$50 - $75 Wine

Expert Review 

James Suckling 95 Points | For a gruner veltliner this has dangerous freshness and – less astonishingly – enormous depth of fresh-herb aromas. Very long and refined finish that feels almost weightless. Delightfully refined finish that makes you want you to stay here for a long time. Drink or hold. 

Winemaker Description

This wine is intense ruby red in colour with youthful highlights. On the nose, there are notes of almonds, violets and oranges which are intertwined with aromas of coffee and vanilla. It is a full-bodied wine with well-balanced acidity.

The rounded tannins from the Sangiovese are lifted by the cassis concentration of the Cabernet on the long, concentrated finish. 

Expert Reviews

James Suckling 93 Points |  Blueberries and blackcurrants with bark and licorice. Full body and round, chewy tannins. This is very fresh and bright with some sage and stone character. From organically grown grapes. Needs time to soften. Drink after 2023.

Vinous 92 Points | The 2017 Ghiaie della Furba opens to a bouquet of minty herbs, camphor and smoke before deepening further to display dusty red currant and spice box. This is velvety and fleshy in feel, with stimulating acidity that enlivens its spicy black fruit and building mineral tones. It tapers off with persistence, power and grippy tannin, the perfect mix for a long evolution. The Ghiaie della Furba is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Syrah and 20% Merlot that refines in barrique, half new and half second pass. It's important to note that production was down by 40% in 2017 due to trost.

Expert Review

Burghound  | Here the nose is somewhat reduced, probably due to the very recent bottling. Otherwise, there is both good verve and freshness to the slightly more concentrated medium weight flavors that deliver a bit more persistence on the delicious and inviting finale. This could use better depth though more should develop if given 2 to 4 years of keeping.

Winemaker Description

The Clendenen Family Pinots are not simple fruit bombs. There is so much more going on, so many varied flavors all in one wine. This well structured Pinot shows aromas of cherry, plum, root beer, black tea, cola, and mocha that are joined on the palate by flavors of clove, tea and spicy sausage. It is a rich wine, and the richness carries through to the finish.

Expert Review

92+ Points Wine Enthusiast | Quite light in the glass, this bottling from Jim Clendenen's home ranch hits the nose with baked cherry, vanilla, mushroom and flinty struck stone aromas. There's a quick tension to the sip, where brisk raspberry, oak smoke and bay leaf ride a fine structure.

Expert Reviews

Vinous 88 Points | The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge offers lilting red cherry and wildstrawberry scents on the nose, hints of rose petal coming through with aeration. The palate is well balanced with fine definition, lightly spiced, quite energetic on the finish. This is very elegant for Chassagne Rouge. 

Winemaker Description

Red color with Purple reflections, intense black fruits on the nose and the palate, that quickly develops into under-growth and mushroomy flavors. Deep, complex and intense wine, with a great ageing potential. 

Expert Reviews

James Suckling 93 Points | This is a balanced red, showing blackberry and bark with chili and some herbs. It’s medium-to full-bodied with nice drinkability and a succulent, flavorful finish. Iodine, pine needles, slate and graphite undertones. Subtle. 

Vinous 93 Points | The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Fission emerges from Alta Vista, on Moon Mountain. A dark, potent wine, the 2019 captures plenty of mountain energy in its savory, earthy flavor profile. Dark cherry, mocha, spice, new leather, licorice and chocolate all flesh out. My impression is that less new oak and longer élevage might bring out even more character. This is certainly an impressive debut from Mai Errazuriz and Rodrigo Soto. (AG)  

94 Points Robert Parker | The NV Amontillado del Duque VORS is Palomino of at least 30 years of age from the Tio Pepe solera. The color is dark amber, with a very powerful nose of old wood, candied fruit and walnuts. The sharpness of the palate is somehow balanced by an off-dry feeling which makes it very drinkable.

94 Points Wine & Spirits | These soleras, believed to be more than 300 years old, were purchased from the Duke of Medinacelli in 1835. The wines for this Amontillado averaged 30 years in oak, and its severity brings something extremely salty to mind: This is as briny as sea urchin, balanced by a light sweetness that murmurs underneath. The sheer force of the minerality makes no concessions to the fruit flavors. For smoked oysters.

94 Points Decanter | Maple syrup, wood polish, butterscotch and toffee nose. Great finesse on the palate with a silky texture and salty caramel flavours. Long, fresh finish.

93 Points Wine Spectator | Stylish, with warm date, hazelnut, toasted almond and salted caramel notes that extend through the finish, starting dry but ending with a tantalizing echo of sweetness.

93 Points Wine Enthusiast | Toffee and almond aromas are a touch aggressive and hot. Matching the nose, this is intense but still well balanced by core acidity. A giant heaping of rancio blends with flavors of almond skins, apricot and salt in front of a never-ending finish.

Jancis Robinson | If you love Highland single malt, you will instantly get this peaty, sweet and wild and glossy sherry. It's cobbler's glue and smoked honey on the nose; sea-spray, smoke and Highland honey in the mouth. It tastes of bracken, black with the bruise of mountain streams and mountains stones; of brackish streams salt-licked with minerals; of kumquats pickled in tamarind and smoky with the under-growl of black cardamom. It's satin and sea glass and sunset. Formidably complex and yet approachable. 18/20 points. 

This 30 year old Amontillado shows a dark golden color due to the extended time spent in cask. On the nose sharp aromas of dried fruits and nuts. On the palate dry and powerful, well structured with an enternal aftertaste. This wine maintains a surprisingly delicate finesse. A wine to be meditated or enjoyed with powerful dishes such as small game. Serve slightly chilled. Winemaker Description. 

95 Points Robert Parker | The 2022 bottling of the NV Amontillado La Casilla doesn't have a clear bottling date, but it has a lot number on the back label. It has a golden-brown color and a complex nose. It comes from the Manzanilla Pasada Blanquito and has a profile of an old wine, with notes of rusty nail and low tide, and also a Sanlúcar profile, sharp and saline with rustic finesse. It's pungent, long and salty. This is rare to keep the old age of the wine. Best After 2029

Amontillado of the most pristine kind. Traditional notes of almonds and walnut skin but with a citrus blast and floral lantana-like elegance that perfumes the salty toasted notes of dark cocoa and coffee beans. Incredibly dry, this elegant wine has endless layers and should be consumed over the course of weeks. Winemaker Description. 

Expert Reviews

94 James Suckling | A big, juicy red with lots of blackberry and chocolate character to the fruit, as well as juicy and chewy tannins. It shows plenty of backbone and stuffing.

94 Points Decanter | I've been thoroughly enjoying the work that they are doing at Marquis d'Alesme in recent vintages and this very much continues the success. Sappy, juicy, well defined raspberry and blackberry fruits, concentrated in all the right places, with a saline finish that is both mouthwatering and moreish. Winemaker Marjolaine de Coninck has steered the property through the heat of the summer and got the balance just right.

94 Points Jeb Dunnuck | The 2019 Château Marquis D'Alesme is terrific and a good follow-up to the brilliant 2018. Sporting a deep ruby/purple hue, it gives up a great nose of ripe darker cherries, blackberries, mulberries, leafy herbs, cedar pencil, and violets. This is followed by a medium to full-bodied Margaux with a rich, fleshy, expansive mouthfeel, polished tannins, plenty of mid-palate depth, and a great finish. I'm not sure it will make terribly old bones, but it shines for its purity of fruit as well as its terrific overall balance and purity. As I wrote from barrel, it's one of those pretty, elegant wines that still packs rocking levels of fruit! Drink it any time over the coming 15-20 years. Best After 2022

92 Points Robert Parker | The 2019 Marquis d'Alesme has tuned out well, wafting from the glass with aromas of sweet berry fruit, wood smoke, licorice and sweet soil tones. Medium to full-bodied, ample and seamless, it's supple and charming, with a succulent core of fruit, powdery tannins and fine length. Best After 2025

Expert Reviews

Wine Spectator 89 Points | On the lighter side, but fresh and focused, featuring cassis and bitter cherry notes, lined with subtle iron and floral hints. The finish is tightly focused.

Decanter 93 Points | Attractive woodsmoke and sweet fruits on the nose, vibrant and creamy on the palate. There are big tannins here that build up through the palate and need time in bottle to soften. Drinking Window 2026 - 2040

Jeb Dunnuck 93-95 Points | My money is on the 2018 Château Pédesclaux being the best to date, and this estate has made leaps and bounds in terms of quality over the past decade. The 2018 is made from 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot, which will spend 16 months in 60% new French oak prior to bottling. Showing notable freshness and elegance, as well as medium to full body, seamless tannins, and perfumed notes of blue fruits, spice, violets, and wet stone like minerality, it shows the purity, precision, and elegance that the estate now delivers as well as the sweet, sunny fruit of the vintage. It will be accessible with just short-term cellaring yet keep for 25+ years or more.

James Suckling 93- 95 Points | Aromas of blackcurrants, lavender, gravel, dried leaves, spice box and bitter chocolate. It’s full-bodied with firm, well integrated tannins. Creamy and succulent with a solid core of ripe fruit and a long, caressing finish. Grows on the palate. Try from 2025.

Intense ruby red with violet shadings, nearly opaque with traces of garnet
Bouquet. Expansive and persistent with sweet fruits, notes of blackberry, black cherry and a subtle nuttiness. Sweet spices lead to a mineral finish

Soft, sweet, voluptuous body, persistent and velvety. The tannins are thick and sweet, the acidity is well balanced, cutting the density and heaviness, while giving structure. Long finish, persistently fruity with notes of underbrush, forest fruit, and complex, intense spices. Producer Description. 

96 Points James Suckling | This Spatlese beams you up to Cloud 9, from where you have a wonderful view over the beautiful Mosel Valley. In spite of the considerable concentration, this is super-delicate and precise on the barely medium-bodied palate. Enormously long finish, where you barely feel the natural grape sweetness. Drink or hold. 

95 Points Wine Advocate | The 2020 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese is pure, clear and flinty on the concentrated nose that is reminiscent of a fresh fruit salad served on a slate plate on an early summer morning. Light, lush and highly finessed but seriously structured on the palate, this is a savory, very clear and elegant Sonnenuhr Spätlese with great precision and finesse and highly stimulating salinity and mouth-watering grip on the finish. Rating: 95+ 

Winemaker Description

From an outstanding vintage marked by a long, slow ripening season, the 2018 Baby Bear Syrah is a handsome, intensely colored wine loaded with wild blackberry, fresh blueberry, and dark, spicy aromas and flavors. A streak of olive tapenade, smoked charcuterie, and freshly cracked black pepper add interest across a textured palate laced with silky tannins and vibrant acidity. The finish is long and refined. 

Expert Reviews

Wine Spectator 94 Points | Impeccably balanced and refined yet plump with personality, this red offers multilayered blueberry and huckleberry flavors accented by black olive and smoky cracked pepper. Finishes with rich, polished tannins.

James Suckling 93 points | A tad reductive on the nose, so be sure to let this breathe. Hot stones, wild herbs, ripe plums, blackberries and vanilla on the nose. Full-bodied with fine tannins. Vibrant and complex. Atop the core of ripe dark fruit there is ground baking spice, oregano and white pepper. Very steady. Drink or hold. 

Expert Reviews

Wine Advocate 92 Points | The 2018 La Dame de Montrose is a blend of 52% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot and 4% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple in color, it springs from the glass with vivacious notions of redcurrant jelly, mulberries, juicy blackberries and stewed plums, giving way to suggestions of underbrush, wild sage and fertile loam. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is laden with bright, expressive black and red berry layers, supported by plush tannins and tons of freshness, finishing long with a spicy kick.  Drinking 2022 -2038 -- Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Decanter 93 Points | Visually gorgeous with bright plum colour. Black cherry and damson on the first sip, clear oak influence with flexible but far-reaching tannic structure. Some real tension and balance - no question that this has a long life ahead of it. Juicy also; for a second wine we are right up there.  Drinking Window 2026 - 2040 -- Tasted by Jane Anson(at Bordeaux, 09 Nov 2020) Part of Best 2018 Bordeaux second wines: Re-tasted in the bottle.

Jeb Dunnuck 92 Points | Looking first at the second wine of this incredible Saint-Estèphe Château, the 2018 La Dame De Montrose is a blend of 52% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, all brought up in 30% new French oak. Lots of blue fruits, sappy herbs, tobacco, violets, and graphite notes all emerge from the glass, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a round, concentrated, textured mouthfeel, and enough tannins to warrant 3-4 years of bottle.

James Suckling 95 Points | Very dense center palate to the La Dame this year with purity of fruit and round, velvety tannins. Juicy, too. Sexy. Reminds me of the 1989 Montrose!Vinous 92 points The 2018 La Dame de Montrose is such a gorgeous wine. 

92 Points Vinous | Mango, pink grapefruit, pear, lychee, honeysuckle and lily combine for a headily exotic and almost overripe nose. Luscious, almost gaudy ripeness and perfume are the inner-mouth story as well, backed by gloss and considerable sweetness – though not the excessive sweetness that this bottling at one time tended to exhibit. The lingering finish displays real vibrancy, no doubt in large part owing to the wine’s harboring vintage-atypically high acidity of 10 grams. And that in turn is almost certainly a result of light desiccation of healthy fruit, which is also what gives this bottling its Auslese-like aura. (For the history of this bottling and its name, see especially my review of its vintage 2015 instantiation.)

The Spreitzer Oestrich Lenchen Riesling Spätlese '303' was first produced in the year 2000 and honours the Spreitzer brothers Grandfather who harvested his legendary Trockenbeerenauslese from the same vineyard in 1920 - which garnered a record sugar level of 303 degrees Oechsle. 

Coming exclusively from the Eisenberg this is rich with red apples and sweet acacia honey on the nose. In reality this is more of a baby Auslese than a Spätlese, dripping with quince paste, peaches in sweet syrup and honeysuckle. A pure pleasure to drink, luscious without being over the top. Winemaker Description. 

Rand Sieger of 67Wine.com |  The Scharzhofberg is considered by many to be the most prestigious vineyard in the Mosel region.  Sipping this beautiful Spatlese from Von Hovel reminded me why it has earned that vaunted reputation.

The nose is stately elegant while at the same time, quite powerful. Yellow fruit and bright white berries marry nicely with lemon zest, spice box, and just a touch of reductive sharpness.  A very definite honey sweetness stretches across the palate with just the right amount of lip-smacking tartness to tie it all together.  Finishes smooth and silky with a lingering trail of honey and brown sugar.

This is one to savor by itself as dessert in its own right, but would be a lovely accompaniment to simple shortbread biscuits, or raspberry tart.

Rand Sieger, 67 Wine Buyer

Winemaker Description

At first this wine is all about fruit; ripe dark cherry and blackberry are framed by toasty oak with hints of coffee, tea and vanilla. The dark fruit is vibrant on entry, which leads to a full rich mouth coating mid palate and nicely balanced fine tannin. 

The intensity and concentration flow seamlessly to notes of ripe fruit and barrel tones that linger pleasantly for an extended period, inviting one back to the glass! This wine will drink beautifully now and over the next 10+ years.