Pearmund Cellars Viognier Vinecroft Vineyard is made from 100 percent Viognier.
Explosive tropical fruit flavors: Pineapple and peach with hints of grapefruit. Powerful, yet feminine.
Sweet and ripe on the palate with peach, apricot, pineapple, and mango notes. Long and flavorful finish.
Opaque color. Very rich, dark chocolate aromas with some black cherry and mature fruit coming through. There is also a pleasing freshness to the port originating from its floral and cistus (rockrose) bouquet. The Quinta de la Rosa Vintage 2017 is a powerful wine with much potential but at the same time elegant and generous on the palate. Full of flavors, very complex with fine tannins that gives the wine a nobility and persistence. A great vintage made to give pleasure now and in the next few decades.
Review:
The 2017 Vintage Port was bottled a few weeks before tasting after spending 18 months in used tonels. It is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca, coming in with 98 grams per liter of residual sugar. Wonderfully aromatic and filled with flavor, this got plenty of aeration and didn't blink even a little. It was still vibrant and expressive. Aeration only made it more tannic. It is also delicious. This is potentially a great Port, and it seems like the best I've seen from La Rosa. This is sort of approachable in the near future, but it really needs (at least) a decade of cellaring. It has a lot of muscle and should age well.
-Wine Advocate 95 Points
Very floral in profile, with violet and lilac accents leading off, followed by a decidedly red-fruit spectrum of raspberry, cherry and red currant coulis flavors that race throughout. Has grip, but this is more reliant on acidity, showing a nearly piercing feel as the tightly focused finish zips along, leaving a mouthwatering impression. Delightfully idiosyncratic. Best from 2033 through 2050. 112 cases imported. — JM
-Wine Spectator 95 Points
This is a rounded Port, showing layers of black fruits, ripe tannins and spice. At the same time, it does have a solid structure that will allow it to age. The acidity comes through at the end. Drink from 2028.
-Wine Enthusiast 95 Points
Quinta do Vesuvio Single Quinta Vintage Port is made from 33% Touriga Nacional, 35% Touriga Franca, 15% Sousão, 12% Alicante Bouschet, 5% Other.
This is a powerful, attention-grabbing wine, with taut muscularity. It offers magnificent aromas of rockrose, mint and hints of ginger. The substantial palate is full with expressive black fruit notes lifted by peppery schist tannins (the seasoning provided by the Sousão). The long, lingering aftertaste indicates impressive ageing potential.
Review:
Deep dark ruby garnet, opaque core, violet reflections, delicate edge brightening. Delicate smoky spice, fine nougat, black berries, ripe figs, candied orange zest. Juicy, elegant, fine extract sweetness, ripe tannins, pleasant freshness, chocolaty in the finish, mineral and long-lasting, extremely elegant style, a large Vesuvio, has class.
-Falstaff 99 Points
The 2017 Vintage Port is a blend of 33% Touriga Nacional, 35% Touriga Franca, 15% Sousão and 12% Alicante Bouschet, plus miscellaneous others filling out the blend. This was bottled about a month before tasting after 18 months in seasoned vats, but the just-bottled sample was not really ready. This was instead a pre-bottling sample. It comes in with 115 grams of residual sugar.
- Wine Advocate 99 Points
This unoaked style of Viognier offers an accessible wine with enough body but without wood flavors.
The color is a brilliant green-gold and the style is dry but fruity. The perfume of a floral bouquet greets the nose and follows through with lovely tropical flavors in a light but lingering palate.
Free run juice was used. After settling and acid adjustment, it was inoculated with selected yeast. Fermentation temperature stayed between 13-14 degree Celsius. Wine was left on lees for few months prior to bottling to enhance the flavor. Alcohol: 13.82% Residual Sugar: 3.4 Total Acidity: 5.3 pH: 3.5
Slightly chilled. Lovely with most entrees - from crisp salads to creamy soups. Beautiful with chicken and fish - whether served grilled or in a creamy sauce.
Siegel Gran Reserva Viognier is made from 100 percent Viognier.
The grapes for the Gran Reserva wines are the product of a careful selection of Siegel's best vineyards in the Colchagua Valley, harvested by hand, and revealing a strong expression of the land.
Gran Reserva Viognier was aged for 6 months in French oak barrels with lees stirring to provide complexity and structure. The wine shows a pale yellow color with green tones. The nose offers intense notes of white peach, grapefruit and floral aromas. On the palate the wine is balanced, persistent and presents excellent balanced acidity.
Siegel Gran Reserva Viognier is made from 100 percent Viognier.
The grapes for the Gran Reserva wines are the product of a careful selection of Siegel's best vineyards in the Colchagua Valley, harvested by hand, and revealing a strong expression of the land.
Gran Reserva Viognier was aged for 6 months in French oak barrels with lees stirring to provide complexity and structure. The wine shows a pale yellow color with green tones. The nose offers intense notes of white peach, grapefruit and floral aromas. On the palate the wine is balanced, persistent and presents excellent balanced acidity.
Quintessa Red 2022 is made from 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 1% Carménère, 1% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot.
The 2022 Quintessa is a charming wine, opening with intense aromas of black cherry and cassis that are complemented by notes of tobacco, bay laurel, cedar, and dark chocolate. Plush and inviting on entry, this wine’s flavors align with its aromas. The palate reveals dark fruits and an undertone of crushed rocks, tar, and graphite. On the finish, this vintage displays the signature fine-grained tannin of their Quintessa terroir, backed by voluminous texture and fruit.
Review:
Such an incredible wine here - one of the stars of the September releases. Smells amazing, cooling blueberries with fragrant blackcurrants, edges of florality - totally inviting scents. Full and filling in the mouth, this is ample with such a layered effect, super vertical and elongated. Tight and a little tense but it really works - such balance between black fruit, dried herbs, high acidity and a profound structure. Refined and beautifully presented. So much life, so much energy - this is pure class. A wine you don't want to put down. Feels hands off despite such concentration and power. Ends salty with sticky liquorice, mint and cooling wet stones. You could definitely drink this now but it will age too! 1% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot complete the blend. One of the final few vintages with Rodrigo Soto at the helm - he stepped down last year to concentrate on his family project Far Mountain in Sonoma Valley which is worth following. Winemaker Rebekah Wineburg.
-Decanter 99 Points
Alain Jaume Domaine du Clos de Sixte Lirac is made from 50% Grenache, 35% Syrah, 15% Mourvedre
An intense red garnet color. On the nose, aromas of red and black ripe fruit (kirsch and wild blackberry). The mouth is full, with aromas of blackcurrant liqueur and spice. Tannins are both harmonious and elegant thanks to the fleshiness of the wine. Hints of licorice and vanilla on the finish, which gives the wine length and complexity.
Soil type LIRAC vineyard is facing Chateauneuf du Pape, opposite side of the Rhône river. As showed by the picture and following geologist George Truc, soils are almost similar in both side. They are marked by the violence wrought by the Rhone river. It consists of a layer of marine molasses of the Miocene period covered by alpine alluvium. The presence of a great number of rounded stones known as "galets" in the earth is evidence of the time when the Rhone, then a torrent, tore fragments of rock from the Alps and deposited them on the plain. LIRAC is one of the up-coming best area from the southern Rhône valley, as it delivers outstanding wines. Winemaking & ageing Traditional wine-making in stainless still vats. Hand sorted bunches, crushed and destemmed grapes. Fermentation temperature : 30°C. 18 days of vatting with pigeages.
Review:
"I love the dark and meaty aromas of this Lirac, which also has an herbal freshness and just a hint of bitter chocolate. Medium- to full-bodied with licorice and restrained forest berry fruit on the velvety palate. Extremely well-balanced finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold."
- James Suckling (April 2024), 92 pts