Weekly Tasting Report (Nov 16-22): Small-batch wines come to the fore
James tastes with Priyanka French, winemaker at Signorello, which made a 96-point wine, while Nick Stock enjoys some chards from New Zealand in Australia.
Welcome to our 30th consecutive weekly wrap of wines tasted here at JamesSuckling.com and the latest in a run of weekly reports that tops 400 wines. Having just published our annual Top 100 Wines of 2020, we are still very busy tasting with wines this week from Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal and the USA. This week’s top scoring honors are shared between two outstanding New Zealand pinot noirs and a very unique dry riesling from Alsace.
The Bell Hill Pinot Noir Waikari 2017 (99 points) is the latest and best ever release of pinot from this super high-density vineyard that has produced only tiny amounts of wine that are highly sought after. This is great pinot and has the kaleidoscopic expansiveness of the best anywhere in the world. Very fragrant and fresh, it has “such fine yet fleshy texture” with a “very brightly defined, long and fresh finish.” Seek this wine out.
Joining the 2017 Rippon Mature Vine Pinot Noir (99 points) we featured here last week, the Rippon Pinot Noir Central Otago Tinker’s Field 2017 is also rated 99 points and is an exquisite wine that hails from a parcel of the oldest vines on the Rippon property. This is so expressive of the schist soils and is a “complex and strikingly fragrant pinot noir” with a “vivid and intense core of blueberry and dark-cherry flavors” on the palate. I find this wine so enigmatic, so restrained yet powerful.
And the third wine to achieve a 99-point rating in our tasting this week, the Famille Hugel Riesling Alsace Schoelhammer 2010 (99 points) is “one of the world’s unique dry whites” with deeply spicy aromas and concentrated “candied citrus.” This wields “power and structure” on the palate but also delivers a vibrancy that “keeps expanding in the glass.” It has decades of aging potential too.
Also in Alsace tastings this week, the Albert Mann Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg L’Epicentre 2018 (97 points) is “a super concentrated riesling dessert wine with stunning concentration and vibrancy” that has a cascade of fruits and a “breathtaking finish.” Likewise the Famille Hugel Riesling Alsace Vendange Tardive 2013 (97 points) marries “great power and succulence on the vibrant palate” with a “strong, tightly knit finish that’s brimming with mineral freshness.”
To Italy and James found a trio of great full-bodied wines that are all capable of great aging and also deliver an impression of finesse and focus, which is no easy thing to execute. First, a great Amarone in the Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Sergio Zenato Riserva 2015 (98 points), which he coined an “Amarone for the future.” The richness of flavor and powerful tannin here deliver a “full-bodied and very structured” Amarone that needs some time to come around.
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- Rippon’s excellent 2017 pinots were among our Kiwi highlights this week.
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- Some of the 2018 Portuguese wines that scored well last week.
Then there’s the Montevetrano Colli di Salerno 2018 (97 points) which is big on “plum and cherry character” and offers “layers of fruit and a long, flavorful finish” that “needs time to soften.” There’s finesse amid all this strength here too. And also rated 97 points, the Argiolas Isola dei Nuraghi Turriga 2016 is a “lovely, polished red” also in a full-bodied style that delivers “tight, firm tannin structure and a long, sleek finish.” James really liked the “dense, tight and powerful” style and says it is “one of the most structured ever” from Argiolas.
I’ve been working through a selection of the Hunter Valley’s best producers, including a selection of the top single-vineyard wines from Brokenwood. Their Shiraz Hunter Valley Graveyard Vineyard 2018 (98 points) hails from a powerful vintage and delivers a wine of real impact within the realms of Hunter Valley medium-bodied red wine style. Big on fresh blackberries, violets, blackcurrants and dark spices, it has a “very compact, smoothly defined and long” palate that delivers a “velvety, rich and seamless” impression. One for collectors, this will age so well.
A pair of posthumous releases and some of the last wines to be made by the late Taras Ochota also feature this week. Both are grenache wines from McLaren Vale where he did some of his greatest work. The rare Ochota Barrels Grenache McLaren Vale 186 2020 (98 points) is a single-barrel selection that has “a tautly spicy and tight-wound nose” and a palate that is “so supple, long and focused.”
Made as a collaborative project with Maynard James Keenan, the excellent Ochota Barrels Grenache McLaren Vale A Sense of Compression 2020 (98 points) is also very taut and shows “pared-back raspberry, blueberry and red cherry” along with “a lithe, mouthwatering core of quite linear tannin and bright acidity.” Both these wines represent grenache at its upbeat and energetic best and an important part of Ochota’s winemaking legacy is driving grenache in this direction in Australia.
Bell Hill also made this week’s highlights with chardonnay. Their Chardonnay Waikari 2017 (97 points) is very intense and cleverly manages to carry such concentrated ripe fruit and still deliver an explosively long palate. Like the pinot, this is only made in tiny amounts. There’s also an inaugural release of a new single parcel bottling of chardonnay from Bell Hill – we will publish the first review very soon. My forthcoming New Zealand report is shaping up as one brimming with quality and value across so many styles.
Many of the wines featured in our top scoring highlights this week are made in small amounts and, while the production is limited, cherished bottles are opened in many corners of the wine world. Rarity is a double-edged sword in wine these days, and thankfully we so often find that rare bottles are opened and shared widely among friends, especially as we head towards the end of the year.
Holidays will likely look a little different, but great wine shared with good friends and family will always be the same.
Enjoy these reviews and stay safe.
– Nick Stock, executive editor