Stephen Tanzer

Carter Cellars Beckstoffer To Kalon 'The O.G.' 2008 – Good full ruby. Very precise aromas and flavors of cassis, minerals and spices. Large-scaled, chewy and deep, offering uncanny generosity and lushness for the vintage without coming across as heavy. In fact, this is quite elegant. Most impressive today on the very long, slowly building finish, which features suave tannins and complex hints of bitter chocolate, mocha, menthol and minerals. A worthy successor to the superb 2007. 

Inspired by the high quality of the 1997 vintage, especially for Cabernet Sauvignon, Catena introduced a new high-end blend that year, naming it Nicolás Catena Zapata (Zapata was his mother’s maiden name). A blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Malbec made in a Bordeaux style and intended for long aging, the 1997 was released in 2001 and made an immediate splash in the international marketplace as it bested numerous top Bordeaux and California Cabernet-based wines in a series of blind tastings in Europe and the U.S.

Andrea Sottimano told me he's now taking a more natural and relaxed approach to winemaking, using natural yeasts, allowing for a longer maceration, and not rushing the malolactic fermentations (the last 2010 Barbaresco didn't finish its malo until the summer of 2011). There's no racking or sulfuring before the malos, and he racks his wines only once after the secondary fermentation. (Yes, Sottimano is a Burgundy lover.) The estate is also cutting off leaves at the end of August, which he believes is now enabling them to get good phenolic ripeness at lower alcohol levels.

Romanée-Conti 2013 /Bright, dark red. Very reticent nose hints at plum, noble herbs and musky mulch. Plush and utterly spherical in the mouth, delivering a rare combination of richness and weightlessness. Began with primary fruit taking a back seat to lower-toned, soil-driven smoke, minerals and underbrush, but lively raspberry and spice elements emerged with aeration. Great depth and sweetness here owing to the tiny yield of less than 18 hectoliters per hectare, but less sexy in the early going than La Tâche. A wine of great class and length, this firmly tannic Romanée-Conti will evolve positively for decades.

DRC Romanée Conti 2008 / Good medium red, but hazy from the recent racking. The nose shows darker aromas than La T a che: berries, violet, Oriental spices. At once spherical and penetrating, with a silkiness that bathes the palate in berry, pepper, spice and mineral flavors. Comes across as fatter than La T a che today, with a stronger early impression of sweetness. Boasts a three-dimensional texture and uncanny depth, but this is sure to shut down in the bottle. Perhaps most impressive now on the back end, which features great rising length and grip.

Quinta do Noval Nacional 2003 / Deep ruby. Knockout nose offers wonderful lift and verve, with distinctly vinous aromas of cassis, medicinal black cherry, licorice, pepper, violet, bitter chocolate and fresh herbs (Vosne-Romanee?). Wonderfully suave and understated on entry, then gripping and precise in the middle palate, and not at all overly sweet. Strong acids and a floral note of lavender contribute to the impression of lift in the mouth. As much great wine as it is great port, with a structure of steel. This showed even greater precision and spine with extended aeration. It will be interesting to taste this and the Fonseca side by side in 20 years, but of course these are two markedly different styles. 96+

Petrus 1961 / Deep red-ruby color with an amber edge. Utterly singular perfumed, high-pitched aromas of loganberry, cherry and flowers. An awesomely concentrated wine of huge power and depth. Chewy with extract and wonderfully sweet and rich. Shows the strong iron note I often get from merlot on the Pomerol plateau, along with superripe suggestions of cherry liqueur and dark chocolate. Finishes with great grip and length, and a bit less sweetness than the middle palate would suggest. Drink now through 2020.

Maya 1991 / Saturated dark red. Wonderfully polished, complex aromas of black raspberry, plum, truffle, smoky oak and caramel, plus a hint of black olive (this wine actually reminded me of some of the earlier vintages of Harlan Estate). At once plush and vibrant, offering terrific retention of sweet berry fruit complicated by tobacco and smoky oak. Firm acidity (natural?) turned slightly tart with aeration but this wonderfully long, saline wine finishes with serious but well-integrated tannins and outstanding verve. While it does not have quite the give of the 2008 I tasted alongside it for my '08 horizontal, it has guts of steel and should go on for years. (13.5% alcohol)

Screaming Eagle 2010 / (75% cabernet sauvignon, 16% merlot and 9% cabernet franc; the harvest here ended on October 13, about two weeks later than usual): Brilliant ruby-red. Urgent aromas of crushed boysenberry, wild herbs, licorice and spearmint are complemented by sexy oak tones. Densely packed and electric, with great energy to the highly concentrated, pliant flavors of black fruits, cocoa powder and flowers. Still quite youthfully backward, but the inexorable slowly mounting finish and big but noble tannins suggest a long and glorious evolution in bottle. Owing to the small clusters, thick skins and concentration of tannins, this wine got a longer elevage than usual, with the bottling done at the end of November 2012.

Beaulieu Vineyard’s Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 / Bright full ruby. Vibrant, pristine aromas of crushed blueberry, blackberry, cassis, violet, licorice and wild herbs, plus a hint of dusty cocoa powder. Remarkably plush on entry, hinting at an almost chocolatey ripeness, then large-scaled, dense and chewy in the middle palate, with harmonious acidity and a distinctly savory quality leavening the sweetness of the wine's berry fruit. Turns sweeter again on the wonderfully long, aromatic aftertaste, which boasts noble, perfectly integrated tannins and outstanding lift. Still a baby but has all the elements for greatness. Beaulieu will introduce this wine in the fall as a centerpiece of their 80th anniversary celebration and it will be a crowd-pleaser. It's hard to compare any wine to the '68, but this may eventually prove to be the best vintage of the Private Reserve since that magical wine. (14.9% alcohol; 3.75 pH; 6.0 grams per liter total acidity; aged for 22 months in 90% new French oak)