Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Lastly, and a legendary wine in the making, the 2015 Hermitage La Chapelle is reminiscent of the 1990 with its full-bodied, opulently, sexy, yet concentrated style. Offering sensational notes of blackcurrants, smoked herbs, beef blood, and chocolate, it’s a huge yet elegant wine that has masses of sweet tannin, incredible purity and finesse, and a killer finish. It’s the finest wine from this estate in close to 30 years. Hats off to Caroline Frey and Jacques Desvernois!

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Pure perfection in a glass and unquestionably one of the great vintages for this cuvée, the 2015 Pavie is a blend of 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon that was brought up in 80% new French oak. Sharing some similarities with the 2009, this tour de force sports a saturated purple color as well as a sweet bouquet of crème de cassis, crushed rocks, white truffle, and licorice. Its oak is perfectly integrated and balanced by this wine’s massive fruit and structure. Full-bodied, deep, and superbly concentrated, with building tannins, it’s a massive wine by any measure, but what sets it apart is that it still glides across the palate and retains an incredible sense of purity, balance, and elegance. It’s drinking well today due to the vintage’s opulence, yet won’t hit prime time for another 5-10 years and I suspect will keep for upward of 50 years.

James Suckling (96)

Very racy and refined with bright acidity and a blueberry and dark-chocolate character. Love the interplay of acidity and ripe fruit. Minerals and dark fruits, too. Very Pomerol. Pure merlot.

James Suckling (99)

Terrific aromas of violets, roses and raspberries with hints of strawberries and brown sugar. Full body. Phenomenal layers of focused fruit and polished velvety tannins. This is the Galatrona that everyone has been waiting for. It's the vintage that shows depth and power yet wonderful finesse and focus. Best ever. Drink from 2023 but already electrifying.

Vinous - Neal Martin (97)

The 2015 Pichon-Baron has an engaging, complex bouquet of blackberry, cedar, mint and graphite, demonstrating more cohesion and more conviction than its peers. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and extremely well-judged acidity that imbues this Pauillac with a sense of effortlessness and class lacking in some of its peers. A stunning 2015 and one of the greatest releases from the estate. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.

Vinous - Neal Martin (97)

The 2015 Pichon-Baron has an engaging, complex bouquet of blackberry, cedar, mint and graphite, demonstrating more cohesion and more conviction than its peers. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and extremely well-judged acidity that imbues this Pauillac with a sense of effortlessness and class lacking in some of its peers. A stunning 2015 and one of the greatest releases from the estate. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.

Wine Advocate (97)

The Poggio Antico 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva (with 9,000 bottles going to market in January 2021) is a thickly textured and rich wine with fruit-driven flavors and extra fiber. The wine sings with the characteristics of this vintage that will be remembered for the sunshine, the warmth and the picture-perfect fruit. Each cluster hung from the vine with glorious perfection. There is more warmth and dark plum intensity here for sure, and you also get greater latitude in terms of those savory tones of leather, tobacco and tilled earth. The Riserva is sourced from the Il Vignone site at a high 500 meters above sea level where summer breezes keep the grapes healthy and ripe.

Wine Advocate (96)

Poggio di Sotto doesn't miss a beat with this very special release. This is a glorious expression of the vintage, and the wine has absorbed the golden sunlight of Tuscany, delivering beautifully ripe, round and subtle fruit layers. The 2015 Brunello di Montalcino shows concentration, but not too much, and richness, but not too much. You get the power and the opulence of the vintage presented with the elegance and grace that is the house style at this venerated estate. Poggio di Sotto is one of the benchmarks of Montalcino, and the winery team continues the tradition with this 22,000-bottle release. There's a lot of red fruit energy deep inside that should stir this wine on course as it ages over the next two decades.

Wine Enthusiast (99)

The great 2012 vintage shows well in this rich, full Champagne. Dominated as usual by Pinot Noir, the wine is powerfully ripe and impressively full of white fruits and tight minerality. Ready to drink from 2022, it is worthy of aging and certainly drinkable even in 10 years time.

James Suckling (98)

So much floral and dark-fruit character with almonds and walnut shell. Full body and ultra-fine tannins. Powerful. Classic style with a harmony and energy. Goes on for minutes. A superb wine with great fruit. Real Bordeaux. Try in 2025.

James Suckling (99)

Insane aromas of lavender, blackberries, wet earth and ripe yet fresh fruit. Full body with very deep fruit, pine needles and hints of chocolate and cedar. Very long and wonderfully polished. This has wonderful depth and focus. Release in 2021. Better after 2024.

Jeb Dunnuck (98)

I underrated the 2015 Rauzan-Ségla on release. It’s a big, rich, incredibly sexy wine that’s certainly in the same ballpark as the 2016 (and 2018). Full-bodied, ripe, and concentrated, it has a wonderfully expansive, layered texture as well as an incredible sense of balance. Lots of cassis, leafy herbs, flowery incense, and tobacco notes all emerge from this beauty, which offers sweet tannins as well as a huge finish. This is magical stuff that’s going to keep for three decades or more.

Wine Advocate (91-93)

The 2015 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots has a sensual bouquet with creme de cassis and crushed violet aromas—just very Suchots. The palate is sweet and generous on the entry with layers of black cherry and cassis fruit. Maybe it would benefit from a little more Pinoté, but it conveys the vintage and vineyard in assured, exuberant fashion.

James Suckling (100)

Earthy aromas of bark, sand, truffles, graphite, rust, terracotta and sandalwood rise up from the deep with Burgundian poise; fruitier orange zest and preserved lemons glimmer in their wake, while riper incense and tar lurk in this dense forest of aromas. Physics itself gives way as the line between reduction and oxidation is blurred. There’s such richness to the center palate, but the fruit there is vivacious and elegant, swaddled in robust but generous tannins that breach the outermost reaches of the mouth. The finish is hauntingly long, the after effects of the acidity unworldly. This is certainly in a quiet, reserved stage of evolution, and will need time to fully mature in bottle. Drink in 2025.

James Suckling (98)

This is an incredible 2012 with fantastic depth, richness, focus and tension. Full body, polished velvety tannins and a long and flavorful finish. Goes on for minutes. Better in 2020 but a joy to taste now. One of the wines of the vintage.

James Suckling (100)

Decadent aromas of ripe fruit, such as plums and peaches with black truffles and porcini mushrooms. Full body, with layers of ripe fruit and round and chewy tannins. Lots of chocolate and fresh mushroom at the finish. A thoroughly terroir-driven red. Try after 2022.

James Suckling (98)

Love the aromas to this young red with blackcurrants, sage, cinnamon and five-spice character. Changes all the time. Full-bodied, dense and powerful with a ripe and rich tannin backbone that gives form and beauty to the ripe and beautiful fruit. Tight and very long. Approachable now but will reward more in five to six years. A classic Sassicaia.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Another perfect wine is the 2012 Screaming Eagle which checks in as 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc. While just as good as the 2013, it’s made in a very different style and has a lush, opulent, sexy profile as well as the hallmark crème de cassis, white flowers, graphite and spice. With a silky, full-bodied, seamless texture, incredible complexity, ultra-fine tannin, and blockbuster length, this quintessential Screaming Eagle will continue drinking beautifully for 20-25 years.

Every case contains 3 bottles of each Sine Qua Non Grenache E 2015 and Sine Qua Non Syrah M 2015

 

Sine Qua Non Grenache E 2015

 

100 points | Lisa Perrotti-Brown (Wine Advocate)

  “This is a single-vineyard Grenache-dominated, barrel-selection blend coming from the Eleven Confessions Estate vineyard in Sta. Rita Hills. It bears Elaine Krankl’s initial and a portrait Manfred made of Elaine on the label. The blend is 82% Grenache, 12% Syrah, 5% Petite Syrah and 1% Viognier, and 56% was fermented using whole clusters. It was aged for around 38 months in French oak, 28% new.

 

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Grenache E slides beguilingly out of the glass with a powerfully evocative, earthy/meaty nose of wood smoke, grilled meats, fragrant soil, truffles and iron ore with a core of kirsch, blackberry pie, Black Forest cake and aniseed plus touches of wild sage, rose hip tea and Indian spices. The palate is full-bodied, surprisingly muscular and built like a brick house with an unbelievable structure of very fine, densely pixilated tannins supporting the generous, multi-faceted layers, finishing with epic length, jaw-dropping texture and tons of cerebral mineral and spice nuances. WOW! 900 cases, 228 magnums and 30 double magnums were made.” Drinking Window: 2020 – 2035

 

 

Sine Qua Non Syrah M 2015

 

99 points | Lisa Perrotti-Brown (Wine Advocate)

“This is a single-vineyard Syrah-dominant blend coming from the Eleven Confessions Estate vineyard in Sta. Rita Hills. It bears Manfred Krankl’s initial and a provocative self-portrait on the label. The blend is 90.6% Syrah, 4.4% Petite Syrah, 2.6% Grenache and 2.4% Viognier. Forty-three percent was fermented using whole clusters. It was aged for around 38 months in French oak, 66% new.

 

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2015 Syrah M starts off a little closed, slowly unfurling to show layer upon layer of savory notes: peppered salami, woodsmoke, marmite and black olives, beneath a profound core of preserved plums, blueberry coulis and Chinese five spice with fragrant touches of fenugreek, Sichuan pepper, crushed rocks and mossy bark. Exquisitely textured with firm, rounded tannins, the taut, full-bodied, muscular fruit is laced with seamless freshness, finishing with fantastic persistence. This is a Syrah for the long haul! 913 cases, 228 magnums and 30 double magnums were made.” Drinking Window: 2021 – 2050

Wine Advocate (100)

Composed of 80.5% Syrah, 7% Petite Syrah, 7% Mourvèdre, 2% Grenache and 3.5% Viognier, all sourced from estate vineyards—37% The Third Twin, 36% Eleven Confessions and 27% Cumulus—the 2015 Syrah Trouver L’Arene was made using 34% whole cluster and has a deep purple-black color with intense cassis, black plums and black cherries scents plus hints of anise, violets, sage and tar, with wafts of savory/smoked meat suggestions. Full-bodied, this voluptuous beauty is seriously singing in the mouth, belting out vibrant red and black fruit flavor layers, all framed by very fine, rounded, ripe tannins and a wonderful freshness, finishing with persistent perfumed fruit and a spring in its step. 1,778 cases and 600 magnums were produced.

James Suckling (97)

Extremely impressive ripe dark fruits of blueberries, plums and blackberries follow through to a full body, round texture and bright acidity. The finesse and depth to this red is stunning making it a wonderful successor to the 2011 Solaia. Needs three or four years to soften and open.

The Wine Independent (100)

This 2015 Marchesi Antinori Solaia is so charmingly sweet, ripe, and open with very bright and exuberant aromas of cream and blackberries. My impression is that many 2015s in Tuscany in general have absorbed more oak than in some other vintages but this wine wears it so well. The palate is super-harmonious with a gentle ease and flow and the tannins are beautifully integrated and combine with subtle flavors of sweet oak-spice, cream, vanilla and blackberry. There is an elegant acidity and juicy freshness but in this wine the tannins take on a new dimension becoming seamlessly refined. Just beautiful!

The Wine Independent (100)

This 2015 Marchesi Antinori Solaia is so charmingly sweet, ripe, and open with very bright and exuberant aromas of cream and blackberries. My impression is that many 2015s in Tuscany in general have absorbed more oak than in some other vintages but this wine wears it so well. The palate is super-harmonious with a gentle ease and flow and the tannins are beautifully integrated and combine with subtle flavors of sweet oak-spice, cream, vanilla and blackberry. There is an elegant acidity and juicy freshness but in this wine the tannins take on a new dimension becoming seamlessly refined. Just beautiful!

Jancis Robinson (17.5)

Very mellow and round. Subtle. Juicy, very lovely. Though more herbaceous than most.

Vinous (95)

The 2015 Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru has a ripe, ostentatious bouquet of bold, well-defined black cherry, fig jam, peppermint and mineral scents; the oak neatly is folded into the fruit but certainly extroverted. The palate is sweet, ripe and lower in acidity than I would have liked, and rounded and fleshy with veins of blueberry and cassis toward the finish. A thoroughly enjoyable Grand Cru, its nobility translated by its elegance. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting.

Vinous (94)

The 2015 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Pruliers 1er Cru has a temptress of a nose, with open, welcoming red cherry, crushed strawberry and subtle mineral scents. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin. There is plenty of tightly knitted fruit here, and a patina of oak that is still to be assimilated, but also wonderful detail and subtlety on the sublime, sophisticated finish. This has enormous potential. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting. (DIAM 10 closure)

Wine Advocate (97)

It would be impossible to exaggerate the grandeur and majesty of the overachieving 2015 Arcanum. The blend is 74% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Petit Verdot. This full-bodied wine is mostly defined by its texture that is exceedingly rich and smooth with significant infusions of blackberry, plum, spice, tobacco and cured leather. The wine achieves beautiful balance, yet it remains intense and powerful all the while.

Wine Advocate (99)

I feel like the consistency and quality of Torbreck's flagship wine has only increased over time. The 2012 RunRig is gorgeously floral and vibrant, with concentrated red berries, characteristic weight and intensity on the palate and supple, silky tannins. It's delicious now, but it should age gracefully through at least 2035.