Screaming Eagle and Bryant Family Turn Up the Napa Vibe, Plus Argentina’s Hillside Gems: Weekly Tasting Report (March 23-29)
I have been visiting a number of the benchmark wineries in Napa Valley over the last few days, and it’s been an amazing experience because most are showing their 2019s – a great vintage, as you probably know, and a sequential year to the superb 2018. We seem to be in a new era for great wines in California with these two vintages as well as 2021, which is still in barrel.
I loved the stop-offs at Bryant Family Vineyard and Screaming Eagle. The contrast in the vibe in the cellars was memorable, to say the least. They both look similar inside with beautiful man-made caves drilled into the side of hills to create moist and cool cellars for aging their wines in barrels.
They both had the latest equipment to hand-make their wines, whether small stainless, wood or concrete vats, or the best basket presses. Barrels and casks for aging were handpicked and perfectly maintained. The cellars were pristinely kept to the level of a prestigious timepiece studio in Switzerland. The two winemakers were equally passionate and thoughtful people – Kathryn Carothers of Bryant and Nick Gislason of Screaming Eagle. However, the big difference was in the ambience of their wine workplaces, which I loved in both cases.
After tasting the three wines that are in this report from Bryant, I went down from their second-floor tasting lab and tried some fantastic 2021s from barrel (I think Bryant could have a 100-point wine from this great vintage), and I was struck by the serenity and positive energy in the aging room – as if the wines in barrel were immersed in the music of a Mozart opera.
Meanwhile, a few days later at Screaming Eagle, I was tasting barrel samples of various lots of cabernet sauvignon and merlot from the calamitous 2020 vintage, and Led Zeppelin was invigorating the spirit of the cave with “Communication Breakdown,” at a volume of 11. I can’t say that the vibes made their wines any different, and I believe that both Kathryn and Nick would love the music in both places, but I continue to smile thinking about these great American wines and their chilled and precise creators with their music meccas right in their own cellars. And, yes, the wines were stupendous, as you will see in this report of almost 800 wines.
READ MORE: OUR TOP WINES OF 2021
A couple quick thoughts about Screaming Eagle: it’s one of the most expensive wines in the world, as you probably know, but it is also one of the greatest without thinking about the price. I was gobsmacked by the two Screaming Eagle wines of 2018, particularly “The Flight.” It’s mostly merlot with some cabernet franc, and it competes with the best of Pomerol. In fact, the 2018 is the twin of the great Chateau Lafleur and it must be the greatest merlot-based wine ever made in America. In addition, the 2020s in barrel at Screaming Eagle are top quality and will be at the same level, or very close, as 2018 and 2019. Nick said they picked their grapes in 2020 right after the first fire began and it wasn’t a problem. I didn’t detect any smoke taint, and the quality was fantastic from what I tasted. I am interested to taste the final blends next year.
The situation was different in 2020 at Bryant and most other Napa wineries. Grapes in 2020, for the most part, were never picked because of the smoke. The second fire, or the “Glass Fire,” as it was called, was just too strong and countered any hopes of making wine without smoke taint for most winemakers who were waiting to pick.
I rated about 100 wines from California over the last seven days and there are many below to check out. I must say that I love California chardonnay – actually all top American chardonnays – and some to look into are the recent and soon-to-be released bottles from Pahlmeyer. Winemaker Katie Vogt is making some of the best chards now in Napa, with depth and structure. Much of the fruit comes from old Wente chardonnay clones from mountain fruit and the famous vineyard of Stagecoach.
READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF ARGENTINA 2021
There are also plenty of hillside vineyards making great wines from the massive tastings from Argentina we’ve done. This report has some of the latest reviews of Argentine wines, with about 260 wines listed. Top names here include Bemberg, Susanna Balbo Wines and Zuccardi. You will find ratings for their best wines, from Nosotros to Piedra Infinita. We love the 2019 vintage just like the super-quality 2018, but we must say that the hot and dry vintage of 2020, especially in Mendoza, seems to be a slight step down in quality.
Meanwhile, Senior Editor Nick Stock has found many great bottles in South Australia over the last week, with names such as Yarra Yering, Nocturne and Aphelion showing the best, particularly grenache and cabernet sauvignon. And Senior Editor Stuart Pigott continues his reviews on Beaujolalis, mostly 2020, and is now in Hungary. We look forward to more information from there.
Washington State is on the radar in this report as well with about 150 wines posted. Most are 2019, which was a very good vintage even though a frost in October cut some of the production for grape growers. Stay tuned for around 600 ratings.
There so many wine regions and wines covered in this week’s report. Check out the tasting notes below to see what appeals.
– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman
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.