"A lifted nose of ripe citrus with almonds and brioche that is extremely open and inviting. The palate treads the line between richness and refreshment perfectly. Round & generous fruit with a decent slug of dosage is balanced out with a super-fresh finish and spray of mineral at the last. 100% Grand Cru Chardonnay here meaning this Blanc de Blancs really over-delivers at the price point. An excellent house pour. " - Will Trotman, Head of UK Sales

Greg Sherwood MW (96)

A blend of 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Syrah and 7% Petit Verdot which was aged for 19 months in French oak, 50% new 400 litre barrels and 50% second fill. A seductively perfumed vintage, the aromatics show alluring notes of violets, potpourri and hits of lily over dark bramble berry fruits with hints of mocha espresso notes that combine with subtle buttered brown toast nuances. The palate shows fabulous elegance and finesse with a soft touch concentration of black currant, Christmas pudding, savoury plum compote and black cherry. The tannins are powdery and fine grained but also structured and drying, combining well with a fresh glossy acidity that keeps the finish focused, vibrant and bright. An impressive wine that not only shows off another great vintage in the Cape but also what is increasingly possible with the superb Anwilka Stellenbosch terroir.

Kerin O'Keefe (97)

Camphor, forest berry, dark spice and new leather aromas form the enticing nose. Elegantly structured and radiant, the linear, vibrant palate delivers ripe red cherry, pomegranate, ground clove and peppercorn set against a backbone of bright acidity and taut, fine-grained tannins. What a beauty.

James Suckling (96)

Profound nose here with chili chocolate and sandalwood beneath the sweet blackberry background. A hint of violets, too. An opulent and densely packed palate with full body and concentrated blackberries. Very tight tannins rendered in a fine-grained and almost seamless way, with a lingering finish. Drinkable now if decanted, but better after 2025.

Jeb Dunnuck (95-97+)

I was able to taste the 2022 Château Beychevelle on multiple occasions, and it never failed to impress me. Based on 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot that will see 18 months in 70% new oak, it's one of those wines that makes you stop and say "wow" due to its purity, depth, and texture. Sporting a dense purple hue as well as lots of blueberry and black cherry fruits, it's full-bodied and has a layered, seamless mouthfeel, building yet gorgeous tannins, and subtle background notes of crushed violets, flowers, and graphite. This is a sensational effort from director Philippe Blanc.

Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (100)

Just love this wine, the lyricism and the generosity of it, and its always vivid depiction of fruits and stones. So juicy, so drawn out, works with the vintage, leans into its low yields, with greengages, raspberry, plum, gentle spices, lemongrass, minerality studded with mandarin peel and sage. Translucent and yet full of flavour, once again it begs you to draw up a chair, gather friends, and enjoy. What a brilliant wine and a brilliant winemaker in Bibi Graetz. From a 58ha estate, Colore comes from the oldest vineyards of Sangiovese that range up to 135 years old.

Vinous (96)

The 2019 Sauvignon Blanc Abstract Three Rows is a pure and sophisticated wine from, true to its name, three rows of a dry farmed parcel. It is bright and tangy yet savory. The fruit is pure and delicate, like a cloud. It is transparent and yet expansive in the mouth, having no heaviness. Light honey, nectarine, musky boxwood and oatmeal flavors abound with a light creamy character. Sensitive Sauvignon.

Vinous (97)

The 2021 Chardonnay Reed Vineyard is pure, harmonious and suave, caressing the mouth with its gentle texture and purity. It's not showy but a wine worth getting to know: it provides cognitive and sensory pleasure. You can expect almond, oatmeal, smoky nuts and party popper aromas. Yes, party poppers. I really love the smell of party poppers, so I want to keep smelling this and having a little party shimmy. Pure and textural with a gourmand character that will make you want to lick your cheeks to keep tasting it. Already good; this is going to be great.

Matthew Jukes (19+)

With 90% of the fruit coming from Porseleinberg and 10% from Goldmine, both in Swartland, this is a wondrous wine with more detail and finesse than any preceding vintage. Utilising only large foudre, the spice and fruit aromatics are as pure and evocative as I have encountered in a Cape Syrah. While the flavour palette is more deep purple than black-fruited, there is no obvious oak intervention and this allows the fruit to soar. Sanguineous and sappy on the finish, this is a glorious red wine with elemental animal notes interwoven with silky ribbons of beautifully ripe blackcurrant, mulberry and plum flavours. With the same texture and volume of fruit as a Vosne-Romanée, this is a regal creation that distances itself from the meat and muscle often found in sun-loving Syrahs!

Tyson Stelzer (97)

PN AYC18 is a showpiece for the expansive dimensions, intoxicating allure and purity of Aÿ pinot noir; a wonderfully characterful blanc de noirs that celebrates the sumptuous fruit generosity of 2018 and the purity and precision of this fabled cru. With the generous tones of a full straw hue and a blush tint, it ripples with grand fruit depth of red cherries and perfectly ripe plums. The magnificent depth of complexity that is Bollinger rumbles in deep reserves, reminiscent of fruit mince spice and dried nectarines. I love that it is so emphatically Aÿ, so intrinsically Bollinger, and yet all transposed with the transparency and delicious fruit generosity that is 2018. It holds fantastic, succulent allure on a very long finish; the ripeness of 2018 translating in supple, silky fruit generosity, yet in no way heavy or broad, beautifully energised by the fine chalk salinity and pure acid freshness that make Aÿ such a beloved place.

Vinous (92)

The 2019 Barolo is a gorgeous entry-level offering from Brezza. In fact, it's one of the best editions of this wine I can remember tasting. Bright, translucent and full of character, the straight Barolo is all charm. Crushed red berry fruit, orange peel, sage, mint and sweet spice all lend notable complexity throughout. Vineyard sites are San Lorenzo, Fossati, Ravera (Novello) and Bricco San Pietro. Fruit is harvested and vinified separately, then the lots are blended before malolactic fermentation.

Vinous (95)

The 2019 Barolo Cannubi is one of the best wines I have tasted from Brezza in a very long time. Sweet, perfumed and silky, the 2019 bristles with Cannubi character. Crushed red berry fruit, cedar, mint, rose petal and orange zest are some of the notes that grace this exquisite but potent Barolo. Give the tannins a few years to soften.

Vinous (94)

The 2019 Barolo Castellero is a deep, beguiling wine. Deeply pitched spice, menthol, licorice and dried herbs meld into a core of dark-toned fruit. Virile and imposing, with notable inner sweetness, the Castellero is stunning. There's a bit of new oak influence, but it is not dominant. This is another superb Barolo from Brezza.

Decanter (97)

Brezza is dedicated to organic viticulture, and works only with indigenous yeast, big oak vessels and long macerations in the cellar. His 2019 Sarmassa is one of the most elegant Barolos of the vintage, if not the most. Bright ruby in the glass and vibrant on the nose, the tannins are impeccable. Plenty of Parma violet notes are to the fore, soaked with rhubarb root, liquorice stick and a whiff of yellow fruits. The attack is poised, soft and silky, with long, lifted acidity. There is a perfect extraction here – the tannins are very well judged and ripe.

Kerin O'Keefe (96)

The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino from Canalicchio di Sopra boasts great aromatics of wild rose, new leather forest floor and perfumed berry that align with whiffs of spice. It’s savory and loaded with finesse, featuring juicy red cherry, botanical herb, white pepper and iron mineral notes framed in taut, lithe tannins. Blending grapes from their Montosoli and Canalicchio vineyards created an ideal, natural balance. Drink through 2038.

Decanter (96)

Juicy and lively, cool and crisp with concentrated but cool tannins that give the structure and density. It's massy, full, upfront, but retains a charm in that nothing is harsh or austere or too spiced. It's full but there's something very captivating about this, has excitement and vibrancy and will be totally delicious and moreish when the time is right. Lovely acidity, beautiful red fruits, crisp and tense yet layered and ripe, mineral too. Gives you the emotion! Harvest 7-27 September. Ageing in French oak, 60% new, 40% one year old.

Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (98)

Always a pleasure to taste this wine, from 1.4ha of limestone soils at 1,390m elevation, and once again it delivers at the top of its category. It has a reticence at first, with an austere opening that punches through to fragrant dried and freshly cut sage and fennel herbs, rich with incense, black tea, crushed flowers, blackcurrant, cassis and raspberry fruits, spiced pear, chalk, graphite, white truffle. It's hard to stop when it comes to naming the flavours, so drawn out and precisely crafted is the construction. 475 cases from winemaker Alejandro Vigil, Fermentation in concrete with 50% whole cluster, followed by ageing in 75% French oak barrels, 25% in large oak casks.

Tim Atkin MW (93)

N/A

James Suckling (98)

This is probably the finest answer to Puligny or Meursault in Argentina and it will be hard to pass by. Beautiful brioche notes give a fine creaminess with mineral, fine reduction, beeswax and a hint of white sesame to the lemon curd. Extremely textured and tense on the palate with fresh, medium acidity and a long, long finish. This is all about texture and purity. Also intellectual. Drink or hold. From biodynamically grown grapes.

James Suckling (97)

Such a flinty nose that delivers a full package of minerality. Quarry, chalk, gun powder and lime. The nose really speaks to you. Creamy and textured on the palate with bright but chiselled acidity and real tension. One of the best Mainque’s ever? Chacra’s answer to fine Chablis. Drink or hold. From biodynamically grown grapes.

James Suckling (99-100)

This is a wine that soars to new heights with its brightness and weightlessness. The balance of serene fruit that’s perfectly ripe. Full-bodied yet tight and polished where it seems delicate and compressed, with berry, chocolate and walnut character. The finish is endless and poised. Wine of the vintage? 53% merlot, 46% cabernet franc and 1% cabernet sauvignon.

Wine Advocate (98)

The 2020 Cheval des Andes was harvested from the last of February for the first time ever. It was Gabillet's second vintage at Cheval des Andes, and that year, he had to start without waiting for Pierre Olivier Clouet and Pierre Lurton from Cheval Blanc; when they arrived, they had finished picking the Malbec, which surprisingly was fresher in Las Compuertas (because of the higher percentage of clay?) than in Altamira (where the vines suffered more stress), saving the freshness. They now harvest using cold trucks (for the first time), and they also started earlier in the morning (six in the morning, impossible earlier in Mendoza...), which he reckons was very good for the precision of the wine. They used 40% 225-liter barrels, 40% 400-liter oak barrels and 20% 2,500-liter foudres, half of them new and with an élevage of 15 months on average, depending on the lots and varieties from 12 to 18 months. The final blend was 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot, which makes a comeback as it was not used since 2016. The key was to finish the fermentation of the Petit Verdot without skins, and that way, they have been able to use it in the blends of 2021, 2022 and 2023 in small but increasing percentages. This is slightly riper than 2019, with a little more alcohol (14.5%) and with very good structural tannins but saving the freshness, and it has the spicy side from the Petit Verdot (Gabillet talks about white pepper). The wine has the ultra sleek and polished texture and the elegance and the balance that is the signature here; the wine is very clean and precise. I see very good regularity across the three vintages I tasted next to each other—this 2020 and the 2018 and 2019. Overall, this is a triumph over the adverse conditions of the vintage. They produced their usual 100,000 bottles (since 2018), as they are renewing their vineyards and want to keep the volume stable. They produce this volume from the 36 productive hectares they have in Las Compuertas and Altamira. There are some more changes: in 2020, they went for a lighter bottle, weighing 100 grams less than the one they used in 2018 and 2019, but close to 300 grams less than the bottle from before. It's also a slimmer bottle, always thinking about the environment. They are very focused on agroecology, accelerating the regenerative viticulture and using cover crops; they have planted 1,900 trees in the last three years, creating small clusters of biodiversity for birds. They have transplanted some centenary olive trees and keep their sheep and lamas on the property. Very green-minded.

Kerin O'Keefe (97)

Forest berry, spice, hay and menthol aromas mingle with whiffs of new leather on this stunning, fragrant Brunello. A top-scorer vintage after vintage, the 2018 combines elegance and a full body, delivering dried cherry, blood orange, licorice and ground clove alongside firm but refined tannins. Bright acidity keeps it energized while a saline mineral note adds depth to the finish.

James Suckling (95-96)

Focused and bright with plenty of fruit but oranges and minerals in the mid-palate. Really fresh with a fresh bitterness.

Jancis Robinson (18)

Leather and spiced notes, pure with good fresh vivacity on the nose. The palate is ripe and seductive, layered with forest fruits, dark spiced figs. Attractive refreshing acidity, red fruits and a wild garrigue savoury Mourvèdre note – the tannins are supple and silky – dark forest-fruits finish which is broad, ample and opulent but always with a finesse of tannins and a savoury liquorice mineral note.

Jeb Dunnuck (95-97)

I loved the 2022 Clos Du Marquis, which is a brilliant effort, if not the finest vintage of this cuvée I've tasted. Cassis, graphite, and floral notes all define the bouquet, and it's full-bodied, with ultra-fine tannins and flawless balance. It shows the ripe, concentrated, powerful style of the vintage yet is incredibly pure and seamless, with everything in the right places. It's going to round into form with just a few years of bottle age but have decades of prime drinking.

Kerin O'Keefe (99)

Perfumed berry, pine forest, new leather and violet aromas mingle with enticing scents of vineyard dust that segue into underbrush and nutmeg. Linear, lithe and all about elegance, the savory palate has great energy that lifts juicy red cherry, spiced cranberry, star anise and tangy saline notes that linger on the close. Tight but refined tannins and vibrant acidity keep it youthfully tense and impeccably balanced. Those who love power and might could be surprised by its almost ethereal quality, but lovers of finesse, depth and balance will swoon in delight.

James Suckling (99)

Incredible, reserved ripeness and depth already evident on the nose after one whiff, offering plum, cedar, rose hip, sandalwood, and licorice. Full-bodied with superb depth of fruit and an abundance of polished tannins that give the wine poise and grace, even though it’s long and powerful. The quality of the tannins are exceptional. Sheer and refined. This comes from the center of Cannubi. Aged five years in Stockinger cask. Better after 2026.

Wine Advocate (94-96+)

The cumulative rainfall at Château Fieuzal was only 385 millimeters in 2022, compared to 753 millimeters in 2021 and 743 millimeters in 2020. But this did not prevent Stephen Carrier and his team from making a fresh and energetic 2022 de Fieuzal, bursting with aromas of violet, iris, menthol and crunchy wild berries mingled with hints of coniferous forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, it's pristinely balanced and beautifully layered, exhibiting a vibrant palate that's deep, tensile and elegant, concluding with a mouthwateringly mineral finish. This estate is achieving things no one would have thought possible a decade ago.