Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019 - 99

33RD A NNUA L B U YING G U ID E

98 | Taylor Fladgate

$275

2017 Porto Vargellas Vinha Velha Vintage ^ This is a blend from several parcels on
the walled terraces of Vargellas, all a mix of
century-old vines but for one sector, planted
in 1927 by Dick Yeatman in monovarietal
blocks. The eighth vintage of Vinha Velha
since the first bottling in 1995, it was also the
earliest harvest ever, two days earlier than
1945, when picking began on September 3.
The deep-rooted vines and the early season
delivered a Port that emphasizes austerity
and muscle. The wine lives in its own world of
tannins, as beefy as brisket, branded with the
masculine power of a great Taylor vintage.
(W&S 10/19) § Kobrand, Purchase, NY -J.G.

S O U T H A F RI C A

S PA IN

BEST SYRAH

BEST ALBARINO

123388

96 | Mullineux

$123

2016 Swartland Schist Syrah ^ Andrea
and Chris Mullineux have been exploring
Swartland's varied soils since they settled in
Riebeek Kasteel in 2007. Their explorations
have led to an array of single-parcel wines,
like this one, off 17-year-old vines rooted
in shale and schist on the Kasteelberg. The
2016, foot-trod as whole bunches in opentopped barrels and fermented with ambient
yeasts, spent four weeks on the skins before
it was pressed and racked into barrels, where
it rested 21 months. There's not a hint of
wood in the wine: It's all pure raspberry flavor, spicy and rich, complemented by finegrit tannins that give it heft and substance.
Notes of herbs, earth and tapenade suggest
parallels to the Rhône, though it radiates a
different sort of warmth. While it's elegant
and restrained, a pleasure to drink now, it has
the structure to hold it for 15 years. (W&S
2/19) § Skurnik Wines & Spirits, NY -T.Q.T.

BEST DESSERT
123386

97 | Mullineux

dry in the shade outside for several weeks.
They then pressed the bunches whole and
racked the juice into barrels, where they
let ambient yeasts do the work of fermentation. When the yeasts petered out-after
about six months-they dosed some barrels
with sulfur to preserve the freshness of the
wine, and let others oxidize. The end result
slips over the tongue like satin, notes of stone
fruit, broiled pineapple, honey and marzipan
left in its wake. It feels somehow weightless,
more like a surround-sound experience than
a direct hit, and leaves the body tingling. At
308 grams of sugar per liter, and 11.3 grams
of acidity, it's likely to last for decades in the
cellar. (W&S 2/19) § Skurnik Wines & Spirits,
NY -T.Q.T.

$45/375ml

2017 Swartland Straw Wine ^ In the warm,
dry 2017 vintage, Andrea and Chris Mullineux hit it out of the park with their Straw
Wine, a sweet wine from air-dried grapes.
The couple, who work with viticulturist
Rosa Kruger, blended this vintage from two
parcels: a 37-year-old vineyard of chenin on
shale on the Kasteelberg mountain, and a
cool site on the Paarderberg, the mountain
range dividing Swartland and Paarl, where
old bush vines grow on decomposed granite.
Rather than letting the fruit get superripe,
they harvested it as the would a table wine
(22˚ Brix in 2017) and then left the grapes to

271675

95 | Do Ferreiro

$56

2017 Rías Baixas Cepas Vellas Albariño ^
The sandy granite soils of Salnés have sustained a few small parcels of ancient vines,
that soil protecting their roots from the ravages of phylloxera. Gerardo Méndez farms
one of those blocks, 2.5 acres of vines he estimates to be 200 years old. They are trained
high off the ground to keep the bunches dry,
exposed to what sun and wind might counter
the coastal rains. And they produce a wine
with astonishing concentration of flavor,
spicy and layered in its earthiness, notes of
fennel in a lasting dynamic between scents of
fresh pear and baked golden apple. It's rare
to find a white wine with this much flavor
intensity, as well as sheer grace. (W&S 8/19) §
De Maison Selections, Chapel Hill, NC -J.G.

BEST WHITE RIOJA
233220

96 | R. López de Heredia

$50

2005 Rioja Reserva Viña Tondonia Blanco ^
Open the bottle and wake this wine from its
deep sleep. You'll meet a gentle white Rioja,
slightly irascible, as if you'd nudged a Spaniard out of her beauty sleep. The wine quickly
finds its balance, a smoky, lemony chickenbroth scent, a pale earthy savor, a gentle
beeswax character and lovely textural give.
But it doesn't show itself until a day later,
when scents of salted peach and crisp green
pear begin to layer into the yellow fruit,
refreshing the wine, bringing along a scent
of roses and beautiful detail to the richness.
This wine appears to be ageless and will likely
live for decades. (W&S 12/18) § Think Global,
Santa Barbara, CA -J.G.

Wine & Spirits

B E S T S PA R L K L I N G
271564

94 | Pere Ventura

$45

94 | Raventós i Blanc

$84

2014 Cava Gran Reserva Brut Rosé ^ There's
freshness to the Pere Ventura wines, whether
they're young or old. This one has a sophisticated raspberry sweetness that comes up
through its yeasty flavors, clean fruit emerging out of the scent of toasted almonds.
The flavors last with complexity and a hint
of smoke. (W&S 8/19) § Palm Bay Int'l, Port
Washington, NY -J.G.
271729
2012 Conca del Riu Anoia Manuel
Raventós Brut Nature ^ Pepe Raventos was
among the first producers to leave the Cava
DO, focusing on biodynamically farmed,
deeply flavorful sparklers like this Brut
Nature. The wine's heady toastiness comes
first, but prominent fruit flavors come up to
meet it, along with savory notes of thyme.
Nacho Monclus of Brooklyn's Camperdown
Elm compared it to the scent of freshly harvested almonds, a freshness driving through
the wine's savor. It's a purely Spanish sparkling wine. (W&S 8/19) § Skurnik Wines &
Spirits, NY -J.G.

BEST CANARY ISL ANDS RED
272941

95 | Suertes del Marqués

$45

2017 Tenerife Valle de la Orotava Viñas
Viejas El Chibirique Listán Negro ^ Allow
yourself to be seduced by the raw minerality of this wine's scent and it will deliver facets of richness for hours. Its fragrant flavors
of black cherry and plum skin grow out of
a small amphitheater facing east, where the
vines are between 60 and 80 years old, their
canes braided in the long, horizontal serpentine twists of the local tradition, called
cordón trenzado. Those vines ripen the grape
stems in close enough alignment to the fruit
so that García Lima can make this entirely
with whole clusters. He ferments it with
ambient yeasts in concrete vats and ages
it in large neutral French oak barrels. This
offers a pure and compelling taste of a beautiful place. (W&S 10/19) § Polaner Selections,
Mount Kisco, NY -J.G.

BEST GALICIA REDS
271660

96 | Viña Mein

$35

2016 Ribeiro Tinto Clásico ^ Javier Alen
was one of the leaders of the renaissance
of Ribeiro when he founded Viña Mein in
1988, replanting hillside vineyards with local
varieties and sustaining some older parcels
that he recently turned over to Dani Landi

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