95+
BLANKbottle Orbitofrontal Cortex 2023
"Twelve different grape varieties make up the blend here, produced by Pieter Walser using his conscious mind. (There was a one-off "unconscious" assemblage as well!) Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne and Roussanne are all important components, creating a complex, layered white with lime, pear, rose water and orange zest flavours, a nip of tannin and a lingering finish." - Tim Atkin MW
Elio Grasso Barolo Ginestra Casa Maté 2019
"Very different from the Gavarini Chiniera, the 2019 Barolo Ginestra Casa Maté shows more bite, structure and a bigger tannic impact. Fruit was harvested a bit earlier, but healthy grape skins allowed for 52 days of maceration. This wine shows beautiful intensity and fullness with dark fruit, earth, hazelnut and dark plum. Surrounded by forests, the greenery gives balance to this wine by moderating temperatures. In fact, this site saw up to 10 degrees Celsius drops in diurnal temperatures, leading to thick skins and ideal phenolic ripeness." - Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate
Elio Grasso Barolo Gavarini Chiniera 2019
"With vines adjacent to forests on white chalky soils, the Elio Grasso 2019 Barolo Gavarini Chiniera is a luminous and very beautiful wine. Vintner Gianluca Grasso called this "the helicopter vintage" because he actually rented a helicopter to fly over the vines for 45 minutes to dry them from rain right before harvest. As he tells it, this was a costly but good decision because 15 minutes after he finished harvesting on October 26, heavy rain came and lasted an entire week. Thanks to these dramatic measures, the grape skins were excellent, and maceration with submerged cap lasted 55 days. That's how perfect the skins were. This balanced wine shows extreme precision and elegance." - Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate
Keermont Topside Syrah 2018
"Syrah lovers could spend a long time discussing the relative merits of Alex Starey's single parcel Syrahs. I have a very slight preference for Topside in 2018, partly because its cooler terroir on Stellenbosch Mountain was well suited to the drought conditions of the vintage. Restrained, focused and built to age in bottle, it has sage and oregano perfume, savoury tannins, refreshing acidity and minerality and flavours of plum, raspberry, red cherry and tobacco leaf." - Tim Atkin MW
Keermont Steepside Syrah 2018
"It's good to see a top Cape Syrah released with a little bottle age, especially when it’s as good as this one from a warm, north-facing site on clay soils. Complex, dense and voluptuous, it has garrigue and tarragon aromas, understated oak and flavours of cooked meat, tapenade, damson and blackberry. Superb." - Tim Atkin MW
Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino 2018
"Poggio di Sotto hits it out the ballpark once again with an extremely elegant interpretation that shows the incredible depth and nuance Sangiovese can achieve, even in an uneven vintage such as this. The certified organic 2018 Brunello di Montalcino reveals a dark ruby hue and mid-weight concentration. Indeed, the wine is lighter and brighter than most, despite Brunello's mandatory five years of aging before its commercial release. The tannins are silky and melt over the palate. Along the way, the wine offers high notes of red cherry, cassis and blue flower. This 38,000-bottle release carries a very high price tag, but your high expectations will be met." - Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate
Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino 2017
"Made with certified-organic fruit, the 2017 Brunello di Montalcino is an impossibly graceful wine from a challenging vintage. This bottle defies the odds—and the dry heat of the growing season—to reveal soft layers of cherry, cassis and more vibrant fruit. It glides clear over the palate with silky momentum, and you only notice the tannins at the very end. Even those should soften and integrate as this collectible wine continues it bottle evolution. Production is 19,000 bottles." - Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate
Bodegas y Viñedos Pintia 2018 – 3L
"The 2018 Pintia comes from a cooler and wetter vintage when the grapes were picked between September 20th and October 7th, and it fermented in their new fermentation room where they feel they can be more precise. The wine still has 15% alcohol, with a pH of 3.82 and 4.6 grams of acidity. It had a shorter élevage this year and matured for 10 months in French and 18% American oak barrels, 81% of them new. The nose is very expressive, with bright cherry fruit, and the wine is fresher than the norm in the region, with integrated alcohol and oak, reflecting a very cool year, floral and perfumed. The palate is medium-bodied and reveals very fine and elegant tannins. This has to be one of the finest vintages of Pintia. 251,512 bottles, 14,144 half-bottles, 6,543 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in April 2020." - Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate
Bodegas y Viñedos Pintia 2018
"The 2018 Pintia comes from a cooler and wetter vintage when the grapes were picked between September 20th and October 7th, and it fermented in their new fermentation room where they feel they can be more precise. The wine still has 15% alcohol, with a pH of 3.82 and 4.6 grams of acidity. It had a shorter élevage this year and matured for 10 months in French and 18% American oak barrels, 81% of them new. The nose is very expressive, with bright cherry fruit, and the wine is fresher than the norm in the region, with integrated alcohol and oak, reflecting a very cool year, floral and perfumed. The palate is medium-bodied and reveals very fine and elegant tannins. This has to be one of the finest vintages of Pintia. 251,512 bottles, 14,144 half-bottles, 6,543 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in April 2020." - Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate
Bodegas Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5˚ 2018 – 3L
"The 2018 Valbuena comes from a cooler vintage with good yields that required sorting and selecting in search of a happy and vertical version of Valbuena, pushing a little more and giving the wine a little more oak, especially American (5%). It was produced with 96% Tinto Fino and 4% Merlot that went through a three- to four-day cold soak and fermented with indigenous yeasts followed by malolactic in stainless steel. The élevage was in new and used 225-liter oak barrels and 21,000-liter oak vats. It has 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.8 and 4.78 grams of acidity (tartaric), so it's ripe and with mellow acidity that gives it a mellow mouthfeel. This is a very spicy vintage for Valbuena, getting closer to the style of Único (while at the same time I felt the 2018 Pintia from Toro was getting closer to the aromatics of some vintages of Valbuena, like 2010). It was a late-ripening year with a tendency toward freshness in the wines. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with very fine tannins that made the wine nicely textured and very elegant. There is a lot of regularity in the Valbuena of the last few years, here with more tension and freshness of the 2017, a little more balsamic even. 180,580 bottles, 5,528 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in May 2021." - Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate
Bodegas Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5˚ 2018 Magnum
"The 2018 Valbuena comes from a cooler vintage with good yields that required sorting and selecting in search of a happy and vertical version of Valbuena, pushing a little more and giving the wine a little more oak, especially American (5%). It was produced with 96% Tinto Fino and 4% Merlot that went through a three- to four-day cold soak and fermented with indigenous yeasts followed by malolactic in stainless steel. The élevage was in new and used 225-liter oak barrels and 21,000-liter oak vats. It has 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.8 and 4.78 grams of acidity (tartaric), so it's ripe and with mellow acidity that gives it a mellow mouthfeel. This is a very spicy vintage for Valbuena, getting closer to the style of Único (while at the same time I felt the 2018 Pintia from Toro was getting closer to the aromatics of some vintages of Valbuena, like 2010). It was a late-ripening year with a tendency toward freshness in the wines. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with very fine tannins that made the wine nicely textured and very elegant. There is a lot of regularity in the Valbuena of the last few years, here with more tension and freshness of the 2017, a little more balsamic even. 180,580 bottles, 5,528 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in May 2021." - Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate
Vega-Sicilia Valbuena 5˚ Cosecha 2018
"The 2018 Valbuena comes from a cooler vintage with good yields that required sorting and selecting in search of a happy and vertical version of Valbuena, pushing a little more and giving the wine a little more oak, especially American (5%). It was produced with 96% Tinto Fino and 4% Merlot that went through a three- to four-day cold soak and fermented with indigenous yeasts followed by malolactic in stainless steel. The élevage was in new and used 225-liter oak barrels and 21,000-liter oak vats. It has 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.8 and 4.78 grams of acidity (tartaric), so it's ripe and with mellow acidity that gives it a mellow mouthfeel. This is a very spicy vintage for Valbuena, getting closer to the style of Único (while at the same time I felt the 2018 Pintia from Toro was getting closer to the aromatics of some vintages of Valbuena, like 2010). It was a late-ripening year with a tendency toward freshness in the wines. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with very fine tannins that made the wine nicely textured and very elegant. There is a lot of regularity in the Valbuena of the last few years, here with more tension and freshness of the 2017, a little more balsamic even. 180,580 bottles, 5,528 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in May 2021." - Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate
Oremus Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 1999 – 500ml
"The 1999 Tokaji Aszu 5-Puttonyos has moved more toward secondary aromas compared to the millennial wine, with scents of candle wax, dried mango, peach skin and a faint trace of mulled wine. The palate is actually better than the nose suggests. It is extremely well-balanced with better acidity (10.8 grams per liter). There is very good weight here, with pure notes of dried mango, peach, quince and citrus lemon. It is very harmonious and the finish has a sense of effortlessness that makes this utterly adorable. What is more, you can see it lasting another two decade with ease. Drink now-2035." - Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate
Newton Johnson Family Vineyards Pinot Noir 2022
Newton Johnson Family Vineyards Pinot Noir 2022, "Family Vineyards is an equal combination of north and south-facing sites and is correspondingly self-assured and well balanced. Fermented with 20% whole bunches and aged in 29% new oak, it has lovely weight and freshness, goji berry, pomegranate and wild strawberry flavours and precise, granular tannins." - Tim Atkin MW
Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino 2018 Magnum
"Impressing from the first tilt of the glass, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino makes itself known, with a heady burst of exotic spice and crushed ashen stone giving way to dried black cherries and grilled herbs. This combines the energy of the vintage with the dark balsamic-tinged fruits of Montalcino’s southern reaches, as zesty acidity maintains balance throughout, and flinty minerals saturate toward the close. It finishes long, savory and structured, yet its tannins are more rounded than anticipated, creating both a classic feel, but also leaving a mouthwatering sensation that tricks the taster back to the glass for more. Easily one of the top wines of the vintage, the 2018 is not to be missed." - Eric Guido
Bruno Rocca Barbaresco Riserva Currà 2015
"A release of 3,824 numbered bottles (including various collectors' larger formats), the 2015 Barbaresco Riserva Currà draws its fruit from the nearby village of Neive. This wine is just terrific, showing beautiful intensity and elegance. The warm and sunny 2015 growing season is easy to recognize in the broad, rich aromas and the open-knit texture of the mouthfeel. The wine opens to a dark garnet color with some brick red too. There is a point of evolution with licorice and earthy truffle, but the wine maintains its freshness and very fine tannins." - Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate
Newton Johnson Family Vineyards Chardonnay 2022
Newton Johnson Family Vineyards Chardonnay 2022, "Blending three different components from both sides of the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, this is a beautifully judged Chardonnay from a South African master of the variety. Voluptuous and textured, yet focused and energetic at the same time, it has struck match top notes, 22% new oak, citrus and vanilla spice flavours and a pithy, salty finish." - Tim Atkin MW
Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino 2018
“Impressing from the first tilt of the glass, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino makes itself known, with a heady burst of exotic spice and crushed ashen stone giving way to dried black cherries and grilled herbs. This combines the energy of the vintage with the dark balsamic-tinged fruits of Montalcino’s southern reaches, as zesty acidity maintains balance throughout, and flinty minerals saturate toward the close. It finishes long, savory and structured, yet its tannins are more rounded than anticipated, creating both a classic feel, but also leaving a mouthwatering sensation that tricks the taster back to the glass for more. Easily one of the top wines of the vintage, the 2018 is not to be missed.” – Eric Guido
BLANKbottle Pseudonym 2022
"The kind of wine that would appeal to red Burgundy drinkers looking for a few cheaper alternatives to their favourite tipple, this ethereal, delicate, layered Cinsault comes from a 73-year-old vineyard in Darling. Fermented with 70% whole bunches, it's a refined delight, all red cherry, raspberry, pomegranate flavours underpinned by the grip and slight austerity of decomposed granite soils." - Tim Atkin MW
J.L. Chave Sélection Hermitage Blanc Blanche 2019
"Another incredible white from this family is the 2019 Hermitage Blanc, a powerful, concentrated, and remarkably pure Hermitage that has laser-like focus as well as textbook Marsanne notes of quince, green almond, powdered rock, licorice, and spice. It’s still tight, focused, and inward at present, yet it reminds me of the 2018 with its purity and rare mix of power and elegance. It’s worth trying a bottle any time over the coming 3-5 years, but after that, I’d recommend waiting until after 2031. 98+" - Jeb Dunnuck
David & Nadia Chenin Blanc 2022 Magnum
“This is the biggest production Chenin Blanc from David and Nadia Sadie, sourced from eight different old-vine parcels and now amounting to 16,000 bottles. Granite-based with other components on shale, clay and limestone, it’s a nuanced, effortlessly balanced white with notes of aniseed, oatmeal, wet stone and pithy citrus and yellow apple fruit.” – Tim Atkin MW
BLANKbottle My Koffer 2022
"One of two remarkable Cinsaults in the BLANKbottle line up, My Köffer comes from a parcel of river stones in Breedekloof, picked in three stages to maximise complexity. Bolder and broader than Pseudonym, it has impressive concentration and depth, savoury tannins, some clove and pepper spices and layers of plum, strawberry and black cherry. Delicious." Tim Atkin MW
Paolo Scavino Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata Riserva 2016
"This is a stunner. The Paolo Scavino 2016 Barolo Riserva Rocche dell'Annunziata is a beautifully balanced and memorable wine that will continue to delight for years to come. It is compact and silky in texture with abundant and very lively aromas of dark fruit and wild cherry. The Rocche dell'Annunziata vineyard is located in La Morra. This is a gorgeous wine that awards lots of emotion. Production is 6,800 bottles." - Monica Larne, The Wine Advocate
