From Cabernet to Rosé: The 16 Best Wines

Wine of the Year: Penfolds 2015 Grange

Australia had a hard year battling persistent and traumatic wildfires, so it’s particularly gratifying to celebrate one of its natural, national treasures. With a taste of the Shiraz at Penfolds’ recorking clinic in Los Angeles last fall, it was love at first sip. Actually, at first scent. Heady with aromas of forest floor, coffee, black licorice and an unusual explosion of violets, the wine was transfixing. And it tastes even better than it smells. The vibrant dark-berry and subtle spice notes seduce, penetrating through layers of minerals and acid, and there’s impressive balance between the fruit and integrated, supple tannins. While Shiraz grapes are the star (at 98 percent), winemaker Peter Gago adds a splash of Cabernet Sauvignon from one of Penfolds’ most precious plots, Block 42 of the Kalimna Vineyard, which nurtures what are thought to be the oldest continuously producing Cabernet vines in the world, planted in the 1880s. The 2015 harvest was warm and fast, resulting in beautiful fruit. Gago aged the wine for 20 months in new American oak hogshead barrels before bottling it for the cellars. The 2015 is delicious now—“At once lively and expressive, yet still not revealing all,” says Gago—but will be even more impressive in 10 years. It’s a shining example of Grange.

Pinot Noir: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2017 Romanée-St-Vivant, Burgundy

Burgundy, as both appellation and wine, has long enjoyed household-name status. Within the region lie the vineyards of the esteemed Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, affectionately abbreviated as the DRC. Its older vintages set records at auction; its newest ones sell out. Its eight Grand Crus are planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, making what some consider the highest expression of both varietals. Among them, the Romanée-Conti and La Tâche parcels usually emerge as the crown princes. But in this year’s tasting, Romanée-St-Vivant stood out as the most balanced, layered and complex of the 2017 vintage. The year’s harvest was an abundant one, successfully fending off the frosts of 2016, and the Burgundian vignerons were especially pleased with the high quality of the berries. The wines from this vintage are still young compared to their potential maturity, but already the Romanée-St-Vivant stands out as evocative. Perfume blooms from the glass. It’s elegant, graceful yet powerful, its fruit underlined with a lush earthiness and crushed-rock minerality that lead to a long, strong finish. Winemaker Aubert de Villaine calls it right, saying, “Romanée-St-Vivant is flirtatious. One cannot help loving it.”

Cabernet Sauvignon: Cardinale 2016, Napa Valley

Winemaker Chris Carpenter’s self-described approach to Cardinale each year is to blend across great sites in Napa Valley with the goal of maximizing the strengths of the vintage rather than that of one individual vineyard. His 2016 Cardinale Cabernet captures the ultimate potential offered by that remarkable year: a hedonistic wine of the moment with great aging possibility at the same time. Dark and concentrated, it unfolds with spicy anise, briary blackberry and fresh herbs over a crushed- rock character. It’s satisfyingly juicy, with loads of dark cherry, plum and cassis spiked with delicious mocha.

But delicious as it is right now, Carpenter says, “it will be one of those vintages that continues to develop in positive ways for years to come. Like Michael Jordan when he played at North Carolina—back then you could just tell there was so much more to come. I feel that way looking at these early-release years of the 2016 Cardinale and where this wine will be 10 to 20 years from now.”

Merlot: Masseto 2015, Tuscany

With arguably the most famous terroir in the world—a single hill covered in blue clay, which winemaker André Tchelistcheff spotted as the perfect medium for Merlot—Masseto has realized the incredible potential of Merlot grown in the right soil and climate. And the 2015 growing season there was especially remarkable. “One of the noblest vintages,” estate director Axel Heinz says simply. The wine opens with aromas of damp loam, spice and perfumed berries followed by flavors of dark cassis on a palate of unmatched depth and length.

Masseto—sister flagship brand to the Frescobaldi’s Ornellaia—also opened a stunning new subterranean winery, excavated from underneath the same vineyard that produces the wine. “Every great institution has a house,” says group president Lamberto Frescobaldi. “The White House, St. Peter’s. . . . Masseto needed its own physical house.” In this case, the underground cathedral includes production spaces stepping deep into the hill, from tank room, where custom concrete vessels double as art, to pool-studded barrel room. It was an exceptional year for both wine and winery.

Cabernet Franc: Vérité 2016 Le Désir, Sonoma County

Usually just a small percentage of a Bordeaux blend, Cabernet Franc isn’t a varietal often seen dominating a wine. Vigneron Pierre Seillan has long worked with it at Château Lassègue, on Bordeaux’s Right Bank, as well as in Sonoma, with daughter Hélène. Their 2016 Cab Franc-based Le Désir might be the most perfectly balanced of all their vintages, offering gorgeous aromatics: rose petals over blackberry liqueur and fresh mint. Dark-berry and plum flavors are laced with baking spices (anise and clove), and its fine tannins are delivered with an ideal tension of acidity and freshness.

After more than 20 years tending vines in Sonoma, the duo has many of what they call “micro-crus” from which to handpick for their blend. In 2016, they were so pleased with the Cab Franc that they increased the amount in the blend to 82 percent (with the remainder being Merlot and Malbec), which allowed them, in their words, to “lift the gravity center of the wine.” The result is a heady, magical wine you want to smell as much as sip.

Syrah: Kongsgaard 2017, Napa Valley

Since his first vintage in 1996, John Kongsgaard (now with his son, Alex) has made a tiny bit of Syrah from the two-acre “Q” block of vines on Lee and Cristina Hudson’s sprawling Hudson Ranch in southern Napa’s Carneros region. The block, in fact, was planted with Kongsgaard in mind, he and Hudson having been classmates back in their UC Davis days, and friends and colleagues ever since.

Its bay proximity ensures that the property is swept by ocean breezes, adding cool-weather balance to its wines. John declines to interfere much during the winemaking, even going low on new wood (only about 40 percent).

The combination of site and minimal winemaking in this stunning 2017 Syrah gives it expansive aromatics, including the savory, gamy elements Kongsgaard embraces: wild blueberry, smoked meat, florals and black pepper. The palate unfolds in complex layers and depth, with more blackberry and blueberry fruit, tobacco leaf and a kick of citrus, with fruit, acidity and structure in flawless balance.

Up-and-Coming Region: 2017 Daou Estate Soul of a Lion, Paso Robles

That’s right—this wine is just three years old. In Europe, it might still linger in a giant vat of oak, slowly aging. But here, perhaps under market pressure to release, vintners birth younger wines across appellations. You might expect harsh tannins, but instead, in the glass it’s all silk and velvet with a spine of mouthwatering acidity. There’s big fruit, cassis and black cherry, along with a complex earthy, savory quality that sets this wine, and the 2017 vintage, apart. The elegant Bordeaux blend hails from California’s Paso Robles region, north of Santa Barbara, where brothers Daniel and Georges Daou have been pioneering great wine for 16 years now. The Soul of a Lion is much more beguiling than any 14.7 percent alcohol beverage has a right to be.

Red That Stayed the Course: Beaulieu Vineyard 2016 Georges de Latour Private Reserve, Napa Valley

Winemaking royalty André Tchelistcheff might be best known for creating BV’s Georges de Latour Private Reserve, now in its 80th vintage, but he also introduced American oak into the aging of Napa’s wines. One of the few changes to the making of this wine across the decades was a switch from American to French oak. Tchelistcheff’s successor Joel Aiken resisted the trending style of the 1990s (and beyond) of hedonistically plush fruit and high alcohol levels that wiped out the unique signature of a particular site. A recent, outstanding vertical tasting of the Private Reserve, going back to the 1960s, offered convincing evidence of the wine’s bright balance through the decades. It was always built on a foundation of ageability, according to current winemaker Trevor Durling, who now works in the vineyard, to “take off some edges,” for earlier approachability.

The 2016 Georges de Latour Private Reserve offers impressive depths: Blueberry, violet and vanilla aromas are balanced by espresso, tobacco, leather and earth, and dark-berry compote flavors are layered with crushed rock and backed by elegant tannins.

Discovery: Secret Door 2017 Sage Ridge Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Winemaker Donald Patz left his Patz & Hall partnership several years ago and launched Secret Door, his new passion project. But this year he unveils his first grape-to-glass vintage, a pair of 2017s. This shows his real intention with the project: two single-vineyard designates highlighting the particularly rich and distinct terroir of two parcels, Hirondelle in the Stag’s Leap District and Sage Ridge. The 2017 harvest was the year of Napa’s recent devastating fire, and many collectors have worried about taint, but this wine assuages any fears. “We picked, fermented, pressed and put into barrel prior to October 8,” the night the fires began, Patz says, and there’s no trace of smoke taint. Of the two wines, the Sage Ridge wine spoke loudest (in the best way possible) to us, with a wintery herbaceousness. Forest aromas of cedar and pine resin come through with mouthwatering nutmeg notes beneath the dark fruit and a hint of black pepper for balance. Its tannins are utterly silky. This wine is a welcome return from a revered winemaker and won’t be secret for long. 

Rosé: Mod Sélection Vintage 2008 Brut Rosé

This beautiful Champagne made the most of that 2008 harvest’s exceptional fruit, via the saignée method, which is frowned upon when making a still rosé but revered and used by the serious maisons when producing a sparkler. Many rosé Champagne vignerons employ the assemblage method, blending white wine with a bit of Pinot Noir or Meunier, because it’s easier and allows for a consistent color year over year. In contrast, Mod Sélection uses the direct maceration of Pinot Noir grapes. Founder Brent Hocking says, “This creates substantially more aromatic components, which I love. This method of vinification is more demanding and requires perfectly ripe grapes and exacting timing. This is the true rosé.”

And the proof is in the glass. For a wine that was 12 years old upon release, this deep-salmon-hued fizz is surprisingly vibrant and fresh, but also refined. It’s made of 50 percent Pinot Meunier, 40 percent Chardonnay and just 10 percent Pinot Noir. Bright raspberry and cherry come to the fore, with ginger and spice notes following on the palate. Blood-orange zests up the lingering finish.

Champagne, Blanc de Noirs: Bollinger 2008 La Grande Année

In Champagne, 2008 produced a bumper crop of some of the loveliest vintage bottles of the century so far, balanced between ripeness and vitality and altogether distinctive. Among them, Pinot Noir–based Champagne Bollinger 2008 La Grande Année stands out for its power, tamed by practices unique to its barrel rooms and kilometers of underground cellars. Vinified in neutral oak barrels, the wine is softened and broadened through the midpalate. And topped with natural cork instead of crown cap for its second fermentation (requiring hand- disgorging and painstaking hand-riddling), the wine is marked by the barest touch of sherry-like oxidation.

The result is a gorgeous sparkler with generous, mouth-filling flavors, balanced in this moment between the freshness of youth and complex maturity. Juicy apple, honeyed lemon and energetic minerality are concentrated at its core, while lovely floral, brioche and hazelnut notes swirl around the edges.

Domestic Dessert Wine: Palmaz 2018 Florencia, Napa Valley

Palmaz is best known for its big steak-worthy reds—and for its high-tech winery innovations. But it also produces a limited amount of this gentle, gorgeous Muscat Canelli. Minus the sugary overtones often found in Italian Muscats, the Florencia tastes like the purest expression of this grape, largely attributable to its cold fermentation. A delicate bouquet lures you in, but its fresh, clean and dry palate comes as a surprise. While this is a dessert white, it tastes only lightly sweet, a testament to the lower alcohol levels we’re seeing across genres, coming in at 13 percent.

International Dessert Wine: Royal Tokaji 2013 Szt. Tamás, Tokaj, Hungary

Royal Tokaji is arguably the most renowned Hungarian estate, and its vineyards were the first in Europe to be classified, in 1700. Within those first-growth holdings, the Szt. Tamás hill plot is one of the most iconic, where the Furmint vines are between 20 and 60 years old. That age and particular microclimate show up to enhance the wine’s signature sweetness. While it coats the mouth

in apricot, white peach and honey, its unusual umami notes provide a slight but alluring funk beneath the sugar. And there’s still a strong backbone of acid on the finish. It spends almost two years in second- and third-fill Hungarian oak barrels to acquire its golden hue. For a wine with such roundness, it clocks in at a surprisingly low 10 percent alcohol—still dangerous when a wine is this irresistible.

Domestic White: Marciano Estate 2017 Blanc, St. Helena, Napa Valley

For anyone who gives a wide berth to refreshing but one-note Sauvignon Blancs, the remarkable 2017 Marciano Estate Blanc should come as a revelation: Yes, complex and serious Sauv Blancs do exist in the US. This wine’s grapes grow on a single acre on this gem of a property southwest of the town of St. Helena, and the wine represents the innovative edge of Sauvignon production on the West Coast.

Winemaker and director Morgan Maurèze created weight, mouth-feel and texture by fermenting the wine
in a range of vessels: new and neutral French oak, stainless steel and concrete. Still bright and fresh, the Blanc has impressive complexity unfolding on the nose and palate, with aromas of pear and apple giving way to peach wrapped in fragrant citrus, white blossoms and fresh herbs, followed by creamy citrus flavors overlaying sophisticated minerality.

Maurèze, whose résumé includes the Château Pétrus and Château Haut-Brion groups and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in France, plus Screaming Eagle and Ovid in California, recalls his barrel tastings in those cellars, on the hunt for whites with “character, focus and purity.” His approach is to “find that great potential in those parcels and capture it,” he says. “It’s not imitating a style. It’s doing what works for that very specific location and season.” In that sense, this 2017 is an exceptional expression of a single acre.

International White: Bonneau du Martray 2016 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru, Burgundy

Stan Kroenke might be best known by collectors as the owner of Screaming Eagle, but new evidence—the purchase of Bonneau du Martray and its swath of vineyards on the renowned hill of Corton in Côte de Beaune—suggests he might be a Burgundy man at heart. In fact, Kroenke is only the fifth owner of this land in its 1,200-year history, the first being the Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne, who remains the namesake of the Grand Cru appellation. And with the vineyards in question running from the crest of the hill to the bottom, Bonneau du Martray is able to blend bright fruit from the top, full of energy and verve, with richer, fatter grapes from the lower sites to create an exquisitely balanced Chardonnay—arguably the most complete expression of this famous place.

The Bonneau du Martray 2016 is bright and energetic. A signature lemon-curd character and chiseled backbone meet with a perfect balance among fruit and savory notes, tension and, above all, texture.

Kroenke, besides acquiring Bonneau du Martray, has founded Karolus Wine Imports to bring the wine directly to collectors who sign up for the mailing list.

Aromatics: Antinori 2018 Cervaro, Umbria

This (mostly) Chardonnay from Italy’s Antinori wine family challenges every conventional profile for Chardonnay, whether from Burgundy or the New World. It’s a matter of the nose, which, in the 2018, is effusive with delicate acacia blossom, fresh orchard fruits, hints of vanilla and a vein of wet-stone minerality. Elegant texture and structure carry flavors of nectarine, almond and a pretty range of tropicals touched by citrus and a lovely, savory herbal edge on the finish.

The Antinoris launched Cervaro with the 1985 vintage, intent on making a white that could age. As a result, Cervaro became one of the first Italian whites to undergo both barrique and malolactic aging—the latter being the secondary fermentation that transforms malic acid into more rounded lactic form—delivering a beautiful, creamy texture to the wine.

The profile that eludes reference points is not only attributed to the unique terroir around the family’s castle but also to the 12 percent blend of the traditional local grape Grechetto, which can contribute a surprising range of flavors, from stone fruit and melon all the way to strawberry, with an underlying oyster-shell minerality.

Tasting Experience: Cakebread Cellars

Cakebread is one of those brands that resonate with fans across the spectrum, from novices to wine geeks. The family behind it—Jack and Delores Cakebread and their sons, Bruce and Dennis—could rest on their laurels and not change a thing. Instead they built a gorgeous, airy, thoughtfully designed visitors center. And in doing so, they upgraded the entire property’s sustainability, with an eye toward climate change. Bruce’s eyes light up as he talks about the new buildings’ energy-efficient generators and use of reclaimed wood, as well as the parking lot’s permeable pavers and gravel bed, which filter rainwater before it replenishes the groundwater supply. Gardens were added—Buddha’s hand citrus, almond trees—for biodiversity, with accompanying courtyards. But the best part for guests are the tasting rooms with myriad views of the winemaking process, from the vines to the lab to fermentation to bottling. The tastings themselves are about as far as can be from choosing wines at a counter while swatting fruit flies. No, these are gourmet micro-events, with coursed food (grown on-site) created to pair perfectly with each wine sampled and led by an expert. The pivot to virtual tasting this spring during the Covid-19 crisis was creative and fun, and it’s this level of hosting that turns tasting into a true experience.

Lifetime Achievement: Aubert de Villaine

The steward of some of the world’s most renowned vineyards, including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Aubert de Villaine would rather you drink his wines than collect them. And while there is no shortage of drinkers for his eight luscious Grand Cru Burgundies, collectors can’t help themselves, and the escalating prices on the secondary market (see sidebar above) attest to the wines’ longevity—and to Villaine’s particular genius. 

“I can tell you the 1979 La Tâche in magnum ranks as one of the greatest wines I’ve ever tasted,” says Jack Daniels, cofounder of Wilson Daniels, a wine marketing and sales firm. “I can still taste it in my mind.”

La Tâche is just one of the Grand Crus within the DRC, and as a grouping, the wines are considered the ultimate expression of terroir: seven Pinot Noirs (and one Chardonnay), all from the same region and overseen by the same man, yet their aromas and flavors emerge as remarkably distinct even within one vintage. Only that powerful interaction of vineyard-specific soil, climate and human touch could be responsible for making such indelible wines.

Though the DRC has been co-owned by the Villaine family since 1912, Aubert de Villaine grew up around cattle, not grapes. He later spent time in the States working for a wine importer and, once back in France, was partly responsible for putting Napa Valley wines on the world’s radar as one of the judges at the 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting. Having become the domaine’s co-director in 1974, Villaine was responsible for the ’79 La Tâche that Daniels so vividly recalls. Humble as he is, Villaine takes a pass on the credit. “Our efforts are aimed at making wines that reflect their specific terroir, whether it’s Romanée-Conti, Échézeaux or Montrachet. The most important factor is always respecting the mysterious alchemy that constitutes a terroir.” 

His success has made him a leader for vintners throughout Burgundy and beyond. Beyond, in his case, extends to the New World, where he’s partnered with winegrower Larry Hyde (his wife’s cousin) in the Hyde de Villaine vineyards, in the town of Napa. In such sites, where cool winds from San Francisco Bay offer a distinct advantage, Villaine sees potential for greatness, especially at the hands of the region’s pioneers, who have, he says, “all the qualities of dedication and tenacity one needs to achieve this goal.”

And with the Hyde de Villaine partnership, he joins that community of pioneers on this side of the pond, even while enjoying legend status on the other.