Weekly Tasting Report (Jan 1-7): Napa 2019 Builds Its Case for Greatness, and Distinctly Different Brunellos
James during his Zoom tasting interview with Tor Kenward, who said he still prefers the 2018s to the 2019s.
Some highly collectible Napa Valley reds lead our first weekly tasting report this year with a unique co-fermented cabernet blend from Tor and an iconic cult wine from Dalla Valle taking the top kudos. Plus there’s lots of 2019 Bordeaux as we power through our thousands of samples from France’s most popular wine region, as well as numerous German and Italian wines we rated.
I had an impressive tasting by Zoom yesterday morning with Tor Kenward, the owner of Tor, involving eight 2019 reds and two 2019 chardonnays. The latter are always impressive to me considering Kenward is better known for his precise Napa reds. The only problem is getting your hands on his chardonnays because they are made in tiny quantities.
Kenward says “he still prefers 2018” over 2019 in Napa, both for whites and reds. But the 2019s are “enormously pleasing right now,” he said. “Some 2018s are slightly hard and need more time. The 2019s have slightly higher pH [less acid strength] so the wines are more approachable now.”
His 2019 reds were indeed open and so enjoyable to taste, yet they have a backbone and framework of firm and fine-grained tannins that give so much form and verve to the young wines.
Kenward said he actually macerated the wine on the skins of his reds for longer in 2019 compared with 2018 to make sure the wines had this form. They macerated after the alcoholic fermentation for seven to 10 days more than 2018.
I was really surprised, but I think the extended maceration gives his wines more intensity and framing than so many of the 482 Napa red 2019s we have rated so far.
If you love top Napa, also check out the new 2019s from Dalla Valle. The Napa Valley Maya 2019 is a worthy follow-through to the sublime 2018. The same could be said about the normal bottling of Dalla Valle Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019. The wines have real pedigree and elegance with intensity.
Plus, we rated some 2020 Beringer chardonnays, including their private reserve. Honestly, some didn’t live up to their past performances, but check out the ratings below to see which ones impressed us.
I had another Zoom tasting this week with the owner of Salicutti, a small Brunello estate that I have admired since the 1990s. Sabine Eichbauer and her husband bought the slightly less than two-hectare estate at the end of 2015, and they have been making some of their best wines ever at Salicutti. They now make three single-vineyard Brunellos instead of one bottling, and their reds are precise, soulful, and terrior-driven. Her 2017s are some of the best from the vintage.
The only problem is finding some because only a few thousand bottles are made of each bottling, which includes Brunello di Montalcino Sorgente, Brunello di Montalcino Piaggione and Brunello di Montalcino Teatro. “I know that it’s not a smart decision to make all these wines and not just one,” Sabine said during a Zoom on Wednesday. “But it’s something we want to do.”
I’m glad they are doing it. The wines are really distinctly different, with the Piaggione being more typical with cherry and berry character and slightly tight and linear with an acid drive, while the Sorgente is layered, minerally and dusty in texture and the Teatro driven and polished with the character and nature of the first two. My suggestion is to find some now.
READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF THE USA 2021
It might be easier to find some bottles of Altesino Brunellos, and the newest release, the 2017 single-vineyard Montosoli, is of incredible quality considering the heat of the vintage during the grape-growing season. So many of the 2017 Brunellos are overdone, with masses of fruit and tannins, but Montosoli is a cool, collective and focused 2017. It shows the great quality of the Montosoli vineyard on the north side of Montalcino. The 2016 Altesino Riserva is also classic in quality and rated here.
Senior Editor Stuart Pigott tasted a large selection of 2020s from the Mosel’s Max Ferd. Richter, a longtime quality wine producer that Stuart and I have been following since the 1980s. The wines are always excellent quality and well-priced, and 2020 has so many bottlings that fit this description. Look below for the ratings on these.
I also don’t want you to miss two wonderful reds in this report: Renato Ratti Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata 2016 and Marqués de Riscal Rioja Gran Reserva 2016. Both wines highlight the high quality of the vintage in their respective regions, and they show a wonderful combination of structure, complexity and elegance.
READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF FRANCE 2021
Meanwhile, much of this report (150 ratings) is taken up with 2019 Bordeaux, which is an excellent vintage, especially for appellations such as Pomerol and St. Emilion. Some top names in this report include Ferriere, Haut-Bages Liberal, Gaffeliere, Petit Village, Durfort-Vivens, Gazin, La Louviere, Marsau and Prieure-Lichine.
“I prefer the longness and the palate of the ’19,” Claire Villars Lurton, the owner of Ferriere and Haut-Bages Liberal, said during a Zoom tasting interview with Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt (at right). “Everything is very homogenous, in fact, more than ’18. But ’18 has the generosity in the attack, which is amazing. So both are so interesting.”
Added her husband, Gonzague Lurton, who owns Dufort-Vivens: “19 is very different from ’18. ’18 was sunny, with a high level of maturity. ’19 was brighter, I would say, and in Margaux especially … the wines are probably less heavy than they were in 18, but much more brilliant.”
That’s what we are finding with 2019, too. So stay tuned for many more reviews of Bordeaux’s newest vintage in bottle as well as many more.
– James Suckling, Chairman/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.