Left: James tasting Graham’s 50-year-old tawny Port. | Right: Casks of Port aging at Quinta do Noval in Portugal's Douro Valley.

This week’s report has ratings for some amazing Ports from my trip to the Douro Valley last month as well as for actor Brad Pitt’s best Champagne ever, not to mention a killer vintage sherry from Lustau and hundreds of scores for outstanding wines from Spain and the Rhone Valley.

One of my takeaways from the Portugal trip was that the wine world is finally excited about rare tawny Ports, both age-designated and vintage (colheita). Until recently, vintage Port was the dominant super-premium fortified bottle from Portugal, but the market is shifting, according to the dozen or so Port shippers I spoke to, and more and more people are looking for outstanding quality tawnies. This is sending prices up as reserves become depleted both in the lodges of Vila Nova di Gaia and warehouses in the Douro.

“We used to be able to find these old Ports in the Douro, but they dried up,” said Charles Symington, the head winemaker and part of the family that owns Symington Family Estates, which controls such prestigious Port names as Graham’s, Dow’s and Warre’s.

Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk (center) with Rupert Symington (left) and Charles Symington.

Symington and his family are now releasing a 50-year-old blend, which is a new category for age-designated tawny ports. The category, like others such as 20-, 30- and 40-year-old, shows the average age of the tawny port. For example, Symington mostly used a 1969 tawny for the blend that had aged in their warehouse in large old casks until blending last year.

“I didn’t want to really use it because it is my birth year!” Symington only half joked.

His cousin Rupert Symington, the head of the group, added, “He stole the family treasures!”

There are three 50-year-old tawnies rated in this report, including bottles from Graham’s, Taylor’s and Sandeman. I think I like this new category better than 40-year-old because they show a more typical character for their age.

THE NEWEST FLEUR DE MIRAVAL CHAMPAGNE: Brad Pitt and his partners have made their most delicious Champagne yet.

Check out the other Ports in this report, particularly the Niepoort 1863 tawny, as well as a number of other rare Ports from Douro Boys, a group of five wine producers including Niepoort, Quinta do Crasto, Quinta do Vale Meao, Quinta do Vallado and Van Zellers & Co. Some of these old tawnies were released in celebration of their 20^th anniversary as a small association.

A few quick words about Brad Pitt’s new Champagne. It’s fantastic. He and his partners of the Provence rosé, Miraval, have made a couple releases of Fleur de Miraval with Pierre Peters Champagne, and their latest shows the most class and finesse of them all. It’s a sophisticated and complex bottle. Check out the video (left) with the assistant winemaker, Alexis Blondel.

Jean Gonon (left), who runs Pierre Gonon wines with his brother Pierre, walks Senior Editor Stuart Pigott through the cellar of the winery.

MAGICAL MOMENT IN THE RHONE

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott is back home in Germany and Tasting Manager Kevin Davy is back in Hong Kong, but they managed to get out the final batch of tasting notes from their long tour of the French section of the Rhone Valley.

“By chance our very last visit was one of the best,” Stuart said. “For us, Pierre Gonon is one of the leading winemakers of the entire region, and his Pierre Gonon St. Joseph 2020 is a near-perfect expression of syrah in the northern Rhone.”

Stuart found “an incredibly deep nose of blackberries, other forest berries and smoke.” For him it’s barely full-bodied, but wine drinkers used to big reds may consider it medium-bodied. Either way, it is simultaneously rich, focused and extremely complex.

“Our tasting in the Pierre Gonon cellar, was one of those magical moments that makes this job so exciting,” Stuart recalled. “In their different ways, each wine and each vintage were beautiful. For example, the Pierre Gonon St. Joseph 2021 only has 12.5 percent alcohol and aromas of green pepper and blood orange that make it a unique syrah.”

Together with the steep sites and predominantly granite soil of this appellation, these wines are all strong arguments for St. Joseph being accepted as a first-tier Rhone appellation. It is commonly regarded as belonging to the second league.

Another syrah standout was the Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage 2021, which Kevin described as having a very pure and floral nose, then a succulent core of redcurrant and violets. “This is an excellent example of Crozes, but if you look through our notes you will find an enormous spread of ratings for 2021 wines from this appellation,” Stuart said. “Nowhere is our role more important than in situations like this!”

Watch out for our Rhone Report 2023, coming as soon as some stragglers have been tasted.

The Lustau Jerez Oloroso VORS 30 Years Old delivers intensity that's almost painful.

And to add to our fruitful week of tasting fortified wines, Senior Editor Zekun Shuai uncorked a mind-blowing Spanish sherry – the Lustau Jerez Oloroso VORS 30 Years Old, from one of the most consistent players in this field, the Jerez de la Frontera-based Lustau winery.

VORS sherries (“Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum,” or more conveniently in English, “Very Old Rare Sherry”) are rare and extremely aged, and for the VORS 30 Years Old category, the wines are certified by Spain’s Consejo Regulador (Sherry Council) as having an average age of more than 30 years.

Lustau’s 2022 draw-off comes from a selection of nine old sherry casks in a solera founded 100 years ago. It was bottled without any filtration, delivering a deep amber Oloroso with a slightly blurry rim. It is awe-inspiring for the concentration and saltiness on the palate and is full of nuanced oxidative complexity. The intensity is almost painful on the palate, which is round and verges on being unctuous – but it rolls out a tangy yet mouthwatering and persistent finish.

The Oloroso is rich, oxidative and concentrated, and although it doesn’t have the refinement and energy of the sharper and saline Amontillado VORS 30 Years Old that we tasted last year, it is equally complex and shows that a top sherry can deliver an elixir-like nectar without being too sweet.

A selection of top-scoring Campanian white wines.

CAMPANIA CONSISTENCY

Senior Editor Ned Goodwin MW tasted a barrage of Campanian wine during his recent travels in Italy. While the region lays strong claims to complex red wines, the whites proved more consistent, as Ned discovered.

“To an extent, this is reflective of the nature of recent vintages,” Ned said. “It is also indicative of the stark reality that fewer whites are bludgeoned by poor quality oak. More so, however, the quality of the whites channels Campania’s fortuitous topography, volcanic soils, deep Mediterranean influences, altitudinal vineyards and their inherent diurnal shifts, all welded to a bevy of exceptional cultivars. With this, Campania not only challenges perceptions of Italy’s south as being too warm for quality white wine, but proves them completely erroneous.”

Ned said the arsenal of high-quality white grape varieties in Campania is unrivaled among Italian regions – think greco, fiano and falanghina as the main act, all capable of ample stone fruit allusions, bright acidity, nutty complexities with herbal variances and a saline fleck of mineral pungency.

“To cap recent vintages, Marco Tinestra, of fine lo-fi producer Ognostro, opined that 2020, 2021 and 2022 were ‘all warm, although with different climate trends. The 2020 was incredible because we had the warmest July in history, with no rain,’” Ned said. “Miraculously, he said, the wines’ uncanny freshness meant that there was no need to pick early.”

Raw artichokes, which are seasonal throughout the south of Italy in the spring and surprisingly perfect with fiano’s noble bitterness.

Some of Ned Goodwin's favorite wines from Campania.

“My favorite wines, noted below, were largely from 2021,” Ned continued. “Meanwhile, 2022 was a cauldron. The hot summer led to bouts of hail, loss of crop and mildew in parts. This was noticeable when tasting wines from certain subzones. Tinestra commented that Lapio, a commune of Avellino renowned for exceptional Fiano, lost 30 percent of production.”

“Stylistically, I found that that there are three radically different expressions of white being made, almost irrespective of variety,” Ned said. “The first is straight-shooting, fresh and mineral. The Tenuta de Meriggio Fiano 2021 is such a wine. I wrote of a ‘winning purity, defined by a pistachio to fennel-flecked undercarriage of mineral…’

“Second, there is the more ambitious, later harvested idiom. While these wines are dry, they are often embellished with oak and lees handling, conferring ripe stone fruit flavors, ginger, lanolin and versatility at the table. The wines from Laura de Vito, a Fiano specialist, are good examples. Finally there are those that evince an additional structural element following time on skins. The Villa Raiano Greco di Tufo Ponte dei Santi 2021 is an exemplar.”

– James Suckling, Edtor/Chairman; Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor; Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor; Ned Goodwin MW, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week 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.

Tasting Notes

Niepoort Port Very Old Tawny 1863

Country Portugal

Region Douro

Vintage 1863

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Old Ports, Rhone Magic and a Killer Sherry: Weekly Tasting Report (May 3-9)

MAGICAL MOMENT IN THE RHONE

CAMPANIA CONSISTENCY

Tasting Notes

Niepoort Port Very Old Tawny 1863

Douro Boys Port Very Old Tawny

Taylor’s Port Very Very Old Tawny

Graham’s Port 50 Year Old Tawny

Pierre Gonon St.-Joseph 2020

Taylor’s Port Very Very Old Tawny King Charles III

Fleur de Miraval Champagne Exclusivement Rosé 3

Graham’s Vintage Port Single Harvest Tawny 1997

Lustau Jerez Oloroso VORS 30 years old

Niepoort Port Very Old Tawny Port VV

Quinta do Vallado Port Tributo 1866

Sandeman Port 50 Year Old Tawny

Taylor’s Port 50 Year Old Tawny Golden Age

Quinta da Romaneira Port Colheita 2007

Quinta da Romaneira Vintage Port 2011

Quinta do Vallado Port Very Old Tawny

Van Zellers & Co Port Colheita White Port 1940

Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage La Guiraude 2020

Domaine Vincent Paris Cornas La Geynale 2016

Donnachiara Greco di Tufo 2009

Graham’s Vintage Port Single Harvest Tawny 1974

Graham’s Vintage Port The Stone Terraces 2021

Lustau Jerez Cream VORS 30 years old

Pierre Gonon St.-Joseph 2021

Pierre Gonon St.-Joseph Les Oliviers 2021

Quinta da Romaneira Port 10 Year Old

Quinta da Romaneira Vintage Port 2017

Quinta da Romaneira Vintage Port 2018

Quinta de la Rosa Port 20 Year Old Tawny

Quinta de la Rosa Port 30 Year Old Tawny

Taylor’s Port 20 Year Old Tawny

Taylor’s Port 30 Year Old Tawny

Tenuta del Meriggio Fiano di Avellino 2021

Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage 2021

Chateau de Saint Cosme Gigondas 2021

Clos d'Agon Cataluña Selección Especial 2020

Domaine Combier Crozes-Hermitage Blanc Clos des Grives 2021

Domaine Combier Crozes-Hermitage Clos des Grives 2021

Domaine Weinbach Pinot Noir Alsace Clos des Capucins 2019

Dow’s Port 20 Years Old Tawny

Dow’s Port Colheita 2007

Ferreira Port 20 Year Old Tawny Dona Antonia

Graham’s Port 20 Year Old Tawny

Graham’s Port Six Grapes Vila Velha Reserve

Lustau Jerez Añada Vintage Sherry 2003

Quinta da Romaneira Port 40 Year Old

Quinta da Romaneira Vintage Port 2007

Quinta da Romaneira Vintage Port 2015

Quinta de la Rosa Port 10 Year Old Tawny Tonel 12

Quinta do Crasto Port Colheita 1997

Sandeman Port 20 Year Old Tawny

Taylor’s Port 40 Year Old Tawny

Thomas Farge St.-Joseph Grand Angle 2020

Van Zellers & Co Port 30 Years Old Tawny

Van Zellers & Co Vintage Port 2017

Van Zellers & Co Vintage Port 2020

Bodegas Nivarius Rioja Blanco Reserva 2017

Cantine del Mare Falanghina Campi Flegrei Luce Flegrea 2021

Cantine Di Marzo Greco di Tufo Vigna Serrone Riserva 2021

Claudio Quarta Fiano di Avellino 2022

Clos d'Agon Cataluña 2020

Clos d'Agon Syrah Empordà Mas Palet 2020

Domaine Belle Hermitage 2020

Domaine Combier Crozes-Hermitage Cap Nord 2021

Domaine Combier St.-Joseph Cap Nord 2021

Domaine de Boisseyt Côte-Rôtie Côte Blonde 2020

Domaine de L'Amauve Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Séguret Laurences 2021

Domaine du Tix Ventoux Cuvée Bramefan 2019

Domaine du Tix Ventoux Infini Tix 2021

Domaine du Tix Ventoux L’Affaire Terre 2021

Domaine La Soumade Gigondas 2021

Domaine Marcel Richaud Cairanne L’Ebrescade 2020

Domaine Marcel Richaud Cairanne Rouge 2021

Domaine Vincent Paris St.-Joseph Les Côtes 2019

Donnachiara Falanghina Beneventano Resilienza 2021

Equis Cornas 2019