Wine Over $100

• Winemaker Description

  Mont des Oiseaux is a cuvée produced in small quantities from Clos de l'Arlot's youngest vines, an estate Monopoly. This wine reveals the elegance of a great terroir and emphasizes the delicacy of red fruit. Fresh and tangy, with good cellaring potential, this wine can also be enjoyed in the bloom of youth.

• The Terroir

  This Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru is located inside the Clos de l'Arlot. It comes from the upper part of the Clos with a white limestone soil, and from a plot of young vines located at the bottom of the Clos on marl soil.

• Discover more

  - Ageing in barrels, with 30% of new barrels. Bottling takes place after 15-18 months of ageing.

Winemaker Description

Dense black plum and blackberry fruit, with the characteristic garrigue aroma of wild herbs. There is still a good impression of freshness on the palate and fairly grippy tannins. Well-balanced and typical of the village. The vines in this half-hectare parcel south of the village are more than 60 years of age. 

Expert Reviews 

93-95 points Jasper Morris | Bright red crimson colour with very juicy red berry fruit on the nose, this has abundant energy and makes one salivate. There is its habitual garrigue touch at the back then a second helping of sweet raspberry fruit, Impeccable structure, a really interesting complex and refreshing wine. Gourmand in the best sense. The fruit just keeps coming back behind. A stunning result from a lesser known 1er Cru. Drink from 2028-2036. (2021). 

93 points Wine Spectator | Wild cherry, currant, sandalwood, smoke and earth notes are defined by lively acidity and refined tannins in this intense red. Accents of smoke and roasted game bird add to the complexity, while the texture is silky and the aftertaste long. Wait a decade at least on this. Best from 2027 through 2040. (2021). 

91-93 points Burghound | A perfumed, spicy and restrained nose requires aggressive swirling to coax the aromas of pretty essence of red cherry and crushed fennel to reveal themselves. The delicious, refined and vibrant middleweight flavors flash a subtle bead of minerality on the focused, balanced and sneaky long finish. This is a Roncière of punch and finesse. *Burghound Outstanding! (2021). 

90-92 points Vinous | The 2021 Nuits Saint-Georges Roncière 1er Cru has an open bouquet with red berry fruit, cedar and light graphite aromas. Fine definition. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannins, quite sapid in the mouth with a pleasant strictness allied with tension on the finish. Give this 3-4 years in bottle. (NM) Inner quote mark (1/2023). (2021). 

Expert Review

97 Points Jeb Dunnuck | The 2020 Cornas Chaillot comes from a mix of lieux-dits (it's mostly Chaillot) as well as some younger vines. It's an incredible wine in its own right and certainly doesn't give much in terms quality to its big brother. Awesome aromatics of crème de cassis, violets, crushed stone, and bouquet garni-like notes all define the aromatics, and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a deep, concentrated mid-palate, and ultra-fine tannins. It's a touch more finesse-driven and elegant compared to the Reynard and should round into form with just 5-7 years of bottle age. This is legit awesome Cornas that will have 20-25 years of ultimate longevity. (2020). 

Expert Review

98 Points Jeb Dunnuck | The 2020 Cornas Reynard will most likely merit a perfect rating in a decade, and it's a legendary Cornas in the making. Saturated purple-hued, with incredible aromatics of cassis, liquid violets, new leather, and bloody, iron, meaty nuances, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, building tannins, and flawless overall balance. It has an inward, massive, backward style (it reminds me slightly of the 2010) and tastes like the blood of Cornas. It will need 7-8 years (a decade will be better) to hit the early stages of its prime drinking wine and will absolutely blow you away over the following two decades. (2020). 

Expert Review - Vintage 2016

92 Points Wine Enthusiast | Hints of crushed mineral and fresh herb persist from nose to finish in this intriguingly earthy yet elegant dry wine. The palate is vibrantly citrusy, offering shards of lemon and lime accented by dried-orange peel and spice. Medium bodied but silky in texture, it's freshened by pert lime acidity.

Winemaker Description

The storied Domain La Romanée-Conti has a history dating back to 1760 when Prince Louis-Francois de Bourbon-Conti first bought the piece of land. It has since been passed between a succession of owners, coming to rest as the biodynamic home to this Romanée-Conti Grand Cru. Grown without pesticides, this silky-smooth pinot noir reveals a bouquet of dark wild berries, cassis, rose petals, blood orange, exotic spices and liquorice. 

Expert Review - Vintage 2022

Vinous 93 Points | The 2022 Riesling Wiltinger Braune Kupp Spätlese opens with a ripe green-red apple flesh note with overtones of candied angelica and earth after summer rain. The palate almost has an iron-oxide edge framing that juicy ripe red apple fruit soon verging into greengage compote. Ripe lemon pervades all and illuminates a fine smooth texture reminiscent of very fine earth saturated with all that lovely fruit emanating from it. (Sweet) (Drink between 2025-2060)

Expert Reviews

94 Points Vinous | The 2020 Nebbiolo d'Alba Arione is bright, focused and tightly wound. There is a feeling of classic austerity (in a good way) that really drive the balance here. Bright red toned fruit, blood orange, chalk, mint, dried herbs and white pepper all race across the palate. This is Barolo in all but name. Time in the glass brings out the wine's inner sweetness and perfume. What a knock out. The Nebbiolo d'Alba is made from a small piece of Arione that lists just outside the Barolo production zone. Drink 2027-2040. (2020). 

93 Points James Suckling  | Juicy and sweet fruit with some flowers and peaches to plums and cherries. Medium body. Bright and flavorful. Yet refined. Drink now. (2020). 

Audrey Frick writes:  The first vintage of the Nebbiolo D'Alba Arione was produced in 2019 and comes from a single vineyard of Anione outside the delimited region. Another barrel sample, the 2020 is fresh with wild strawberry and a gentle, red-fruited tone. Vibrant through the palate, with wild red berries, pomegranate, orange peel, and red flowers, this elegant and approachable wine delivers fine tannins, a long mineral/stony texture, and a tinge of iron-rich minerals on the finish.  - Jeb Dunnuck 93

Jeb Dunnuck 91-93 Points | The first vintage of the 2020 Nebbiolo D'Alba one was produced in 2019 and comes from a single vineyard of Anione outside the delimited region. Another barrel sample, the 2020 is fresh with wild strawberry and a gentle, red-fruited tone. Vibrant through the palate, with wild red berries, pomegranate, orange peel, and red flowers, this elegant and approachable wine delivers fine tannins, a long mineral/stony texture, and a tinge of iron-rich minerals on the finish. (2020). 

Expert Review

93 Points Wine Advocate | The 2020 Meursault Village has turned out beautifully in bottle, unwinding in the glass with scents of crisp Anjou pear, lemon zest, freshly baked bread, blanched almonds, pastry cream and apple blossom. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, its textural attack segues into a fleshy, precise mid-palate that's animated by racy acids, concluding with a long, mouthwatering finish. It's another terrific rendition of this benchmark cuvée.

Winemaker Description

Opaque, a dark core with a lighter deep red concession on rim. An eruption of fruits. At once lively and expressive, conceding Grange personality yet still not revealing all .... Dark coffee grind, malt and tapenade merge with black earths, almost verging on peat. Mandated V.A and formic notes propel a slurry of dark-skinned berried fruits, flirting with dark liquorice and soy. Oak completely hidden, long since absorbed. Now, back to the glass for a second sniff! Initially the ‘enlivened’ dark fruits of a Christmas pudding or boiled fruitcake mix demand attention. But there’s much more to complement these fruits – impressions of ironstone, graphite, iodine, black ink, and a black pudding viscosity. Formidable, meshed tannins – texturally honeycombed, without the honey! Oak has entwined itself invisible. Yes, every barrel still new, and completion of fermentation off skins in barrel still Grange modus operandi. Integrated, measured ... and clearly more than one sip required to gain an authentic ‘first-impression’. Certainly a wine of its vintage. A Grange of 2015. 

Expert Reviews

100 Point James Suckling | Much anticipated vintage for Grange and it is a powerhouse of concentration and complexity. Aromas of orange and lemon peel to start, then graphite, blackberries, plum paste, black cherries, boundless sweet oak spice, fresh cedar, tar, mahogany, roasted coffee and chocolate - the list goes on. Such complexity. Classic Grange, offering such deep, dark intensity. The palate has immense richness and depth with a super succulent and very long, fleshy, deeply weighted array of dense, velvet-wrapped tannins that run so long. The fruit flavors sit in the blackberry, blood-plum and blueberry zone with succulent, long and assertive structure, carrying through in an utterly seamless mode. The finish is tightly wrenched, in spectacularly powerful style, locking this wine in for a very long haul. Best from 2030.

98 Points Jeb Dunnuck | The flagship 2015 Grange is a monster of wine and one of those rare wines that blends power and elegance perfectly. Revealing a saturated purple color, it’s seemingly more forward and seductive than past great vintages, which I suspect is due to the incredible purity of fruit as well as the wine’s flawless balance than any change in winemaking or stylistic shifts. I also think the acidity is healthy, and the 2015 tips the scales at 14.5% alcohol, which is certainly in the sweet spot, if not tame, for beautifully ripe Syrah these days. A blend of 98% Shiraz and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon that spent 20 months in new American oak hogsheads, it offers an extraordinary perfume of sweet crème de cassis, lead pencil shavings, camphor, Asian spices, licorice, and wildflowers. This is followed by a full-bodied, powerful yet incredibly seamless and elegant Shiraz that has no hard edges, a big, dense mid-palate, ripe tannins, and a great finish. Coming close to rivaling the 1986, which has always been a benchmark vintage of Grange for me, the 2015 offers a more polished, elegant, approachable style. Vintage comparisons aside, this is a legendary example of Grange in the making. The savvy wine lovers out there will give this 7-8 years of bottle age (I’ll probably be out of bottles by then) and enjoy over the following 2-3 decades.

98+ Points Robert Parker | The nose of the 2015 Grange features the wine's characteristic lifted aromas, joined by pronounced American oak influence and bold blackberry fruit, plus hints of red meat, raspberries, asphalt and vanilla. It's dense and concentrated on the palate, full-bodied yet balanced and firm, with a rich, velvety texture and long, plush finish. Don't expect great complexity at this stage—it's much too young to show much more than the primary fruit and oak elements—but this is a Grange that should easily go three or four decades.

97 Points Wine Spectator | Distinctive and powerful, yet still elegant, showing restraint despite the dense and generous flavors. Precise notes of dark chocolate, maraschino cherry, mahogany and toasted coconut complement the core of wild blackberry and blueberry fruit. The tannins are smooth and polished, delivering some tug on the finish, which persists as subtle hints of dried lavender and white pepper linger. Drink now through 2040.

97 Points Wine Enthusiast | This vintage of the famed wine is perhaps its most approachable to date. The nose is open and expressive, with waves of aromas ranging from licorice, currant and plum to baking spice, furniture polish, freshly picked olive, mushroom and vanilla. The mouthfeel is satiny in texture, awash with fruit and spices of all shapes and sizes, all wound by fine tannins. Drink through 2040.

Expert Review - Vintage 2021

Burghound | A perfumed and exuberantly spicy nose offers up a blend of both red and dark cherry along with floral nuances. The wonderfully sleek, refined and punchy medium weight flavors possess a gorgeous texture thanks to the very fine-grained tannins supported the firm, youthfully austere and mineral-driven finish. This is textbook Fuées. Outstanding.

Expert Review

Expert Review

Winemaker Description

Tollot-Beaut’s Les Vercots 1er Cru is rustic and robust with aromas and flavors of red cherries, spice, and earth with substantial weight and ripe tannins. It is aged for 18 months in 50% new Burgundian pièce.

Red Burgundy might be the world’s most flexible food wine. The wine’s high acidity, medium body, medium alcohol, and minimal tannins make it very food-friendly. Red Burgundy, with its earthy and sometimes gamey character, is a classic partner to roasted game birds, grilled duck breast, and dishes that feature mushrooms, black truffles, or are rich in umami. Winemaker Description. 

Expert Review

92 Points Jasper Morris | 11 barrels for one hectare equates to about 25 hl/ha. Because Vercots has a heavy soil they put some extra fine pinot clones in this vineyard, which has paid off in the quality of the fruit. Slightly paler in colour but with some finesse. A savoury sandalwood touch to the oak this time, but the vineyard tannins are not fierce. Made with an agreeably light touch. Drink from 2025-2030.

Winemaker Description

Cathiard is a tiny domain - there never is very much wine. You enter a spick and span white stucco suburban home in the center of the small village of Vosne Romanee. There is a walled vineyard outside the front door. Go down the staircase and you are in a minuscule cuverie and barrel room.

Sebastien Cathiard has been slowly assuming control of this top estate in Vosne-Romanée from his father Sylvain. He is now fully in charge, but the wines have been so good for so long that he wisely has changed very little. They continue to farm meticulously, de-stem and rigorously sort all the fruit prior to fermentation. The only thing he has changed is the gradual reduction of new oak, seeking a bit more purity of terroir expression.

Expert Review

"An ultra-fresh and very bright nose freely offers up its array of red berries, plum and even more floral wisps. There is again a lovely textured to the beautifully delineated and stony middleweight flavors that conclude in a youthfully austere, linear and chiseled finale. This is also really quite good and worth considering."
Allen Meadows-Burghound

Winemaker Description

2019 embodies classic Hillside Select richness, vibrancy, and balance. The aromas push out of the glass, offering black cherry, cedar, cassis, and juicy red summer berries with lifted floral tones. Even at this youthful age, the complexity of the vintage is striking, merging dark fruit with tobacco, espresso, black olive, red plum, and black tea. The expansive mid-palate is complemented by ripe integrated tannins that add depth and structure, culminating in a long, profound finish.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2019 

98+ Points Jeb Dunnuck | The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is another magical vintage for this cuvée. All Cabernet Sauvignon from hillside vineyards on the eastern side of Stags Leap, it offers a vivid purple hue as well as extraordinary notes of cassis, black raspberries, violets, camphor, and spring flowers, with perfectly integrated background oak. Full-bodied but not massive, it’s flawlessly balanced on the palate and has ultra-fine tannins, a seamless, elegant mouthfeel, and a great, great finish. It’s another 30- to 40-year wine from this incredible team that readers will absolutely love. (2019).

98+ Points Robert Parker | Sourced from specific blocks of estate-grown fruit, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is another highly successful vintage. All Cabernet Sauvignon aged 32 months in 100% new French oak, it boasts intense aromas of pencil shavings, dark loam, cassis and plum on the nose, while the palate is full-bodied, super-ripe, rich, dense and concentrated—a truly impressive California vin de garde. Tannic but ripe, it finishes long and firm on the finish, adding a hint of mocha. To be released in September 2023, it's a strong showing and hopefully an indication that quality will remain high under the new ownership. (2019).

98 Points James Suckling | A beautiful nose of pitted cherries, redcurrants, fresh herbs and violets. Full-bodied with fine, structured tannins. More gravelly, mineral and dark than the nose lets on. Savory almost. Terrific depth and concentration that keeps the palate flavorful through the generous finish. Chocolate, sage, rosemary, bark and moss. Layered. Superb wine. Needs time to come together. Best after 2024 and onward. (2019).

98 Points Vinous | The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is one of the most elegant wines I have tasted at Shafer. Effusive aromatics and silky tannins are immediately captivating. Crushed red/purplish berry fruit, mint, spice, lavender and licorice are all finely knit. We will see, but the 2019 may very well represent a new direction for Hillside Select, one of Napa Valley's most iconic Cabernets. (2019).

97 Points Wine Enthusiast | This broad, rich and mouthfilling wine is Shafer’s most elite and collectible. Aged for 32 months in all-new French oak barrels, it boasts extra-ripe blackberries and blueberries, accents of mint, cedar and graphite, and a big structure of polished tannins. (2019).

94 Points Wine Spectator| A ripe, exuberant style, with generous plum cake, blackberry compote and açaí berry notes mixed with melted black licorice and a nicely polished, singed mesquite–accented finish. Hard to resist now (if you like the power style), but also has the energy to take some cellaring. (2019).

Winemaker Description

This single-vineyard wine is produced solely from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes harvested from Allone Habashan Vineyard, which is located in the central Golan Heights at an elevation of 600 meters (2,000 feet). The vineyard’s basalt soils have high clay content (~40%), resulting in high water-holding capacity. The wine aged for 18 months in French oak barrels. 

Expert Reviews

Critic Notes

Neal Martin writes:  The 2021 Morey-Saint-Denis Village is quite backward on the nose, blackberry and bilberry at the moment, a distinct marine element surface with time. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit tinged with orange rind and brown spices. Fine structure towards the finish although here, I would just like a little more finesse to develop.  - Drinking 2024 to 2032.  - Vinous

William Kelley writes:  The 2021 Morey-Saint-Denis Village is a blend of En Sevrey and Clos Solon. Delivering aromas of smoky red berries, raw cocoa and forest floor, it's medium-bodied, supple and perfumed, with melting tannins and a charming middle-weight style.  - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Allen Meadows writes:  Here too there is enough reduction to suppress the underlying fruit. The palate impression though of the more substantial flavors is vibrant and well-detailed, particularly on the lengthier and better-balanced finale. This could use more depth but that should reasonably occur with time.  - Burghound

Expert Reviews

Vinous Media 94-95 Points | Saturated magenta. Expansive aromas of black and blue fruits, licorice, olive and black pepper show fine clarity and building florality. Smoky and energetic in the mouth, offering juicy blackberry, cherry and baking spice flavors that slowly deepen through the back half. Becomes sweeter on the long, focused finish, which features grippy tannins and lingering floral and exotic spice notes.

Expert Review

Vinous Media - 95-97 points | Inky violet. Intense aromas of cherry, blackberry, olive, exotic spices and pipe tobacco are complemented by a smoky mineral nuance and a hint of bacon fat. Chewy and subtly sweet, offering concentrated, smoke-laced kirsch, dark berry preserve, espresso and licorice flavors and a spicy jolt of black pepper. Finishes impressively long and spicy, with chewy tannins and a building floral note.

Decanter 96: A tasting of the constituent lieux-dits indicates that this will be a fresh, well-balanced style of Cornas. The acidity is high this year, and the tannins are classically Cornas in their granitic grain and intensity. A highly structured year, this will always be a vintage for dedicated Cornas-lovers, there's no great wealth of rich fruit behind like in some recent vintages, but nonetheless this should age well. Very much a classic year, rather than the powerfully ripe and rich vintages we've seen since 2017. Whole-bunch fermented in concrete, aged in old foudres.(MW)

Distributor Notes

Clape’s Cornas is produced from a collection of old-vine parcels from the very best lieux-dits in the appellation including Sabarotte, La Côte, and Reynard. In these strikingly steep sites, gnarled head-trained Syrah vines must send their roots deep into poor granite soils for survival.

The old-vine fruit is vinified without destemming and aged in large, ancient wooden casks in the family cellars. It produces a majestically dark and brooding Cornas, layered with aromas of herbs and mint.

—Anthony Lynch

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2020 

100 Points  Decanter | Intense and full on the nose, fragrant with ripe black fruit, floral aspects and soft spicing. Round and full on the palate, it's rich and muscular yet tight and neatly coiled with a liquorice, graphite, pepper, cinnamon and clove tang that gives this immediate but enjoyable spice. Feels well worked, juicy with high acidity that lifts the palate and gives freshness and brightness alongside really quite mouthwatering strawberry and raspberry fruit with such captivating dried floral and bitter orange rind aspects. Tannins are super fine and so well integrated yet this maintains a grip and hold from the very beginning through to a long and sustained finish. Nuanced and complex, still packing a punch in terms of power, but this feels sophisticated, suave, purposeful and controlled. Not elegant, this is more of a caged animal with it's full potential yet to be unveiled, but it is classy. A truly delicious wine with so much purity and sense of place. Malolactic fermentation in 100% new barroques, with each batch kept separate for the first 12 months of ageing before being blended and returned to barriques for another year, totalling 24 months. The wine was then aged for a further 12 months in bottle before being released. Winemaker Gaia Cinnirella.

99 Points Wine Enthusiast | A hedge maze of aromas greets the nose, from blackberries and black cherries to crushed stones and crumpled petals, before a gentle addition of vanilla and toasted coconut. Mixed berries with vanilla and cardamom soak the palate, followed by freshly tilled dirt and flinty stone notes, and finally an astringent, brooding spiciness on the back. Tannins are tightly stitched together across the palate like a tapestry, with acrobatic acid emphasizing a salt and pepper finish. A wine that speaks volumes without shouting.

99 Points James Suckling | Intense aromas of ripe herbs, plums, green coffee beans, and hazelnuts. Turns to crushed berries and orange peel. Full-bodied with superb concentration and fine, velvety tannins that run the length of the wine. It's big but agile and gorgeous. Merlot. What a wine! Best after 2030.

99 Points Jeb Dunnuck | 97-99 Tasted from barrel, the 2020 Masseto is incredibly expressive out of the gate, with a sweet perfume of candied plum, boysenberry, crushed flowers, mocha, sweet earth, and fresh sage. The palate is full-bodied and decadent, with a velvety texture and notes of black plum, fresh leather, and scorched mineral earth. It delivers great finesse and polish that features opulence without having weight. I look forward to tasting this next year from bottle.

98 Points Vinous Media | The 2020 Masseto is superb. Bright and vibrant in the glass, the 2020 offers up an exciting mix of dark-toned fruit, mocha, spice, leather, tobacco, cedar and a kiss of French oak. Lively acids and Franc aromatics lend vibrancy throughout. The Franc is so evident today. This is exceptionally polished and sophisticated, albeit a touch slender relative to most years. In 2020, Masseto is more finesse than power.

97 Points  Wine Spectator | Complex, with a luscious texture and saturated plum, blackberry, black olive, iron, tobacco and toasty spice aromas and flavors, this red features a full, rich timbre. Offers a lively, well-integrated structure, with a long aftertaste of fruit and spices and a pleasant chalky feel. Merlot. Best from 2025 through 2043.

96 Points Wine Advocate | The 2020 Masseto now sees new DNA with a touch of Cabernet Franc added to this celebrated Merlot-based icon wine. This is a vintage of enormous richness and density, and everything about the wine is taken up a notch or two (including the bottle glass weight and the 15% alcohol content). But Axel Heinz and his team are well prepared for the hot vintages like 2020, and changes to farming and canopy management ensure even ripening. This wine is always hard to analyze in its youth. It needs many more years to soften and flesh out. Give it time.

Winemaker Description

The color of the wine is dark red, almost black with blueish hues. Very expressive on the nose with red fruits and black fruit flavors. A good swirl in the glass release a large range of flavors and spice. Star anise, licorice, as well as empyreumatic notes and flint stones. It goes very wide and powerful on the palate at first, then well-defined structure and smoothness of the wine gives all its balance, fresh and full body. The length is highlighted by a great tannic structure. On the palate, it is highly aromatic with a great fruit expression melted with soft spices, blond tobacco leaf, licorice and graphite pencil like notes.

Expert Reviews

Robert Parker 100 Points | A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot aging in 60% new barriques, the very deep purple-black colored 2020 Smith Haut Lafitte makes an impactful entrance, opening with flamboyant notes of blackcurrant pastilles, chocolate-covered cherries and molten licorice, leading to nuances of ground cloves, woodsmoke, crushed rocks and dusty soil. The medium to full-bodied palate bursts with opulent black fruit preserves and shimmering mineral sparks, framed by exquisitely ripe and fantastically firm tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epically long-lasting earthy and savory layers. This is the singular voice of Smith Haut Lafitte at its finest, and wow-oh-wow is it worth a listen. This 2020 has an alcohol of 14.5% with a pH of 3.65. The tannins this year were a little higher than 2018 and 2019. A little less than a third of production went into this grand vin. (2020).

Jeb Dunnuck 100 Points | Absolutely pure gold and reminding me of the 2009 (or is it the 2010?), the 2020 Château Smith Haut Lafitte sports a dense purple hue to go with incredible aromatics of blackberries, blueberries, scorched earth, wood smoke, and acacia flowers. One of the most concentrated, rich, and sexy wines in the vintage, this massive and extraordinarily opulent 2020 shows the vintage's pure, elegant profile yet backs it up with sensational levels of fruit and texture. Based on 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, it already offers pleasure given its wealth of fruit, but it deserves 7-8 years of bottle age and will evolve for 40-50 years. Not enough can be said about the quality of these wines. Bravo to Florence and Daniel Cathiard, as well as to director Fabien Teitgen, for another incredible achievement.

James Suckling 99 Points | Extremely fresh and deep in the nose with raspberry and blackcurrant character, as well as stone, fresh green tobacco and ink. Full-bodied with a dense center palate and gorgeous fine yet steely tannins. It calms down at the end with berries, citrus and some lavender. Salty at the end. Very minerally. Flinty. From organically grown grapes. 65% cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot, 4% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot. (2020).

Wine Enthusiast 98 Points | This is a very fine wine, packed with tannins that are rich and suspended in the wine with its smoky edge and ripe blackberry fruits. The wine is direct in its fine, fragrant freshness and in its texture that gives power and concentration. Obviously for long-term aging. (2020).

Decanter 97 Points | Powerful on the attack, dense and concentrated at first then brighter on the retro-olfaction with layers of spice, liquorice and flowers. Intense but beautifully precise, with iris and peony aromatics coming in strongly as it opens in the glass. A ton of nuance and complexity, really takes its time, delivering a masterclass in restrained Pessac glamour. Average yields 30hl/ha for the reds. 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend. 60% new oak. (2020).

Wine Spectator 95 Points | Exotic and lush in feel, with well-steeped plum, boysenberry and blackberry fruit flavors rolling through, scored with hints of espresso crema, dark tobacco and black licorice along the way. Very polished in feel, but with a late flicker of savory and a subtle tug of earth to keep this honest in the end. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2026. (2020).

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2022

The Wine Enthusiast 97-99 Points | This is already shaping up to being one of the stars of the vintage. With its great fruit, fully enveloped by the structure and tannins, the wine has been set well for the future. The aromatic black fruits are intense and concentrated. — Roger Voss

Decanter 98 Poinhts | Wonderfully aromatic and expressive, with dark fruit, floral scents, chocolate, cinnamon and liquorice. Smooth, svelte, bursting with energy. Juicy strawberries and cherries have crunch from fine tannins and mineral edges. Calm and controlled, yet quietly powerful. Fruit and oak emerge over time, layering chalky, powdery, ripe, spiced and fresh textures. Ends as joyously as it starts, and very moreish.

James Suckling 98 Points | What a nose with complex aromas of blackberries, blackcurrants, graphite and pencil shavings. Full-bodied, this has layers of tannins and intense richness but is framed and held together by the phenolic structure. Vertical and deep, it goes on for minutes on the palate. Great finish. 81% cabernet sauvignon and 19% merlot. Give this five to six years to come together more. Best after 2030 and beyon

Winemaker Description

Strikingly rich in color and extract, the 2018 Rubicon is unquestionably a precocious, hedonistic wine. The exotic, well-knit aromas and flavors include ripe cassis, allspice, star anise, vanilla and black licorice. Upon entry, this full-bodied wine envelops the palate with its luxurious concentration and supple, silky tannins, supported by vibrant freshness from the balanced acidity, and perfectly-integrated French oak. Very long and expansive in the finish, the 2018 Rubicon will be memorable for decades to come. 

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2018 

James Suckling 97 Points | Subtle and complex red with blackberry, black truffle, sweet tobacco and mahogany. Highlights of lavender and violets. Full-bodied and very tight with finesse and tension. Very polished, fine tannins. Long finish. Delicious already, but best after 2022. (2018). 

Jeb Dunnuck 95 Points | The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Rubicon is based on a blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It’s a more backward, closed wine, offering classy notes of crème de cassis, lead pencil shavings, freshly crushed stone, and cedar. More medium to full-bodied and elegant, I’d like to see a touch more density and richness on the mid-palate, but it's beautifully balanced, has gorgeous tannins, integrated acidity, and outstanding length on the finish. Give this classic, impressive, old school beauty 4-5 years in the cellar and enjoy over the following 15-20. (2018).

Wine Spectator 93 Points | Alluring aromatically, with restrained yet complex notes of mulberry, loganberry and anise giving way to an equally understated core of the same, picking up light sassafras, black tea and incense hints. The refined structure lets this drape nicely on the finish, with a mineral hint chiming in. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2035. (2018). 

Winemaker Description

Quinta de Santa Eufemia is a Portuguese Port house whose history begins in 1864 when Bernardo Rodrigues de Carvalho acquired vineyards in the Duoro and began producing and selling Port wines. His skills and passion have been passed down from generation to generation

The wine is quickly fermented in traditional lagares (treading tanks) before being fortified. After fortification, the wine is aged for nine months in stainless steel where it is naturally decanted, the transferred to 550 liter oak barrels where it ages for a further 4 years before bottling.

It pours a brick tawny color and has aromas and flavors of red currant, plums, caramel and toffee. Great on its own, this tawny also pairs nicely with smoked ham.