Chianti Classico Collection, Stazione Leopolda
Composing a year-end, these are the most thrillin’ wines tasted in the last 12 months list is kinda akin to scribbling up a little warble, if you get the director’s drift. The question begs, what’s the cause, what’s the meaning and ultimately why bother? Reminiscences are part of the human condition and while there is little amusement however in watching a wine critic taste wines, there just may be some interest in reading said list, checking it twice and coming to a personal conclusion as to which choices are worthy, and which are merely nice.
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Nebbiolo Prima 2023
You will find a notable cadent shift in this year’s melody away from there being a substantial number of older wines chosen as having been the year’s most exciting. Not to mention a concentration of certain grapes and their OG places. It’s just, well, natural. For 2023 more of the choices are directed towards hopelessly romantic youthful wines in their extant moments still years away from entering their right proper drinking windows. No shortage of opportunities in 2023 to taste top examples – Of sangiovese, nebbiolo, nerello mascalese, nero d’avola, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, grenache, syrah, chardonnay, riesling, assyrtiko and chenin blanc – Are but a range within the lion’s share of varietal moments.
Related – Twenty-one mind-blowing wines of 2021
Sicilia en Primeur
Old wines can elicit epiphanies but a conscious effort is made to include as many current vintages as possible, provided they represent a winery’s best of the best. This is the state of winemaking today because deeper understanding, the consummate use of technology and a passionate willingness to always improve are qualifying so many of the world’s finest wines at poll positions to a greater degree than before. There is little surprise that Italian wines coexist in highest favour if only because the author spends more than 25 percent of a 365-day timeframe in that country. Italy’s long, deep and intimate relationship with success is a serious attraction and so being afforded the opportunity to taste 2,000 Italian wines in a calendar year will almost certainly result in experiencing no less than 50 thrilling examples. A Bordeaux trip in September to 25 growth properties could and should rightly deliver wines to dot this list. Same could be said for many other palate awakening wine regions worldwide. All this and yet overall travels and tastings were less diverse and more focused in 2023. The author is known to follow the work.
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L’Etna, Sicily
Act one: Nebbiolo Prima. Act two: Two weeks later, the Chianti Classico Collection. Act three: Three months later, Sicilia en Primeur and a Canadian Sommelier boot camp with Chianti Classico. Act four: Summer in Paris with Lambrusco, judging at the Nationals in the Okanagan Valley for WineAlign, shooting video in Florence, up to Collio and Hungary and finally 113 degrees in the smoky shade of Washington. Act five: Europe all fall, from Bordeaux to Monferrato, Chianti Classico to Montalcino, Piedmontazine Alta Langa and back to Chianti Classico. These decisions are not taken lightly, nor are they apocryphal fabrications, but they are Godello’s 23 mind-blowing wines of 2023.
Coppo 1892 Piero Coppo Riserva Del Fondatore 2013, Alta Langa Riserva DOCG, Piedmont, Italy
The 2013 vintage is the turning point to this 60 percent pinot noir and (40) chardonnay becoming and being labeled Alta Langa, recently disgorged in 2022. Previous disgorgements were labelled Vino Spumante di Qualità. Now into wildly vivid and famous complexity, toasty yes but there’s a crème frâiche and an almost strawberries and cream component. Eonologists GianMario Cerrutti, Guiliermo Grasso and Vittorio Pescarmona conspired to see this age 85 to 90 months on the lees, almost unprecedented around Asti. Has hit its stride, in the right place between crunchy and the kind of sparkling wine that you begin to ruminate with in the mouth. Cerebral wine in every respect. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted January 2023
Hermann J. Wiemer Riesling HJW 2020, West Seneca Lake, Finger Lakes
Upper echelon aromatic stage presence, stoic and static as riesling must be if it wants to set a gold standard. Dry entry that sides and morphs into natural sweetness of peach and Forelle pear, almost lime cotton candy scented. From the original vineyard planted in 1976 closer to the lake where tender varieties excel. The elastic extension and tension together coexist as long as Seneca runs from the snow belt to Watkins Glen. Drink 2023-2030. Tasted April 2023
Vineyards of the Szent György Hegy, Balatoni
Gilvesy Rajnai Rizling Tarányi 2020, Szent György Hegy, Balatoni, Hungary
Old vines over 50 years of age (planted sometime in the 1970s), right below the estate, just nine rows and once belonging to the cooperative. Named after a landowner from the 1920s (or 30s) connected to the local governmental administration. Crunchy as only a Gilvesy rizling can be, lime doused, acids so bloody intelligent and making sure fruit is put into flight. Aged in steel, Austrian Stockinger cask and Flex-Cube. There is no doubt that the single vineyard Tarányi delivers a richer and luxe expression of rajnai rizling but also one of flint, petrol and scintillant emission. This flashes across the palate like a supernova and lingers long after the wine is gone. That is powerful rizling. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted July 2023
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Vassaltis Gramina Cuvee Des Vignerons 2021, PDO Santorini, Greece
Of course 100 per cent assyrtiko, picked and collected between six and eight AM, straight into the press, stainless steel vinified, no cooling, no passing go, no collecting 200 drachmas. All about preserving essential freshness, finesse and elegance. Spontaneous fermentation, a year on lees, in bottle six months. It is right here where we are to understand why Yiannis Valambous gave up a life 14 years ago that was not focused on Santorini, chose to return and altered his history. Santorini once a place of summers spent without purpose or tension is now all encompassing, focused on assyrtiko and for good reason. It is the variety to which all white grapes now aspire. Gramina sheds distraction and focuses on purity and 2021 is a great vintage. It celebrates assyrtiko from where it thrives and conveys that all important message of place. After tasting the Vassaltis Cuvée Des Vignerons 2021 winemakers around the world will ask their farmers to plant the grape in the place where they are. They will do so because even a fraction of this excellence will be worth pursuing. Drink 2023-2033. Tasted February 2023
Ulmo Chardonnay
Planeta Didacus 2020, Sicilia Menfi DOC
From Vigneto Maroccoli, The Didacus home where vines were planted in 1997 and 1998. The connection with chardonnay “Classico” is obvious but whole bunch fermentation and seriously selected oak barrels change the complexion and even more so the spice cupboard of this high caste wine. It may seem that Didacus would fare at its best in the warmest of vintages but it does not really need the extra sunshine and ripeness. Didacus gets there quite easily thank you very much and so the slightly cooler and more classic 2020 is ideal for a wine of exceptional depth and weight. Harmony is the result. Che equilibrio! Drink 2023-2028. Tasted May 2023
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With Sarah Goedhart and Christophe Hedges
Hedges Family Estate Red Mountain Reserve 1999, Red Mountain AVA, Yakima Valley, Washington
The artist formerly known as Red Mountain Reserve became Le Haute Cuvée with the 2012 vintage. Hedges was both ahead of their time (because the word Reserve was already losing its wine world lustre) and respectful of family history by labelling in a Champagne or at least a French vernacular. Here is a nearly 24 year-old red blend that has aged remarkably well and though thinking miraculously was a momentary thought – there is no miracle but something more profound at play. The Mountain for one thing and a family at least a decade ahead of the curve. Early Washington organics, no reverse osmosis, no mechanical filtration and no lobotomizing a bottle of red wine. Yes the secondary notes are present and they are settled in a state of absolute proprietary grace. Very little trace of tannin, nor any barrel that is but a superfine mountain induction that makes for a silky feeling in the mouth. There is a chance this will live another 24 years but the fruit is already leaving and so 12 should be the maximum with half that the truest and most honest recommendation. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted August 2023
J.B. Neufeld Cabernet Sauvignon Two Blondes Vineyard 2021, Yakima Valley AVA
From Justin and Brooke Neufeld who first bottled their cabernet sauvignon in 2008. “In my opinion the Yakima is the state’s most diverse terroir,” explains Justin. “By focusing on one variety it forces me to concentrate on the nuances of the sites here in Rattlesnake Hills and the Upper Valley.” A cooler clime for a less granular if also reduced austerity as compared to what comes from Red Mountain. Here the ridges run east to west and Two Blondes is as cool a site as there is the Upper Valley where the cataclysmic glacial lake outburst Missoula Floods peaked at 1,200 feet. Early concrete raising for a cabernet of place above all else, conspicuously aromatic with a whole helluva lot of things (and love) going on. Famously and indelibly connected to the winemakers who created it. A cerebral cab that makes you perk up, ponader and pay attention. The wood factor is quite present, the wine is so young and this feeling of delicasse, grace and repose are on the indigo horizon. Should take about three years time to get to a point of heartsease and another three to gain serenity. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted August 2023
Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon Trailside Vineyard 2008, Napa Valley, California
As Trailside Vineyard from Heitz will always do, is it the acid that is preserved. This was the case in both the ’06 and the ’07 but back in 2008 the aromatics were expressed in extra level florals, savoury elements and a charming layering of swarthiness. Five years of bottle aging before release plus nine more since have gathered the necessary elements and when you nose but then taste this wine you just know that it is Heitz, by style and out of a context that speaks to what the vineyard is want and purposed to say. Fine position, time and place right here, right now, ready, willing, able to please and without any moment of equivocation. Might just stay this way for another five, perhaps even ten years. Drink 2023-2031. Tasted October 2023
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Spottswoode Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Napa Valley, California
Opened after a near 20-year stay in the cellar and just a few days after tasting the 2010 and 2020 with Beth Weber Novak in Toronto. The vintage has not been considered as one to hold as long as either 2001 or 2003 but there can be no questioning this 2002’s longevity on this very day. Inventiveness without reinvention because this scents as fresh as it must have been at the essence of its very nascence. All that can be crushed to express in aromas for which imagination conjures berries, stones, clay and flowers. Spottswoode ’02 defines a Napa Vally posit tug between power and grace while existing in a controlled state of confidence and calm. A wine that gently, privately seduces the palate, body and mind into the gentlest slumber of our lives. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted October 2023
Graci Etna Rosso DOC Arcurìa Sopra Il Pozzo 2018
The southwest corner of Graci’s Arcurìa cru is Vigna Sopra Il Pozzo, identified as a most important block within a larger vineyard already qualified as something of great Etna Versante Nord value. Challenging season and every iota of energy captured and encapsulated inside a nerello mascalese of supreme freshness. The palate is the profound matter of this wine’s supreme expressive nature, with soft, graceful and subtly powerful tannins. An Etna Rosso that lays in waiting, not to pounce but to slowly and persistently keep hold of our attention. No density from Sopra Il Pozzo ’18 but compact layers of slow-release tension – and also energy. Drink 2024-2035. Tasted May 202
Girolamo Russo Etna Rosso DOC Piano Delle Colombe 2020, Sicily, Italy
Piano delle Colombe is a single block (or vineyard if you like) identified within San Lorenzo aged in tonneaux and barriques. Not a different take on the contrada but one that considers some rows of nerello mascalese whose separated vinifications have consistently performed well (and more often than not better) in many consecutive vintages. Concentration and hyper purity is incredulous, encouraged to the point of hyperbole by the vintage. Would say yet another Girolamo Russo ’20 that opens the floodgates of Etna Rosso fruit potential so that this waterfall of beauty crashes over the palate. Which in turn abides if only because it has no choice or else be drowned in fruit. Submit and be graced with a fineness of structure that can only feel the condition of greatness. Texture and finish are tops. Drink 2025-2038. Tasted May 2023
Il Poggio, Castello di Monsanto, San Donato in Poggio
Castello Di Monsanto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigneto Il Poggio 2018, San Donato In Poggio, Tuscany, Italy
There can be little doubt that Gran Selezione is the wine to explain style from a place within a place, that being Monsanto’s Il Poggio Vineyard inside the UGA of San Donato In Poggio. Il Poggio is four things; famous, respected, stunning and structured to design formidably age-worthy sangiovese. Stylistically speaking this Gran Selezione is so very different than Riserva because older-school austerity and unrelenting tannic structure keep fruit locked in tight while also interpreting place with pinpoint precision. But 2018 is a warm and accumulating vintage and so all things being equal there are strong determining factors for the fate of this place. Highly aromatic, tripping with light, energy and the science of the soils, of Galestro and schisty fragments that must be a part of the make up, from stones through vines and vines to fruit. This Monsanto Selezione smells like the place’s dust kicked up by heels and hands dragged through the dirt. With 2018 in bottle there could be an argument that San Donato in Poggio’s are some of the richest of all the UGAs, but this is Monsanto where destiny is all. Drink 2025-2037. Tasted February and May 2023
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Fèlsina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Colonia 2009, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Tuscany, Italy
Colonia Vineyard is a short jog up the hill past Rancia and through the woods. In 1966 Domenico Poggiali found a cellar set into the “tufa” hills of his Fèlsina estate. It was small, built of stone and with a wide brick vault. It was a start. In 1967 he chose to plant Colonia in an impossibly challenging and extreme Alberese limestone rocky location. He used dynamite because that was the thing at the time but it was soon outlawed and made clearing the land near impossible. Twenty-four years later Giovanni Poggiali resumed the project and planted its first vines in 1993, just before Domenico passed away. Colonia 2009 is La Prima, the first Gran Selezione and this look back is one to recall roots (tethered to 2006), familial traditions and passing of the Chianti Classico torch. This vintage separates and leaves its original designations in the rear-view mirror. At 14 years of age it remains austere but austere can be beautiful. As here, with severe and chiseled features though the savoury elements differ from Rancia. More resinous evergreen and forested aromas but also a chalkiness that speaks directly out of the Alberese. The thing is Colonia remains still young and fresh, while the powdered mineral persists unresolved. One of the most fascinating retrospective looks at aged Chianti Classico. Drink 2023-2036. Tasted October 2023
Il Molino di Grace
Il Molino Di Grace Gratius 2019, Toscana IGT
Gratius will make a very high quality Gran Selezione and the time is nigh to accord it the designation. All the qualities are inherent and intrinsic to the coming status, namely concentration, finest silken grains of texture and balancing tannin. Come now, the future is poetic and gracious. Last tasted October 2023
Choosing not to compare Gratius to Chianti Classico at any level, let alone Gran Selezione, is wise and for several reasons. For one thing the blending in of canaiolo and colorino changes dynamics by setting and settling acidity, elevating pH and stabilizing colour. For more reasons check out the manual but here are the Coles notes. Gratius delivers two-toned liquorice, more direct solar radiated brightness, finer and yet less immediately understood structure and a chewiness that sets it apart. What matters is here is that Gratius is the representative for the single San Francesco vineyard and so it is a profound IGT ready, willing and able to become a wine graced with the Gallo Nero and labeled as Panzano. Two new Austrian casks will conceive 3,900 bottles going forward and the future is all about DOCG quality at the highest appellative level. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted February 2023
Isole E Olena Cepparello 2021, Toscana IGT, Tuscany, Italy
Paolo’s first tasting of this finished 2021 Cepparello since bottling back in May is this right here. The frost vintage, namely on April 7th, with secondary buds on the Cordone vines being the source of most of the wine’s fruit. Not a disaster at Isole e Olena, maybe 35 percent loss in total but the quality was high and so less Chianti Classico was made. “That wine is less about the vintage for us,” says de Marchi and so this as the decision made to cope with the small crop. Once again (and since forever) Paolo employs the aromas and proteins inducing method of soft maceration, long délestage and skins connected back with already half fermented juice. The ’21 is a wine of “frescezza” and yet saying freshness does not do the description justice. There is tension and a nervous energy buzzing from Cepparello 2021 and one to really hold your attention. There may be no Italian word for texture but were there one that made any real sense it might be the dramatic threads of “weft” from this 2021 youthful work in progress. This will be a Cepparello for the ages, Buy it and bank on it. Drink 2026-2040. Tasted December 2023
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Casanova Di Neri Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG Tenuta Nuova 2019, Tuscany, Italy
Tenuta Nuova is something next level and you know this from the moment you put nose to glass. It consumes the senses straight away with its intoxicating perfume as deep as it is strong. Muscular in that regard and exponentially so at the intersection of palate and structure. The stuffing, intensity, power and layers are what we call “off the charts” and there are but a few vintages that create, instil and then leave this kind of impression. Drink 2027-2038. Tasted November 2023
Take a moment, reflect even before this has even begun, focus the senses and prepare for a long connection with a 2019 from Andrea Costanti. A Brunello di Montalcino that graciously requests full attention paid because vineyard, experience and vintage have taken no liberties as it pertains to what is the necessary requiem. Aromatic wealth void of force and punch without gratuity comes out of the glass like an apparition gliding through the halls of a medieval edifice. They are sweet, flowing and casually swift. The palate and mouthfeel are one in the same – in most wines made everywhere around the world this is simply not the case. Acidity is right and it is bloody correct – whatever that means but in this case it’s true. Costanti tannins are always their best self but then there are 2019 tannins which elongate with elastic ease, always stretching forwards and return they will though it is hard to say when that will happen. It just does not happen on the finish, which is something impossibly so. Who would not wish to be frozen in this youth, impeccably fresh, limber and athletic? May act this way with generosity and charm for decades. Drink 2026-2040. Tasted November 2023
Biondi Santi Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Tenuta Il Greppo 1988, Tuscany, Italy
It is very important to be reminded that Biondi-Santi is the original but also the estate that practiced early harvesting before just about anyone else. At the time the sangiovese grosso vines from the estate BBS11 clone (mainly intended for Riserva) would have been 25 years of age and while considered then and also now as a great vintage it is worth noting that in 1988 the final alcohol was 11 percent. When the estate style is reflected upon there is just something about the continuity which begins with the 1980s and especially the 1985 forward to the later part of that decade, all the way through to 2018 more than thirty years later. Yes there is in fact a connection despite the gap, the huge change in climate and the challenge to maintain identity. The last point is key because the contiguous teams focus on this ahead of all else. The ’88 now shows dried red fruits but also the wild strawberry and then frutta di bosco that are the hallmarks of an older Brunello that has not fallen over into the porcini and truffle zone. Not Biondi-Santi because wood was never the axis nor the focus and fruit was always carefully selected before being gently coaxed to arrive at this kind of secondary level. No matter the age the style persists as fresh red fruit, with fine acids more than alive and a specific succulence specific to place. Il Greppo the estate – which means the people abided by their charge to preserve this heritage. The original endowment of Montalcino. Respect. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted November 2023
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Cantina Del Pino Barbaresco DOCG Ovello 2017, Barbaresco, Piedmont
The 2017 is part of a life’s work and now legacy defining Barbaresco by Renatto Vacca of Cantina del Pino who three years ago was lost to the nebbiolo, Barbaresco, Piedmontese and Italian world, but most of all to his adoring family. For now and wishfully forever there is Aldo Vacca of Produttori del Barbaresco who will not just transition but consult in perpetuity to this great estate. In the meantime Renatto’s 2017 Ovello from the Grand Cru vineyard overlooking the Tanaro River is sumptuous, silken textured, fruit maximized and elegance incarnate. Easy to be romantic in this situation but also wistful and somber – yet the wine speaks so clearly and emphatically it’s all that matters at this very moment. These are complete, distinct and forward carrying tannins to take Ovello ’19 deep into this and well further through the next decade. Solo cose belle Cantina del Pino. Drink 2025-2034. Tasted January 2023
Pio Cesare Barolo DOCG Ornato 2019, Serralunga d’Alba, Piedmont
Tasted with Cesare Benvenuto in Alba from the Serralunga cru and a vintage of round fruit set against a backdrop of understated if surely intense tannin. A year for which a winemaking team had to reset and not push anything too hard, lest there creep in notes of volatility and astringency. Jam as well and the report on Ornato by Pio Cesare speaks nothing of these things. A softness in the beginning and also a state of grace with the force of structure waiting in the wings, respectfully and knowing now is the merely the time for introductions. Some fruit from 1947 planted vines takes part in this nebbiolo play and the rest seem to follow, fill and support, dutifully in the tradition of this menzione. Though those vines are hard to define in how they affect overall concentration there is the unspoken aspect of experience and strength. Of character which leads to probability to say this Ornato will live long and prosper for decades. Another stunner from the world of Pio Cesare. Drink 2026-2039. Tasted January 2023
Cavallotto Tenuta Bricco Boschis Barolo Riserva DOCG Bricco Boschis Vigna San Giuseppe 2017, Castiglione Falletto, Piedmont
Not entirely sure why there is a need or desire to show a Riserva 2017 from a cask sample but frankly this feels ready to be in bottle. The aromatics are resolved, the fruit laid in a state of preparedness and the nebbiolo character intact, with tact and in display of its varietal guarantee. No other 2017 exhibits this much acidity and while some might see it as edgy to verging on volatile, the reminder is this. Bricco Boschis, Castiglione Falletto and an old school soul for Barolo that will outlast them all. What a glorious Barolo, without holes and one hundred percent in charge of its emotions. Ours submit to the character of this great nebbiolo. Drink 2025-2040. Tasted blind at Nebbiolo Prima, January 2023
Château Troplong-Mondot Premier Grand Cru Classé 2019, Saint-Émilion, Bordeaux, France
First vintage where the malolactic fermentation was done 100 percent in tank before being racked to barrel. Some simultaneous spontaneity overlapping with alcoholic fermentation but more often than that there will be control to have them happen one after the other. The fact that 35 percent of the vineyards at the top of the hill are filled with the hardest clay anywhere in Bordeaux, coupled with limestone all over creates the most mineral quotient around. This transmits as contained and controlled power, especially from the generously wooded 2019 but my goodness the saline freshness, chalky quality and silken tannin wrap up the fruit with a ying-yang of nurture and grip. Whether you are familiar with, an expert on or just arriving at a Troplong Mondot Grand Cru Classé for the first time – it just doesn’t matter. This 2019 will blow your mind. Drink 2025-2039. Tasted September 2023
Château Les Carmes Haut Brion Grand Vin De Graves 2018, AC Pessac Léognan, Bordeaux, France
Extremely different vintage but not like ’17, here with much darker, riper and developed fruit. Freshness would have to have been a challenge but at 13.5 percent alcohol and high pH there comes this ulterior freshness with texture imposed by great and forceful will. More active infusion earlier on because there was so much colour and extraction on hand from a vintage where the blend was nearly the same as that of 2017. That being 38 percent cabernet franc, (35) cabernet sauvignon and (27) merlot. There really is no other chateau that creates this style, a mix of salt and pepper seasoning over blue to black fruit and in 2018 the whole bunch inclusion was 60 percent. If you are buying high end Bordeaux from 2018 then Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion is the place to be, though it’s likely sold out wherever you may live. Just about nothing else in the Left Bank finds this level of quality, balance and success. The whole bunch “infusion” methodology controls the heat and excess of the vintage to deliver finesse, precision, restraint and honesty. Drink 2025-2038. Tasted September 2023
Good to go!
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