Wine Advocate (100)

The 2004 El Pison stands out from its peers. It has a deeper color than the 2007 with a splendid nose that jumps from the glass. Notes of espresso, balsamic, Asian spices, pain grille, mineral, and black cherry lead to a velvety, mouth-filling, deep wine that effortlessly combines elegance with power. It should easily drink well for another 30-40 years. It simply does not get any better.

Vinous (100)

The 2004 Barolo Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto is simply as profound as wine can be. Period. Strikingly layered, perfumed and sensual to the core, the 2004 has it all. Next to the straight Falletto, the Rocche is more refined but also quite a bit more backward as well. Mint, rose petal and melted road tar grace the exquisite finish. The level of intensity here is simply mind-blowing. At ten years of age, the 2004 Rocche is a youngster, but it is clearly a wine of divine inspiration. For readers who look at the numbers, the score is the only possible score.

Wine Advocate (100)

It's an historical wine, a one-off, semi-sweet white produced at the end of the Spanish Civil War, a wine impossible to replicate, fruit of impossible circumstances, a wine I've had the luck to drink and share with many people on a number of occasions and which never fails to impress everyone. The perfect 1939 CVNE Rioja Blanco Semi Dulce Corona is a mythical wine! 1939 saw the end of Spain's Civil War, and the country was upside down. There were some major battles fought in Rioja, and by the time they had to harvest the grapes, there were not enough men in the village. They must have focused on the best parcels, surely giving priority to red grapes. Some vineyards were overlooked, as happened with the whites that eventually produced this wine. These grapes were harvested extremely late, into November, close to December and their health was not optimal, they had developed some botrytis and were clearly rotten. The people in charge of making the wine surely didn't know about botrytis cynerea, or noble rot, and were surely afraid their grapes were rotten and they would not be able to produce any decent white. So they did the best they could, but the fermentation never finished completely and there was some residual sugar in the wine. So, as they did with all their wines, they put it in oak barrels to mature and kind of put it in a corner hoping nobody would notice its shortcomings. We have to realize that CVNE was already producing quite a lot of wine at the time, so it's not unusual to have a few stray barrels here or there that nobody pays attention to. What is not that normal is that the wine was REALLY forgotten and was "found" during a stock take for an audit in 1970! So the wine aged slowly in barrel for some 30 years! Once found, nobody saw any reason to keep the wine in barrel any longer, so they decided to bottle it. Not knowing quite what to do with it, the bottles were stacked somewhere and the same story was repeated, as the stash was forgotten and basically untouched until thirty something years later: thanks to the daughter of one of the family owners (the winery is still in the hand of the same family that created it back in 1879). The proud father had a vague idea about a somewhat sweet wine that could be served at his daughter's wedding and asked to get some bottles to taste. They uncorked it, tasted it and found a complex, subtle white with great balance between alcohol, acidity and a little bit of residual sugar (around 20 grams), which took the edge off the acidity and made the wine rounder, as old Viura can be too austere. The slow aging, first in an oxidative way during the years in oak provided some nuttiness, and spicy aromas, while the botrytis added some of those dry apricot, beeswax and pollen notes, hinting on honey, but also the long reductive period in bottle made it very elegant and polished, with infinite nuances of white pepper, quince, faint smoke, walnuts, petrol...This redefines complexity, elegance and slow aging. The palate is prodigious, with a gobsmacking (literally!) balance, pungent flavors, freshness, acidity, very faint sweetness and length like only something which has slowly evolved over 70 years can be. The aftertaste should not be measured in seconds, but in minutes, and the empty glass keeps changing and giving different tones for hours. If you leave a little bit in the bottle for the day after (yes, it's difficult, I know!) the wine is even better on the second day. There is no reason to believe that if the wine is as good as it is today it is not going to reach its one-hundredth birthday. The wine is mainly Viura, but there might have been a little bit of the white Garnacha Blanca in the blend. At this stage nobody really knows (or cares). This is simply otherworldly, superb, perfect wine, whose only improvement would come if they had bottled some magnums! A dream. A unique, historical wine. If there is a perfect white Rioja, this is surely it. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2039.

Wine Spectator (100)

A gorgeous white, with layers of rich, ripe fruit and lemon, mineral and honey character. Full-bodied, with fresh acidity. Very long finish. Score range: 95-100

Vinous - Antonio Galloni (100)

The 2004 Cristal has always been one of my favorites. It is all that again today. A Champagne of precision and nuance, the 2004 impresses with its linear cut and saline intensity. Readers will find a Cristal built on vibrancy more than power or opulence. In this tasting, the 2004 is an absolute stunner. These were the highest yields, even in Champagne. “We dropped half the crop on the Chardonnay and still picked 18,000 kilos (per hectare). That’s massive. We would have picked 25,000 otherwise.” I have always loved the 2004 for its purity. That quality is very much on display today. This is an especially fine bottle, the best I have tasted so far. Dosage is 8 grams per liter. Disgorged: 2011.

Vinous (100)

The 2004 Masseto, one of my personal favorites, is positively stellar. I have always adored the 2004 for its silky tannins, stunning aromatic presence and total finesse, all of which are on display today. Beautifully pure to the long finish and profoundly beautiful in every way, the 2004 has it all. It was a textbook vintage that only presented one real challenge, and that was moderating the naturally high yields that resulted from an unblocking of energy the vines had held in store from the previous year. Where producers moderated yields, the wines are often stunning, as is very much the case here. If forced to choose only one vintage of Masseto I could own or drink it would be the 2004.

Wine Advocate (100)

The 2004 Pingus is a glass-coating opaque purple/black color with a bouquet of Asian spices, incense, lavender, truffle, black cherry, and blackberry that soars from the glass. Dense, rich, and seamless, this is a complete, harmonious offering with no rough edges. It will continue to blossom for another 5-7 years and offer a drinking window extending from 2014 to 2044.

Wine Enthusiast (100)

A perfect score has to be considered in the context of its region. Shafer's 2004 Hillside Select is tremendous as a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that competes with its peers at the highest levels. It's always a fabulous wine, but in warm 2004, Shafer's amphitheater vineyard sheltered the grapes, ripening them to perfection yet protecting the "iron fist in a velvet glove" structure that André Tchelistcheff defined as Stags Leap. This 100% Cabernet is tremendous in cassis, black currant and mocha flavors, and the 100% new French oak provides perfect additions of smoke and caramel. It's soft and gorgeous enough to drink now, and should age well in a cool cellar for the next 20 years.