Weekly Tasting Report (Nov 23-29, 2021): Champagne Charm, New Zealand Novelty and Amarone Ambition
James during a blind tasting in the Hong Kong tasting office this past week. (Photos by JamesSuckling.com)
Senior Editor Stuart Pigott and Contributing Editor Nick Stock were on the road over the past week visiting various producers in Europe and Australia, with the former spending four days in Champagne and the latter exploring McLaren Vale and Margaret River.
Stuart tasted about 50 new releases from Champagne, visiting various producers from Bollinger and Mumm to Charles Heidsieck and Pommery. His top new discovery was the Charles Heidsieck Champagne Millésimé Brut Rosé 2008, which he described as an “amazing 2008 rosé Champagne that has all the structure and aromatic complexity – sushi ginger, oolong tea and caramelized mandarin orange – we associate with this vintage, but also has more charm than most.”
The Pommery Champagne Cuvée Louise Nature 2006 and Ruinart Champagne Dom Ruinart Brut Blanc de Blancs 2009 were close behind. “Breathtaking elegance,” is how Stuart described the first. “Extremely fresh and focused for its age and displaying the opulence that this vintage tended towards.” As for the Ruinart Brut Blanc de Blancs, he said it “flows over the palate in a single, great wave that extends into the enveloping and energetic finish, making you forget all the troubles of the world.” What praise!
READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF FRANCE 2021
Nick spent a good part of a day tasting no fewer than 23 wines from South Australia’s Clarendon Hills, including bottlings of the Astralis syrah, Blewitt Springs grenache and the Clarendon Old Vines grenache. He tasted wines as far back as 2001 but really enjoyed the recent releases, especially from 2020.
Nick also tasted more Western Australian wines when he was there a couple of weeks ago. This included the highly touted Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec Margaret River Tom Cullity 2018, which he described as “a great edition of the top cabernet blend from Vasse Felix,” adding that it showed “a lot of power and depth.”
He also found some untasted gems from New Zealand in his tasting room in Adelaide, including beauties from Craggy Range and Neudorf. The Craggy Range Pinot Noir Martinborough Aroha Te Muna 2020 is “is a very stylish, plump and fleshy pinot that has a sweetly spicy, floral and fragrant nose with ripe red and dark cherries, as well as sappy, forest leaves and gentle, earthy tones,” while the Neudorf Chardonnay Nelson Moutere Home Block 2020 is “is very powerful and impressively composed, with a bracing core of fresh acidity sitting amid weighty, rich peach fruit.”
The Hong Kong office is deep into South African wines at the moment and we’re finding a number of interesting ones – from amphora-made chardonnays to juicy pinotage. It was a nice change from tasting hundreds of intense and plush Napa Valley reds over the last month.
READ MORE: OUR TOP 100 WINES OF 2021
The African nation delivers a lot in drinkability and good prices. The top South African wine in this report is the Mullineux Chenin Blanc Swartland Granite 2020, which is rich, flavorful and concentrated, while the Dornier Stellenbosch Donatus 2017 also impressed with its “delicious blue-fruit and crushed-stone character.”
We also tasted another 70 or so California wines highlighting the excellent quality of the 2019 vintage, which shows a little more ripeness and fruit-driven character. We are not yet convinced that 2019 has the ethereal interest of the 2018 but it could very well be at the same level or better, just with a little more plushness and glamor. Axr had our best wine of the week from Napa with the axr Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley axr 2019 showing great polish with a “silky tannin structure with incredible balance and succulent fruit.”
Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt had a quick Zoom and tasting with Consulting Enologist Stephane Derenoncourt of Bordeaux, who has been making wonderful Greek wines, both red and white, from the winery of T-Oinos on the island Tinos near Mykonos.
The wines, particularly the reds, showed wonderful definition and polish with ultra-fine tannins. Derenoncourt started with the 2017 vintage but the winery began about 15 years ago. Watch this space for more tastings of Greek wines.
Tasting Editor Jo Cooke soldiered on with his Italian tastings and the two best were the Michele Chiarlo Barbaresco Asili 2018 and Guerrieri Rizzardi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Villa Rizzardi Riserva 2015. The Michele Chiarlo felt super elegant and refined, yet compact and focused at the same time, while Guerrieri Rizzardi made a super, linear, modern-style Amarone that is 16.5 percent alcohol but doesn’t feel it at all.
So there was much to enjoy over the last week, covering a broad swathe of styles out of the 451 wines we tasted (with an average score of 92) and some new names that we hope you will seek out too. Until next week…
– James Durston, Executive 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.