Aalto P.S. Pagos Seleccionados Tinto is made from 100 percent Tempranillo.
Climatic conditions
The farming year began with a mild autumn and little precipitation. A very dry winter started with -9ºC reaching at the end higher temperatures than normal for that time of the year. Spring and summer characterized by little rain, only some rain showers in July and late August avoided the hydric stress of the vines. The vegetative cycle of the vine developed with big variations of temperatures, alternating warm and atypical low temperatures of 4ºC for mid-June. The ripening of the grapes happened under very good conditions and the harvest started on 24th September 2019.
100% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) primarily from very old vines – 60 to 90 years old – from selected plots in La Horra and La Aguilera. The harvest was done by hand, in small boxes of 15 kilos that are thoroughly inspected, bunch by bunch, on the selection table.
Tasting notes
Review:
Color: dark cherry, Aroma: toasty, spicy, fine cocoa, black fruit, Mouth: tasty, toasty, fine bitterness, ripe tannins
Guia Penin 94 Points
"A red made exclusively from Tempranillo, from vineyards 60 to 90 years old, grown in the pagos of La Horra and La Aguilera, with 21 months of aging in new French oak barrels. Captivating in aroma and flavor, it shows ripe red and black fruit alongside floral, herbal and sweet-spice notes, which carry onto the palate, where its good acidity and firm, very fine-grained tannins lend support to the oak and balance to the whole. It has a full, very long finish, with reductive, earthy touches of cassis, blackberry, violet and licorice. It follows the house's powerful style, yet shows itself more fluid, tense and vertical. A fine example that concentration, opulence, precision and finesse can go hand in hand. Be patient with it in the glass or in the bottle, as it is still young and has everything it needs to get even better over the next 20 years. Alcohol 15%."
-Revista Adega 95 Points
This wine reveals a complex and elegant bouquet that combines ripe fruit, leather and a fine woodiness. Round and warm on the attack, the palate is supported by solid tannins and a pleasant freshness in this harmonious and well textured wine.
The Merlot bring fruity notes and minerality from the clay-limestone terroir, enhanced by the incredibly expressive and spicy Cabernet Franc.
Review:
-Ella Lister 93 Points
-Neal Martin (Vinous) 93 Points
-Jeb Dunnuck 92 Points
-William Kelley (Robert Parker) 92 Points
Alejandro Bulgheroni Lithology Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 99% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc.
Here the Cabernet comes to us typically flawless, and the wines are as such. There is blue fruit, blueberries, black plums, blackberries, and cassis to the aromas, as well as stones, mineral, chocolate, fresh tobacco, and subtle herbs. It is incredibly full-bodied, but at the same time effortlessly drinkable, with ultra-smooth tannins and a positive, long, upturned finish. 70-75% new French oak is the norm for us with Dr. Crane, and those flavors are absorbed to become a vanillin complexity, sweetness, and length. An unbelievable wine.
Review:
-Jeb Dunnuck 97 Points
Alejandro Bulgheroni Lithology Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
Alejandro Bulgheroni Estate Lithology is a series of single vineyard and AVA-designated wines made from select sites within Napa Valley. Lithology Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is produced solely from fruit grown in the historic Beckstoffer to Kalon Vineyard planted in 1865 by W.H. Crabb and represents Oakville's famous bench land.
Review:
The 2019 Cabernet Franc Lithology Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard just shines for its bouquet, which is classic To Kalon with its floral, incense, spicy, red and black-fruited aromatics. These all flow to a medium to full-bodied, utterly seamless Cabernet Franc that’s balanced, has laser-like precision, and a great finish. This isn’t the biggest or richest wine in the lineup, but it’s Cabernet Franc in all its glory, with soaring aromatics and complexity, ample richness and texture, and a beautiful sense of finesse and elegance. It’s going to keep for 15-20 years with no issues.
-Jeb Dunnuck 98 Points
Composed of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Lithology Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is a barrel sample with a deep garnet-purple color. It needs a fair bit of coaxing to unlock scents of blackberry pie, warm blueberries and cassis plus suggestions of spice cake, underbrush, candied violets and chocolate box. The full-bodied palate brings forth loads of earthy layers to accent the rich, black fruits, framed by plush tannins and lovely freshness, finishing long and fragrant.
-Wine Advocate 97 to 99 points
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Lithology Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is one of the very finest wines I have tasted from Alejandro Bulgheroni's Napa Valley project. The 2019 To Kalon captures all the pedigree of this iconic Oakville vineyard, and yet also remains nuanced and wonderfully finessed for an intense wine. To Kalon Cabernets are rarely this elegant, but the Bulgheroni 2019 sure is.
-- Antonio Galloni 97 Points
"Proprietor Alejandro Pedro Bulgheroni established this label in 2014. Entirely estate fruit, comprising beautiful rich berry scents, oak, crushed rocks and a saline minerality tinged with dark chocolate. Enveloping, full and broad-shouldered. Saturated dark berry fruit, chocolate layer cake, vanilla and dried herbs de provence round out this Cabernet with its fierce tannins that are nicely integrated.
"
-Jonathan Cristaldi 100 Points
Alejandro Bulgheroni Lithology Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
We only produced a scant 50 cases of this wine this year, far too small an amount considering how great it turned out. There’s that typical saturated to the rim deep purple color, with intense cassis, herb, and milk chocolate, bricks and forest floor, black plum pudding aromas. In the mouth, there’s a great balance, with notable oak and vanilla notes intertwined with dense black fruits. It’s an opulent and plush style, yet finishes with sweet grippy tannins.
Review:
-Jeb Dunnuck 100 Points
J. Christopher Appassionata Chardonnay is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
Appassionata Chardonnay is the expressive summit of this classic Burgundian variety in the Willamette Valley. Fermented and matured in large (500-liter) oak casks, it rests on the full lees for two years before bottling. It then rests in our cellar for another year before its release, three years after vintage. The wine’s elegant texture, fine structure and extended maturation time ensure a long life for this vibrant Chardonnay.
Whole-cluster pressing; native yeast fermentation in 500-liter French oak barrels; natural malolactic fermentation; 21 months maturation on the lees.
Review:
-Wine Enthusiast 94 Points
-Jeb Dunnuck 95 Points
Velette Orvieto Secco is made from 30% Trebbiano, 30% Grechetto, 20% Malvasia, 15% Verdello and 5% Drupeggio.
The result of centuries of devotion, selection and experience, this wine is the taste portrait of this area: cool as the air on the Orvieto rock, soft as the surrounding hills, direct/candid/plain/frank/open and sincere like the local people. The typically straw yellow colour with greenish tints illustrates its youthfulness. Delicate floral flavours with a light acidity to preserve them melt on the palate and then there is a characteristic slightly bitter after-taste. A joyful wine, sociable, rounded in its reliable simplicity, a wine that is always a good accompaniment.
Excellent as a pleasant, light-hearted aperitif, it goes well with vegetable or fish hors d'oeuvres and first courses in general. Recommended temperature: 8 – 10 ° C
A tribute to the three families of workers who were responsible for the farms on this hillside from the early 19th century and who have cultivated the grape varieties of Orvieto D.O.C. for generations.
Pairs with vegetables, fish, seafood, fresh and aged cheeses.
The Tenuta Le Velette Estate
The hill on which the Le Velette estate is situated, to the east of the rock on which stands Orvieto, has always been a point of great agricultural and strategic interest in the course of its three thousand year history. The position, controlling a good part of the valley of Orvieto, the volcanic terrain exposed to the sun from dawn till dusk, and the special microclimate with significant thermal swings between night and day have always been its good fortune.
The first to see its great wine-growing potential were the Etruscans, the people who had already in the 7th century B.C. imported the vine from the Greeks. They certainly used the hill as a rural settlement for its cultivation and dug grottoes in the tufo rock, (just as we still do today), which offered excellent conditions for wine conservation. During Roman times, the hillside kept its wine-making role but developed significantly also as a strategic check point: right in the middle of the present estate, where Villa Felici stands today, a control tower was built and a resting-place for travellers, which led to significant development in the area.
After a difficult period of barbarian and Longobard invasions, the area regained great importance as papal state land. In this period the Etruscan grottoes were extended and became a safe refuge and place of worship for the first monks who settled there soon after.
With the advent of feudalism, the area passed into the hands of the Negroni counts, feudal lords of a nearby village, preserving its wine-making function for centuries before being given in endowment to a monastic order by a descendent who had become an abbot.
At the unification of Italy everything went to the city of Orvieto, which sold the estate to the Felici family. And so began the first experimentations in the vineyard and the cellar which led in very few years to the production of excellent wines, as is testified by the medals won in that period in Roman oenological competitions. The estate's wine went into commerce in the new-born Italy.
The fundamental step towards modern viticulture and oenology was taken in the 1950s when the brilliant Tuscan agronomist, Marcello Bottai, and his wife Giulia, a descendent of the Felici family, chose to make the estate their home and life project. This was the start of a period of development geared to a proper appreciation of the full potential not only of the firm but also of the whole district. The production of high quality wines was established along with the setting up of systems for the development and protection of Orvieto viticulture. A fundamental move was the foundation with other producers of what would become the present consortium for the safeguard of Orvieto wines. An absolutely innovative vision for the times that the young couple not only had had the wit to conceive but which they also had the courage and determination to bring into existence.
The Tenuta Le Velette Vineyard
They carefully and selectively harvest from their own 90 hectares (222 acres) of vineyards. The excellent exposure provides all day sun and the rich tufaceous soil is of volcanic origin.
Saumaize-Michelin Macon Vergisson Cru Sur La Roche is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
Harmonious, fresh and clean aromas of fresh apple, lemon, orange blossom, white flower. Pure, crisp, silky and fine texture. Ripe fruit flavors and good acidity.
Reynvaan Family Vineyards is a cult Walla Walla estate whose vines in the cobblestone-strewn Rocks District produce some of Washington's most sought-after Syrah. Stonessence draws on the estate's In the Rocks fruit for a wild, perfumed, savory style that rivals the great Syrahs of the Northern Rhône.
Review:
Sourced from the estate's In the Rocks vineyard, this penetrating Syrah displays the haunting perfume of the Rocks District. Undulating blackberry and blueberry flavours are tinged with blood, iodine and ash. Powerful yet focused, freshly balanced with a finish that lingers on the bitter edges of quinine and olive pit. Made with 15% whole clusters vinified in stainless steel and matured for 18 months in both new puncheons and neutral oak.
Decanter World Wine Awards 98 Points