BWW2025 Day 4: Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 – 99 Points

The 2020 vintage in Napa Valley was one of the most complex in recent memory, marked by heat events and regionally variable conditions. Yet Oakville’s prime benchland and hillside parcels performed exceptionally well, and estates with meticulous fruit selection produced wines of dazzling purity and precision. Screaming Eagle, with its tiny production and obsessive sorting standards, crafted a 2020 that is both profound and remarkably fresh, capturing the elegance and finesse for which the estate is known. The wine reflects low yields, impeccable ripeness, and a cooler late-season window that preserved aromatic lift and tension.

The Screaming Eagle 2020 opens with a breathtakingly pure and seductive bouquet. Notes of blackcurrant, blueberry, and dark cherry mingle with violets, graphite, and hints of crushed rose petals. There is striking clarity in the aromatics, lifted by subtle accents of cedar, black tea, and cool volcanic earth. Layers of cocoa husk, dried herbs, and warm spice emerge with aeration, adding quiet depth without disturbing the wine’s pristine profile.

On the palate, the wine is seamless, vibrant, and extraordinarily refined. A core of perfectly ripe black fruit is framed by silk-textured tannins that glide effortlessly across the palate. The wine shows remarkable balance, combining richness with levity. Flavors of cassis, plum skin, and mulberry expand into notes of licorice, sage, and dark chocolate. A bright, mineral thread gives definition and lift, carrying the wine with precision.

The finish is long, composed, and hauntingly elegant, echoing black fruit, floral perfume, and fine earth. This is a stunning Screaming Eagle that marries intensity with purity, showing the beauty of careful selection in a challenging year. It will age gracefully for twenty to thirty years, gaining savory nuance, aromatic complexity, and further seamless integration.

BWW2025 Day III Red Wines: Harlan Estate 2021/

A wine of precision, grandeur, and quiet power. The 2021 Harlan Estate opens with an exquisitely layered bouquet — blackcurrant, wild blueberry, graphite, violets, and warm crushed stone, all delivered with a cool, elegant restraint that speaks to the vintage. With air, hints of cedar, cocoa nib, tobacco leaf, and a subtle minty lift weave themselves into the aromatic tapestry.

On the palate, the wine is silky yet commanding, perfectly balanced between richness and tension. The fruit is pure and vibrant, framed by ultra-fine tannins that feel both weightless and architectural. Notes of black cherry, cassis, blueberry compote, and ripe plum glide through the mid-palate, supported by undertones of smoked herbs, pencil shavings, dark chocolate, and sweet earth.

The structure is remarkable: precision acidity, seamless integration, and a sense of inner energy that propels the wine forward. The finish is exceptionally long, echoing with dark fruit, crushed rock minerality, and a lingering violet perfume. 98 points

Penfolds Collection 2025 with perfect Grange: The expectations for the 2021 Grange, were simply that this had to be a great Grange. Anything short of that might even be deemed a failure and this is indeed an extraordinary Grange. Quite simply, a wow wine. As always, a variety of regions contributed – the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Clare Valley. As is usual, though not inevitable, there is a dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, 6% for 2021, and the wine spent a year and a half maturing in new American hogsheads. No wonder Peter Gago’s response was a face-splitting smile and to confirm he was “very, very pleased”. 

Maroon/black in hue, one simply gets lost in the nose, just endlessly sniffing the most glorious cassis notes, along with black fruits, blueberries, coffee beans, aniseed, mulberries, delicatessen meats, tobacco leaves, plums and graphite. The wine is seamless, intense and immaculate with knife-edge balance. It simply dances with joy. There oak is there, undeniably, but it is so well handled that you almost have to think twice. So complex already, and yet so harmonious and decadent. Silky tannins, bright acidity, the intensity never wavers for an instant and there is incredible length – Rutherglen muscat length. This is as close to a perfect Grange as I can imagine. Fifty years, if you think you can last that long (or want very grateful grandkids). A Lord-take-me-now wine, if ever there was one. 100.

BWW2025 - Day Two with Screaming Eagle, Masseto, Lafite, Cheval Blanc, Grange etc.

When you are fortunate enough to taste nineteen Rousseau Chambertins at one meal, you can be sure you will have some perspective. The range of vintages was 2018 back to 1990 with almost all the most heralded vintages (no 1991), and the one that stood out above the rest was the 2005 Rousseau Chambertin. Make no mistake about it, there were many standouts, but the 2005 hit the highest note. It was deep but more hi-toned than some of its younger brethren, in a bright red way. It has a raspberry, cranberry and citrus mélange. While rich and saucy, it wasn’t like the other saucy vintages as it had more tension and style. This was a wine to restore one’s faith in the often glacial 2005 vintage. It had enough spice to satisfy the entire House of Atreides (99, Paris).

Henschke Hill of Grace 2021 /Medium deep crimson. Expressive raspberry, blackberry, cassis, hint elderberry/violet/ sage aromas with mocha, marzipan notes. Elegant yet powerful, dense but buoyant palate with ample blackberry pastille, blackcurrant, raspberry fruits, fine supple/ grainy tannins, lovely mid palate volume/ richness and superbly balanced grilled almond, roasted chestnut notes. Finishes claret firm with a featherweight plume of bittersweet tannins. A beguiling and lasting landmark Hill of Grace vintage with wonderful definition, vinosity and torque."

Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey 1929 / An absolutely sensational bottle—youthful, highly elegant, and perfectly balanced between acidity and sweetness. Delicate, slightly salty caramel, malt, dried figs, and molasses weave together in a masterpiece of flavor. Simply brilliant—off the charts! 20+ points

A visit at Château Lascombes in early October offered the chance to taste the vintages 2022 and 2023 and the new wine of the Château, "La Côte“. A new wine has to bring something new to the table”, expresses Axel Heinz. "La Côte" is fully in line with this philosophy. The plot of 5 hectares features a very special terroir, clay-limestone soil with veins of blue clay. The parcel was planted with Merlot in the 1980s presenting an ideal base for great wine. The result is a single varietal Cuvée based on Merlot only, quite unusual for the Médoc area. However the result is more than convincing.

Perfect 100 points Graham 80 year old Tawny Port – Only 600 bottles of the 80y old were bottled and the shelf price will be well above 1.000 GBP. For Charles Symington the blending process was very emotional, as his father, Peter Symington, was born in 1944. When turning 80, Peter very much enjoyed this special Port. Dark red colour with intense reflections and a green-gold rim. Gentle and perfectly balanced Douro Bake aromas on the nose with coffee, dried orange and tobacco. Complex, dense herbal notes in the bouquet, chocolate, malt, tobacco leaves and caramel, floral notes and a hint of chocolate and toffee in the background. Incredibly complex notes on the palate. Herbal mix, chocolate, tea, malt, honey, tobacco. Perfectly long, balanced and complex finish with many overlapping layers. A perfect Port! 100

Dom Ruinart Rosé 1988 / “Onionskin-hued cherry red colour. Really powerful toast, spice, meat, and gunflint nose that comes with a charming coffee and cream note. A wild one. Ripe and massive, yet vibrant and super silky. Impressive in 75cl bottle and out-of-this-world in magnum. ”

Tastingbook tasted Screaming Eagle 1997-2019 / Last Friday's tasting was a rare journey through Screaming Eagle’s legacy—Cabernet icons from 1997 to 2019, alongside the estate’s rarities: Blanc and Second Flight. The lineup highlights Napa’s defining vintages: the power of 1997 and 2013, the elegance of 2010 and 2019, and the charm of 2004 and 2014. The Blanc 2018 and 2019 reveal crystalline precision, while Second Flight 2019 shows approachability without compromise.

Together, these wines capture two decades of Napa Valley—its great vintages, its subtle shifts in style, and the consistent brilliance that makes Screaming Eagle a true modern icon.

Brunello di Montalcino vintage 2020 Part II / Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Montosoli 2020

CANALICCHIO DI SOPRA. Vineyard Filari Lunghi, soils predominantly of Galestro, an imposing wine,intense and juicy. Pomegranate on the nose, hints of chinotto, touches of

eucalyptus and wild iris. The drink has a citrus and balsamic appeal, with red

fruits and balsamic notes. Great length. 98+