Bordeaux Vintage 2025 / Pessac-Leognan / Château Haut Brion Blanc : 53% Sémillon + 47% Sauvignon Blanc. Great intensity of grapefruit and green apple on the nose. Remarkable acidity, well-poised, vibrant, and sophisticated on the palate. Multilayered. Long, lemony aftertaste. Upper-class quality. 97-98p.

Bryant Family's latest releases confirm why the estate remains one of Napa Valley's undisputed icons. A tasting of the 2023 Bryant Family Cabernet Sauvignon, 2023 DB4, and 2022 Bettina revealed a collection defined by remarkable purity, precision, and elegance.

The highlight was unquestionably the Bryant Family Cabernet Sauvignon 2023, a monumental wine awarded 100 points. Produced from one of the coolest and longest growing seasons in recent Napa Valley history, it combines extraordinary concentration with effortless finesse. Layers of blackcurrant, blackberry, graphite, violets, and crushed rock unfold over a palate of remarkable freshness, ultra-fine tannins, and seemingly endless length. It is a benchmark Napa Cabernet destined for decades of graceful evolution.

Masseto tasting 1998-2022 / Masseto 2015: A truly legendary, text-book perfect growing season. A normal spring gave way to a hot, intensely sunny summer. Crucially, timely rains in late July relieved any potential vine stress. August brought cooler nights, allowing the Merlot to preserve its aromatic freshness while reaching unprecedented levels of sugar and tannin ripeness.

 The perfect masterpiece and the ultimate expression of Masseto. This vintage is an olfactory explosion of ripe blackberries, dark chocolate, black truffles, and wet iron clay. The palate achieves absolute, breathtaking harmony. It delivers a monumental, multi-layered texture that manages to be simultaneously opulent, dense, and magically weightless. A flawless, unforgettable expression of a golden Tuscan season. 100 points

Mount Edelstone 70th Anniversary Tasting 1956-2022

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

Large Coche-Dury tasting and few others: The Corton-Charlemagne 2002 was equally as impressive, but in a more mature way. It was in a perfect spot, on a bridge between youth and wisdom, with extraordinary balance and tension. I think that the 15-20 year mark is a real sweet spot for great vintages of Coche CC. Ooh la la (98).

The new vintage of Vin de Constance arrived on the market. Another excellent example for the top quality of the Muscat de Frontignan grape variety.

Saint-Émilion vintage 2025: Château Ausone: 65% Cabernet Franc, 30% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. 13.7% alcohol. Cabernet Sauvignon was so excellent that it was included in Grand Vin for the first time since 1995. The wine displays an expressive and fruit-laden nose of wild cherries. There is freshness and tension, richness, a fabulous midpalate, and a long, sensual finish that goes on and on. This wine is very distinguished and seamless. One of the best wines of the vintage, a sure bet. There will be no second wine (Chapelle d’Ausone) in 2025, as all harvested parcels had very high quality and went into Grand Vin. 99-100p.

Château Lafite 2025 / Deep dark ruby garnet, opaque core, violet reflections, delicate edge brightening. Floral touch, delicate roses, dark wild berries, candied violets, delicate licorice, some velour, multi-faceted, inviting bouquet. Juicy, elegant, red cherries, delicate redcurrants, fine, silky tannins, a hint of lime, salty minerality, delicate, full of finesse and long-lasting, sure maturity potential. 99p

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 visited at Monteverro / The 10-member tasting panel from Tastingbook.com recently concluded a follow-up visit to the Monteverro estate in Tuscany to evaluate the winery's latest releases. This was far from the group's first pilgrimage to the property. With every consecutive visit, expectations have naturally heightened as the winery's quality trajectory continues its stratospheric ascent. Once again, the estate delivered an uncompromising masterclass in viticulture.This latest review confirmed that the wines continue to meet high international standards, showing no signs of slowing down.

The flagship red releases—the Monteverro 2020, 2021, and 2022—performed consistently well, with each vintage receiving scores above 96 points. Meanwhile, the newly released white flagship, the Chardonnay 2023, established itself as a highlight of the lineup, securing a strong 98 point rating.

Château Fontenil Vertical 2022-2005 / I have tasted Château Fontenil during primeur for more than a decade, but I have rarely seen them in bottle, and even rarer tasted them. Boy was I in for a treat! On a relatively misty morning I turned up at Fontenil and I did not expect anything near this amazing lineup. I am a big fan of Fronsac, these wines are so undervalued, and here we are, another big tasting confirming that exact same thing. Gorgeous wines.