winemaking are some of South Australia’s great dry rieslings. Few wines, for example, can top the Pewsey Vale Eden Valley Riesling 2022, which is vibrant, expressive and concentrated, or the highly rated Grosset Riesling Clare Valley Polish Hill 2022, which Senior Editor Stuart Pigott said “has a complexity and intense minerality that puts it in the first league globally.”
READ MORE AUSTRALIA WOWS WITH DELICIOUS TRANSPARENCY: 2022 ANNUAL REPORT
And if chardonnays are your thing, the Margaret River region probably does it better than anyone in Australia, even though it’s better known for its top Bordeaux blends. The reserves of Deep Woods Estate are truly memorable, with the power and intensity of a top grand cru Burgundy, but they show vivid acidity at the end of the palate. One of the top chard producers in Margaret River is American Will Berliner, whose Cloudburst offerings are dead ringers for premier cru Chablis. His passion and vibe for making terrific wines also comes through in his cabernet sauvignons and malbecs.
One more Margaret River producer to note is Vanya Cullen in Wilyabrup, who makes biodynamically made reds and whites with a unique energy and depth. Her cabernets are some of the most moving wines being made in Australia, most notably the 2020.
Stuart also took part in a special tasting at the Jim Barry winery in Clare Valley of The Armagh – the winery’s top shiraz and also one of Australia’s foremost reds. Stuart found the 2018 vintage to be “one of the best Australian shiraz we have ever tasted.” He was also quite high on the “stunning,” soon-to-be-released Jim Barry Shiraz Clare Valley The Armagh 2020, which has eye-popping fruit and fine tannins.
There were also more than a few highlights from New Zealand, and we posted our full 2022 report on the country on Monday. There’s a lot of great pinot noir to be found there, and yet Bordeaux varieties like cabernet sauvignon and merlot keep impressing James, even if their star may have faded in comparison with pinot. Bordeaux blends continue to rock in Puriri Hills and on Waiheke Island, which are both just outside Auckland. The former bottles some incredibly structured Bordeaux blends, such as the Puriri Hills Clevedon Pope 2020, which James likened to “the Chateau Latour of New Zealand.”
On Waiheke, whose deep-water bay acts as a buffer to the cold and keeps temperatures mild during the vine-growing season, top wines like Destiny Bay’s Magna Praemia sell for more than $350 a bottle and sometimes more. His wines, which have a majority of cabernet sauvignon in the blends but also use malbec, petit verdot, cabernet franc and merlot, show a surprising richness and depth that you would more likely find in a Napa cabernet than a red from a chic and relaxed island near Auckland.
We also talked to numerous producers in the beautiful regions of Martinborough, Marlborough and Central Otago, among others. Wineries like Rippon, Ata Rangi, Felton Road, Kusuda and Sato are dedicated and even soulful producers, who are all working tirelessly to bring out the best of their natural vineyards.
READ MORE THE COOL CLARITY OF GREAT WINES FROM NEW ZEALAND: 2022 ANNUAL REPORT
Staying in the Southern Hemisphere, South Africa also featured prominently for us in October, and we posted Associate Editor Nathan Slone’s full report on the country recently. Although Bordeaux blends and cabernet sauvignon take center stage in South Africa, chardonnays are coming on strong, especially offerings from high-altitude sites.
In Stellenbosch, for example, Uva Mira remains a high-water mark for the country this year with its Single Tree Chardonnay 2018. According to Uva Mira oenologist and general manager Christiaan Coetzee, the key to making a great chard lies in the elevation of the vineyards. “You get a lot silkier tannins with our altitude,” he said. These are “wines with elegance and longevity – not powerful wines but they have punch.”
From Europe, Spain and Germany provided the JamesSuckling.com tasting team with some memorable bottles. Two ingenious Spanish winemaking partners who focus on old-vine garnachas in Sierra de Gredos, Fernando Garcia and Daniel Landi, deliver delicacy, purity and terroir transparency in their Comando G wines, which also epitomize Spanish finesse and drinkability despite relatively high alcohol.
One of their most impressive offerings from the 2019 vintage is the Comando G Vinos de Madrid Tumba del Rey Moro 2019, which is ethereal and elegant, with enough minerality and chalky structure to help define what really is a beautifully drinkable, old-vine garnacha that comes from wild and sandy granite terrain of over 1,100 meters in altitude. The Comando G Vinos de Madrid Las Umbrías 2019, on the other hand, is a more savory and Mediterranean expression, while the Rumbo al Norte from 2019 comes with a more natural and positively wild sensibility, underscored by attractive saline and stemmy edges, superb drinkability and expressiveness.
Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was doing most of his tastings from Germany’s 2021 vintage, which as he pointed out in his annual report on the country was a wet one. Several producers still managed to produced sterling wines, however, including the Wegeler Riesling Rheingau Rothenberg Trockenbeerenauslese 2021, one of the top dessert wines of the vintage in the Rheingau.
The Rheingau also gave us some amazingly concentrated and aromatically complex low-alcohol rieslings, with the top one being the Georg Breuer Riesling Rheingau Berg Schlossberg 2021, a single-vineyard offering with just 11.5 percent alcohol. A much less well-known producer, Reiner Flick of Weingut Joachim Flick, also churned out some dry riesling GGs from 2021 that are the best wines the winery has ever shown us, although they won’t be released until next year.
Finally, back in James’ ancestral homeland (California), we found plenty of exciting offerings from the Paso Robles appellation. Here, producers like L’Aventure, Saxum and DAOU Patrimony were making fresh and balanced bottles, with great intensity and phenolic ripeness offsetting the heat the often comes with Paso offerings. L’Aventure’s Paso Robles Willow Creek District Cote a Cote 2020, a blend of 45 percent grenache, 30 percent syrah and 25 percent mourvedre, was the standout among the wineries’ many blended wines and cabernet sauvignons.
READ MORE PASO ROBLES DIALS UP THE HEAT ON DRINKABILITY: 2022 ANNUAL REPORT
But there were other producers making wines with lower alcohol that still came with great drinkability. Among them were Daniel Callan of Thacher Winery, who delivered impressive offerings from grapes like valdiguie (also known as Napa gamay) and cinsault (aka black malvoisie). His personal project, Slamdance Koöperatieve Wines, blends the pair along with a 20 percent addition of negrette from the San Benito AVA to make the Slamdance Koöperatieve Central Coast 2020, which has the delivery of a natural wine with its superb drinkability.
Have a look at all the notes below to find your favorite bottles for the month. It was a massive overall tasting from 14 countries, including bottles from some lesser-known regions like China, Greece and Hungary. There is much to explore, but don’t just read about it – pop some corks and enjoy.
– Vince Morkri, Managing Editor
The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during October by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.
Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.
