Reviews

The 2013 Zinfandel Riebli Valley Vineyard looks more like Petite Sirah than one normally associates with Zinfandel. This is from apparently over 100-year-old head-pruned vines and low yields. The color is an inky ruby/purple, the wine rich, full-bodied, powerful and just classic Zinfandel. This is a stunner and a wine capable of offering gorgeous drinking for at least another 7-8 years.

The delicious 2013 Chardonnay Stubbs Vineyard from the Petaluma Gap in – of all places – the high-priced real estate county of Marin, shows wonderful honeysuckle and white peach. The wine is 100% barrel fermented, with 100% malolactic fermentation, and was aged on its lees for nine months. It has a slight greenish hue to its light-straw color, medium to full body, and beautiful fruit.

The 2013 Chardonnay No. 81 from Sonoma Coast is a more steely, mineral-laced Chardonnay that tastes like a grand cru Chablis, with loads of crushed rock, white currant and quince. This full-bodied Chardonnay is a dead ringer for a grand cru Burgundy. It is gorgeous and reserved, but intense at the same time. 

The 2013 Chardonnay No. 33 from Russian River shows a light-straw color with a greenish hue, always a good sign. A beautiful nose of caramelized citrus, honeysuckle and orange rind are all present in this full-bodied, beautifully crafted Chardonnay that shows virtually no evidence of any new oak. It is a beauty. Full-bodied, fresh, and pure, it is best drunk over the next 5-6 years.

The 2013 Pinot Noir No. 11 from Sonoma Coast is a darker-fruited and deeper-colored, more Côte de Nuits style of Pinot Noir with a broader mouthfeel, more savory, complex richness, notes of forest floor, blackcurrant and black cherries, and loads of personality and character. This is a beauty, and seductive. Drink it over the next decade.

Good medium red. Very ripe, soil-driven aromas of mocha, game, tobacco and cocoa powder. Strong red fruit and spice flavors emerge on the wonderfully dense, sweet palate, with an element of saline minerality providing another dimension. The wine's superb energy gives the highly concentrated fruit a bulletproof quality. Impressively dense and large-scaled for the year, finishing with substantial ripe tannins and excellent balance and length. Vincent's wines have been distinctly fresher and firmer since 2010 as he's now picking a bit earlier to avoid surmaturité.

This unabashed ripe, oaky style of wine will please a lot of people. Caramel and melted butter aromas lead to ripe and buttery flavors with a candied edge. There is a definite emphasis on oak and other complex flavors, while the fruit component lies low. - J.G. 

Year's Best Rhone
Red cherry flavors ring out with bell-tone clarity in this wine, herbal notes edging the ripe, juicy flavors. It feels cool and fresh, with a little vanilla and spice to smooth over the stony flavors beneath the fruit. 

Opulent and intense, the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Generations is quite powerful, with huge, inky fruit and searing tannins. This is an especially deep, extracted Cabernet, but it has also just been bottled. It will be interesting to see how the 2013 develops. Today, it is almost forbiddingly intense, yet there is plenty of stuffing lurking beneath. - Antonio Galloni