Decanter (95)

Gorgeous rich dark purple in the glass. Quite jammy and concentrated on the nose, heady and perfumed with a lovely delicate florality to it too. Great freshness on the palate, juicy but a dark blackcurrant and cherry fruit juice. Beautifully balanced with integrated tannins and oak. Well defined fruit, generous and quite abundant against softly grippy, velvety tannins that just give support to the overall frame. It's serious but with a lightness of touch and playfulness - energetic and lively but still with depth. A great Alter Ego and confident winemaking on show.

Jeb Dunnuck (97)

The ample richness of the 2019 Guado al Tasso is balanced with great energy that drives through the core of this wine. Polished, with aromas of black plum, graphite, cedar, and leather, it is ripe and full-bodied, with good tannins and a linear drive but a long finish. This remarkable wine will benefit from cellaring. Drink 2025-2045.

The Real Review (98)

Elegant, seamless pinot noir with fragrant, floral, red rose, dark cherry, anise, spice and restrained savoury and fresh herb characters. It's a complex medley of appealing flavours supported by an ethereal texture and a lingering finish. A surprisingly accessible wine from an excellent vintage. Should develop well with bottle age.

James Suckling (96)

Shows beautiful, ripe cabernet aromas with currants, plums, meat and smoke. Flowers, too. Full body, deep and ripe fruit and exquisite, ripe tannins. Flavorful finish. Tight right now, but shows excellent potential. Best ever. Try after 2024.

Decanter (97)

Gorgeously aromatic and concentrated nose, rich with wild flowers and bramble fruits. Lovely cool blue fruits on the palate, blueberries, plums and black cherries with lashings of graphite, slate and liquorice giving a real spicy menthol mineral tone to the palate. Such complexity with poise and polish. Youthful for sure, but this will be excellent. The texture is so attractive and likeable. This has energy and vibrancy despite still being knitted down, it's just giving a hint of what's to come. Buy and hold on to.

James Suckling (97)

Stand back as this extremely intense and vibrant Etna dry white arrives! As many herbal and positively vegetal aromas as white fruit and citrus. Super-sleek and focused palate with a dangerous amount of mineral energy and samurai sword acidity. The finish lasts for minutes! Enormous aging potential. Drink or hold.

Wine Advocate (92-94)

The 2019 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Fuées is showing well, mingling aromas fo rose petals and red berries with hints of plums, sweet spices and creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, layered and perfumed, it's deep and sumptuous, with a fleshy core of fruit and fine, powdery tannins.

Wine Advocate (94)

The 2019 Berliquet is showing beautifully, wafting from the glass with aromas of cherries, wild berries, sweet spices, violets and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and elegant, with terrific depth at the core, lively acids and ripe, powdery tannins, it concludes with a long, mineral finish. It's produced from a 9.5-hectare vineyard that encompasses three soil types: Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau (like its sibling, Château Canon); the slope, characterized by deep clay; and then sandy, colluvial soils at the foot of the slope. Right now it's planted with 70% Merlot and the balance Cabernet Franc, but the percentage of the latter is increasing as replanting progresses.

Platter's South African Wine Guide (97)

(Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year) Power & precision combine in stellar 2019. Ripe black cherry fruit with lifted perfume notes (dab of cab franc, as Franschhoek sibling), fine integrated tannins & fresh, lithe appeal. 75% new French oak adds to muscular richness completing a very fine wine. 5 parcels in Helderberg, Polkadraai & Faure.

The Real Review (97)

Deepish red colour with a subtle tint of purple. The bouquet is savoury, complex and charcuterie-tinged, dried herbs too, the palate rich and generous, fruit-sweet at the core and almost plush in its texture. A succulent pinot. There are ample tannins supplying backbone and contributing to length, all in harmony with the gorgeous richness of flavour. A stunning pinot.

The Wine Independent (100)

Composed of 74% Merlot and 26% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Canon is deep garnet-purple in color. It offers up fragrant notes of mocha, violets, and licorice over a core of plum preserves and wild blueberries, plus a waft of Indian spices. The full-bodied palate is full-on gorgeous, delivering bright, energetic black and blue fruit layers with a lively backbone and super-fine, perfectly ripe tannins, finishing long, long, long.

Jeb Dunnuck (97)

The 2019 Château Canon-La-Gaffelière is another brilliantly perfumed wine in the vintage that shines for its complexity, finesse, and nuances. Giving up awesome notes of red and black currants, tobacco, exotic flowers, cedarwood, and loamy earth, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, beautifully polished, integrated tannins, no hard edges, and a great, great finish. This is serious juice that warrants at least 4-5 years of bottle age and will evolve for 30 to 40 years.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Moving to the three single vineyard Hermitage Blancs, these are all perfect wines yet offer distinct characters. The 2019 Ermitage De L’Orée comes from more limestone soils in the Les Murets lieu-dit, on the eastern side of the appellation and was brought up in 15% new demi-muids. It reveals a vivid gold hue to go with gorgeous honeyed peach, white currants, quince, crushed stone, and white flower-like aromas and flavors. This full-bodied white has terrific concentration, a rich, layered mouthfeel, beautiful acidity, and a finish that just won't quit. Offering more fat and opulence than the L'Ermite and more minerality than the Le Meal, this pinnacle Hermitage Blanc needs a year or three of bottle age, then should drink nicely for 5-7 years, at which point it's best forgotten in the cellar for another decade. It should last for 20-30 years.

Vinous (92)

Mixing both savory and sweet, floral and herbal, earthy yet packed full of bright cherry-berry fruits, the 2019 Sangiovese makes quite a first impression. This is silky in texture, yet juicy and spry with zesty, red berry fruits motivated by brilliant acidity under an air of inner violets and exotic spices. The 2019 has energy to burn, tapering off long and slightly grippy, creating a classically dry impression while also holding your attention firm with its lingering hints of licorice and candied almonds. There is so much balanced pleasure to be had from this Predappio Sangiovese.

Vinous - Neal Martin (98)

The 2019 Clinet has maintained the stunning delineation that I discerned from the barrel sample. Pure black cherries, hints of cassis and wilted violet scents unfold in the glass with effortless ease, and the oak (75% new, 25% used for 18 months) is neatly integrated. The poised palate is medium-bodied, taut and fresh, with fine-grained tannins and disarming mineralité, particularly toward the finish, which delivers tremendous length and saliva-inducing salinity on the aftertaste. There is a pleasing strictness to this Clinet that is apposite to the flamboyant and decadent wines of the Nineties. This Clinet is one of Ronan Laborde's great achievements.

The Wine Cellar Insider (99)

Rich, supple, deep, intense and complex, this is stunning from the get go. One sniff of all that gorgeous, spicy kirsch, herbs, peppery spice and mélange of red fruits and you're hooked. If that wasn't enough, the silky, supple, elegant, fresh palate presence will seal the deal, finishing with its layers of deep, red fruits. This wine should age and evolve for 2-3 decades with ease. The wine is a blend of 45% Grenache, 40% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah and the remaining 5% consists of various, allowable grape varieties. The grapes are as always 100% destemmed.

Decanter (98)

Established in 1985, Cloudy Bay has become one of the world’s most recognised New Zealand wine brands. Te Koko is made from fruit from four prime vineyard parcels. It’s barrel-fermented with ‘wild’ indigenous yeasts for four to five months before spending 15 months on fine lees. Roger Jones: Thai rice pudding with kaffir lime. Clean, focused and lingers for an age. The luxurious feeling at the end is immense; this is a stunning wine. Melanie Brown: Opulent and alluring. Shows how oak can heighten flavours and texture. Soft white peach and florals on a citrus base. Creamy centre with caramel popcorn and a pristine acid line. Beautiful. Rebecca Palmer: Attractive key lime characters, oak melding to create the silky, sleek palate.

Wine Advocate (93)

The 2019 La Bruja de Rozas was one of the few 2019s already bottled when I tasted the whole range in November 2020. This is a village Garnacha from Las Rozas de Puerto Real, their first approach to the grape, trying to capture the essence of the fresh fruit and the fluidity of the wine. 2019 is a ripe vintage, and the wine is a little more powerful, juicy and balanced, with rich aromas and flavors. It comes from different plots of old vines ranging from 40 to 65 years of age and planted at some 900 meters in altitude on sandy granite soils in a zone that has plenty of rain, averaging 800 liters per year. Like all of their vineyards, these plots are worked organically and biodynamically. Each vineyard fermented separately in oak vats with indigenous yeasts with a soft maceration. The wine matured in oak vats of different sizes, ranging from 1,500 to 6,000 liters. The 2019 effect seems to be quite mild here; the wine follows the profile of the 2018, despite being a little riper, and it's still very balanced. There are notes of flowers, basil and a touch of bacon intermixed with the wild berries and herbs. There's a little more concentration, and the tannins are a little chalkier and more austere. But there is no excess ripeness or anything out of place, and it has acidity and length and finishes dry and mineral. 41,853 bottles produced. It was bottled in August 2020.

Decanter (96)

Elegant perfume of lavender, wet stones and jasmine haunt the nose of this expressive and vibrant wine. With the chalky minerality and tangy finish that are trademarks of Limarí, this shows great regional typicity and is a mouthwatering wine with subtle oak integration. A complex yet elegant style.

Vinous (89-91)

The 2019 Chambolle-Musigny Village, which contains 40% whole bunch, takes a few swirls of the glass to meld together, finally delivering airy blackberry and bilberry scents, perhaps more Morey in style than the titular village. The palate is medium-bodied with crunchy black fruit, a granular texture and a salty, slightly brusque but fresh finish. Fine, but it will need some bottle age to smooth its edges. A second cuvée without the stems is perhaps just a little less interesting on the nose. Thomas Collardot is not sure what the final blend will constitute but I suspect there will be a few stems in there.

Vinous (90-92)

The 2019 Vosne-Romanée Village contains 20% whole bunch from the La Violette lieu-dit and destemmed fruit from the Quartiers de Nuits and Basses-Maizière lieux-dits. Aged in 30% new oak, it is quite backward and surly on the nose at first, but opens to reveal white pepper and clove aromas tincturing the tightly wound black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with crunchy black fruit, and quite sweet at its core, with that white pepper leitmotif and a touch of graphite toward the crunchy finish.

James Suckling (99)

This is so aromatic with blackcurrants, black berries and raspberries. Pure fruit, together with coffee and nutmeg. Really fresh and clean with bright spices. Full-bodied, yet reserved and tight with fantastic structure. So long. This is a great Cos for the cellar. A real benchmark for the true character. Needs at least five or six years to open and come around. Try after 2029.

Decanter (97)

A particularly floral expression, with lavender and violets on the nose among the apricot fruit. Full-bodied, but still fluid on the palate, this has a real intensity and freshness, a sense of tension and minerality. Long finish that's not overburdened by oak. This has a sense of straightness and direction despite the breadth on the palate and open aromatic display. Very well balanced, finishing floral. Selection of parcels grown on biotite granite, vinified then aged nine months in barriques and foudres. Drinking Window 2021 - 2030

David Duband Gevrey-Chambertin 2019 is an elegant offering from an acclaimed Burgundy producer. Based in the heart of the Côte d'Or, Duband's profound understanding of terroir is evident in this Pinot Noir's remarkable complexity. Harvested from 60-year-old vines, this vintage exudes cherry and blackberry aromas woven with delicate earthy undertones.

Significant to this expression is the philosophy of natural winemaking, with minimal intervention allowing the grapes' true character to shine. As a result, the David Duband Gevrey-Chambertin 2019 boasts excellent vintage typicity. Subtle oak nuances supplement the fruit-forward palate, while stylish tannins underpin the refined structure.

Vinified using indigenous yeasts and aged for 14 months in French oak, this wine exhibits both finesse and balance. Often enjoyed at the peak of its maturity, David Duband Gevrey-Chambertin 2019 will continue to evolve gracefully in the bottle, further enhancing its attractive profile.

Experience the superior quality craftsmanship of 'De Pez 2019', a testament to true Bordeaux mastery from one of St. Estephe's oldest vineyards. Meticulously produced at Château de Pez, a keen emphasis is laid on environmentally friendly agriculture and hand harvesting to inspire, realise and winnow the best produce. Devotion in every detail results in a wine that mirrors the terroir's authenticity.

Alluringly deep ruby in appearance, the De Pez 2019 presents a complex blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Matured in French oak barrels, it exudes profound notes of ripe red fruits adorned with hints of tobacco and spicy undertones. On the palate, it delivers a captivating combination of deep fruitiness mingled with polished tannins, culminating in an alluringly long finish. This full-bodied red orchestrates a symphony of taste, true to its Bordeaux lineage.

Unquestionably, De Pez 2019 is a benchmark exemplar of refined winemaking; a timeless choice for devotees of exceptional Bordeaux wines.

Jeb Dunnuck (96-98+)

Reminding me of the 2016, the 2019 Domaine De Chevalier checks in as 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and 5% Petit Verdot that was brought up in 35% new French oak. Its vivid purple color is followed by a classy bouquet of crème de cassis, damp earth, tobacco leaf, and spring flowers. With medium to full-bodied richness, stunning purity of fruit, silky tannins, and a good spice of acidity, this beautiful, classic, quintessential Chevalier will need 5-7 years of bottle age yet keep for 4-5 decades in cold cellars. Tasted twice.

Wine Enthusiast (98)

A gentle hint of ripe tangerine peel immediately hits the nose. With more air, this unfolds to include notions of ripe blood orange and Mandarin, too. The palate comes in with steely concentration that speaks as much of absolute freshness as of glorious ripeness. The flavors are pristine, contoured by immense raciness. There is something steely and stony at the very core that radiates utter freshness. Drink by 2050.

Wine Advocate (96)

2019 was a warm and dry low-yielding year, somewhat similar to 2015, and the 2019 Reserva could be the modern version of the 2015—a round, lush and approachable Reserva that is perfumed and fruit-driven, with spices in the background. It's a hedonist cuvée of 95% Tempranillo and 5% other grapes from some of the oldest grapes in the village. It fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts followed by a slow malolactic in 228-liter French oak barrels, mostly used, where the wine matured for 35 months. It reveals very good integration of the oak that is neatly folded into the wine. It shows the tannic structure of the 2019 vintage. 23,875 bottles and 430 magnums produced. It was bottled in September 2022.