Wine & Spirits - Fall 2023 - 95

Top 100 Wines
Shafer cabernet, it follows a clean line, like a
well-built rock wall, the wine's flavors infused
with black-currant ripeness and blueberryskin
darkness that keeps smoking up in the
finish (the wine has consumed a substantial
amount of new oak). This has the stamina to
last for a decade or two. -J.G. §
94 | Beaulieu
94 | Keenan
$130
2019 Spring Mountain District Napa Valley
Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ^ The scent
of tobacco and herbs brings out the subtle
cabernet varietal character of this wine. Panelist
Carrie Lyn Strong compared the scent to
" smelling a fresh cigar and rolling it around
in your fingers. " Fresh plum flavors saturate
the spicy green-peppercorn tannins, then the
wine lasts with subtle smokiness. An estategrown
blend of cabernet sauvignon with a little
cabernet franc, this wine's texture is supple,
but there's space between the tannins,
so you can breathe in their smokiness and
exhale the soil character. -J.G. (700 cases) §
94 | Artesa
$125
2019 Mt. Veeder Elevation Block Cabernet
Sauvignon ^ Codorniu Napa opened in
the early 1990s with plans to grow pinot noir
and chardonnay for sparkling wine in Carneros.
They launched Artesa for still wines in
1998, including cabernet sauvignon, But
they did not plant their own cabernet until
2016, six acres at the top of their vineyard
(450 feet elevation), where it crosses into the
Mount Veeder appellation. This 2019, their
first release, earned the highest score we've
awarded Artesa, and it captures a fascinating
moment in Napa Valley's changing climate.
Grown in a cool spot for cabernet, it has a
narrow build with savory depths of flavor,
from pomegranate to blackcap raspberry and
plum skin. There's some espresso-roast reference
in the oak tannins, but most of the tannins
are directly tied to the mountain-grown
fruit, sharing a green forest floor richness in
their layered beauty. -J.G. §
94 | Shafer
$110
2019 Stags Leap District One Point Five
Cabernet Sauvignon ^ Elias Fernandez
focuses this wine on two estate vineyards,
one at the base of the Stags Leap Escarpment,
on hills surrounding the winery, plus
the Borderline vineyard two miles south. His
2019 has a soil-driven scent, picking up on
the rocky, volcanic scree that forms the base
of these knolls. Yet, in the best tradition of
$150
2019 Napa Valley Georges de Latour Private
Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ^ Trevor
Durling hit another home run with the 2019
Georges de Latour, a brilliant follow-up to his
2017. He selects the fruit from BV1 and BV2,
parcels on the western benchlands of Rutherford,
first planted by Georges de Latour in
the early 1900s. The latest generation of vines
produced a silken cabernet in 2019, its firm,
grape-skin tannins surrounding ripe purpleplum
fruit, lasting on that fruit perfume with
a sense of restraint and elegance. This is the
kind of gracious cabernet that made the
Rutherford Bench famous. -J.G. §
BEST PINOT NOIRS
97 | Hirsch
$105
2020 Sonoma Coast Block 8 Pinot Noir ^
Facing the Pacific on the West Ridge of
Hirsch's far-coast vineyard, Block 8 shows
no trace of smoke from the fires of 2020.
This wine was beautiful when first opened
and more beautiful the next day as its musky
intensity lightened, allowing dynamic plumskin
tannins and a scent of rosewater perfume
to unfurl. David Hirsch planted Block
8 in 1993 to a field blend of heritage clones-
Pommard and Wädenswil-and he considers
it to be his grand cru parcel. In fact, we
find the wine consistently offers the depth
and savor of a great Burgundy with the flavor
profile of a great coastal pinot from Sonoma:
dark, saturated plum and black raspberry,
smoky and intense. A wine to cellar and
watch as it evolves over the next five to ten
years. -J.G. (290 cases) §
96 | Siduri
$70
2021 Russian River Valley Parson's Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ This is the third vintage
at Siduri for Matt Revelette, who joined as
winemaker in 2019, but it is the first vintage
in which Siduri's pinots have shown at this
level. From a vineyard on the Santa Rosa
Plain, this wine's scents work back from beeswax
and wildflower honey to the wildflowers
themselves. The flavors have a long, graceful
beauty, a bee buzz and a sting of nettles
resolving into fresh summer blueberries.
The black tannins have youthful intensity,
the wine on track to become increasingly
elegant in the years ahead. -J.G. (236 cases) §
BEST SYRaH
95 | Minus Tide
$39
2019 Mendocino Ridge Perli Vineyard
Syrah ^ I wish there were more vineyards like
Perli in Mendocino's high ridges. The best
wines from the site have dynamic intensity,
like this 2019, which seems to grab you by the
lapels (if you're stodgy enough to be wearing
a suit while drinking syrah). There's tense
acidity driving the wine, but it doesn't stand
in front of the scents of crushed violets and
peak-season blueberries. The tannins may be
a little rustic, but the wine's energy makes
them feel joyous. -J.G. (56 cases) §
BEST ZINFaNDEl BlEND
95 | Ridge
$55
2021 Alexander Valley Geyserville ^ When
Geyserville hits in a great vintage, it takes me
back to what I originally loved about California
wine. Or to that sense of optimism on a
spring day when I first visited San Francisco
in 1984, to pitch this magazine on publishing
services. I didn't know at the time that
I would still be publishing it 40 years later,
and I didn't know how much California wine
would change. Or how little the style and
intention of Geyserville would change. The
team at Ridge manages the vineyard's generations
of vines to produce complex wines
like this perfectly ripe 2021, with its dark, resinous
scents of marijuana, its deep layers of
rich fruit and the fruitiness of detailed tannins.
The fresh, herbal complexity is pretty
epic and the richness doesn't stop. What I
want from California. -J.G. §
BEST ZINFaNDElS
94 | Green & Red
$75
2019 Napa Valley Heminway Estate
Reserve Zinfandel ^ A barrel selection from
all three vineyards on the estate, Chiles Mill,
Tip Top and Catacula, this was blended
after 14 months in American and French
oak barrels (20 percent new), then aged for
another year in neutral French oak barrels.
F all 2023
WINE & SPIR IT S
95
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Wine & Spirits - Fall 2023

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