We rounded up our group of tasters, known as “the gang of the usual suspects,” to try a number of wines. Some bottles were new to us; others were from beloved vineyards.
They came from all over Europe, and the pricing ranged from under $20 to just under $500 per bottle. It was a blind tasting, and the grading was from 0 to 100 points.
A few of the wines did not pass muster, so I will not mention them in this article. Many were deemed just acceptable and will also not be named. Others were enjoyable, garnering from 83 to 92 points, and a few were considered exceptional garnering over 93 points.
Unfortunately, none received 100 points (perfect), even ones from world famous wineries.
To cleanse the palate between wines, we used rounds of sourdough baguette and cheese. We had received numerous samples of different cheeses – Le Gruyère, a flavorful hard cheese made with milk from cows that graze in Switzerland’s Alpine meadows; Kasseri, a traditional semi-hard Greek cheese made from a blend of goat and sheep’s milk; Double Gloucester, a traditional semi-hard English cheese from cow’s milk; and a Dutch Gouda.
The youngest bottle we tasted was the French 2023 Albert Bichot Chablis. This is a classic Chablis – a complex wine from Northern Burgundy with a nose combining aromas of candied lemon, lime, and white flowers. The finish offers considerable minerality.
It’s well priced considering the quality. We found that it paired best with the saltier cheeses, such as the cheddar and the kasseri. It was rated at an average of 94 points.
Equally young was the 2023 Kados ofDuca di Salaparuta, a Sicilian Grillo. This is an indigenous white grape that can withstand high temperatures and is widely used in Sicilian winemaking for making Marsala wines.
The majority of the must was fermented in stainless steel with 20% fermented in oak barriques. Then, the resulting wines were blended and given only a month’s bottle aging to retain freshness. There are floral aromas with a bouquet of tropical fruit and citrus, followed by light notes of vanilla from the oak barriques. It was rated at 87 points.
Another white that our tasters thought was enjoyable was the 2018 Selva Capuzza Turbiana from the Lugana DOC. Persistent aromas of citrus, white flowers, herbs, and yellow stone fruit were on the nose.
The elegant palate still had fresh acidity (considering its age) accompanying flavors of honeydew, grapefruit, and a hint of ginger. Made from the estate’s oldest vines, this showed its good aging potential. It was rated at an average of 93 points.
From Portugal’s Esporão, Colheita 2021 is a clear, straw-colored, organic wine with greenish hues. The nose presents aromas of orange blossom with notes of citrus and, surprisingly, papaya.
It’s a blend of Antão Vaz, Viognier, and Alvarinho. The grapes were partially fermented in concrete vats. After fermentation, the wine was left on the fine lees for 4 months that enhanced the wine’s character. It’s an easy wine to drink and not particularly expensive. It was rated at 90 points.
From the Italian Chianti vineyards, we tasted a fine Sangiovese-based wine – the Rocca delle Macie Chianti Classico 2022. It’s a red wine that we loved in the past.
It’s bright ruby red, earthy, and intense with a persistent finish. On the palate, it has flavors of raspberry, orange peel, and tart cherry. It averaged 92 points from our tasters and is a well-priced kosher wine of high quality.
Baron Herzog Lineage Pinot Noir 2022 had aromas of cherry and chocolate with hints of ripe black cherry and strawberry jam on the palate. Oak aging brought out sandalwood and cinnamon to a smooth finish. It’s a Mevushal Wine (to make it kosher), which means it has been “flash pasteurized.”
The quick heating and cooling process supposedly helps preserve the wine’s flavors. It was a blind tasting, and none of our tasters knew it was Mevushal. But they considered the wine a bit flawed. When it comes to taste, the debate between Mevushal and non-Mevushal wines is very subjective. From this particular group, the wine only garnered an average of 85 points.
From Spain’s Monsant PDO, the 2022 Dido Venus La Universal, a tasty red, surprised us. I have been to Catalonia many times and thought I had visited most of the “better” wineries, and I had previously tasted the white version of this wine that I found “above average.”
But this red wine was new to me. It was very well made – a blend of 4 hand-harvested grapes, mostly Garnatxa Tinta (Grenache) and Syrah with a little Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from an organic vineyard near Falset.
It was nuanced and had a rather subtle nose with herbal and floral notes, a little spice, and a medium-bodied palate with some grainy tannins. It was very competitively priced. Our tasters liked it and awarded it 94 points – a surprising rating for a wine that usually retails at under $28 per bottle, though I have also seen it as low as $19.
Another wine from the same area was the 2022 rosé Clos Mogador Gratallops Vi de Villa Rosat. It was another easy drinking bottle – a blend of 60% Garnacha Tinta, 20% Macabeo, and 20% Cariñena – two reds and one white grape. Compared to the red, it’s much more expensive, selling at an average of $63 per bottle, but I saw it for as little as $50.
It’s atypical for Priorat because it’s very precise and dry, fruity and spicy, and matured in a 2,000-liter oak foudre for 1-1/2 years. It has a remarkable depth for a rosé. I wouldn’t normally recommend decanting a rosé, but for this wine, it’s certainly needed. After some swirling, we got a great palette of ripe cranberry, pomegranate, grapefruit, and raspberry with mineral notes.
Our tasters loved it, and the sample bottle was completely finished. It was given a solid 92 points with one taster giving it 95 points.
And now for the pièce de résistance!
1st Growth (Premier Cru) 2008 Chateau Haut-Brion, Pessac-Leognan. The most expensive of the wines in the tasting, it currently retails at $485 per 750 ml bottle. I had purchased it in 2010 and cellared it for the past 15 years.
I felt it was time to drink it, and since we no longer entertain the way we did when living in Manhattan, the tasting was a good excuse to open this treasure. I wanted my tasters to try a truly profound wine!
A blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Merlot, and 9% Cabernet Franc, it reveals an incredible complexity and a perfume second to none. The dense purple color exposes aromas and tastes of creosote, tar, cigar box, blueberries, black currants, and jammy raspberries. Sweet tannins offer a fleshy mouthfeel and a stunningly long finish.
It was rated at an average of 97 points, but to my personal taste, it could have been a definite 99. I don’t think a red wine can get much better than that! Salut!
Manos Angelakis is one of the founders, the former Managing Editor for 25 years, the current Managing Editor Emeritus, and Senior Food & Wine Writer of LuxuryWeb Magazine. He is an accomplished travel writer, photographer, and food and wine critic based in Hackensack, New Jersey. As a travel writer, he has written extensively about numerous cities and countries. Manos has also been certified as a Tuscan Wine Master and has traveled to wine-producing areas in order to evaluate firsthand the product of top-rated vineyards. In the past year, he has visited and written multiple articles about Morocco, Turkey, Quebec City, Switzerland, Antarctica, and most recently the South of France. Articles in other publications include Vision Times and Epoch Times.
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