James Suckling (97)

A great Spatlese that has deep apricot and mandarin orange fruit with delicate mint and tarragon aromas. Staggering vitality and brilliance on the extremely focused and precise palate. Enormous wet stone character at the super-long finish. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.

Tim Atkin MW (96)

The Savage Red is now a varietal Syrah from a vineyard on decomposed granite in Kuils River, right next door to the Polkadraai Hills. Peppery, pure and intense, with no new oak to occlude the flavours, lots of plum and blackberry fruit, detailed tannins and a stony, refreshing finish. Brilliant winemaking.

James Suckling (97)

A hint of flint and gunpowder with waxed lemon, oyster shell, mango and salted green apples. Quite a textured, saline expression of chardonnay with tangy flavors and a mineral drive. Full-bodied and reductive with phenolic support. Savory, saline and mouthwatering finish. Love the austerity here. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (100)

A complex, restrained and deliciously austere cabernet franc with damp earth, oyster shells, blueberries, thyme, rosemary and mushrooms. Super serious and chalky on the palate with lots of dissolved, minerally-textured tannins. Very long and uncompromising! An incredible cabernet franc from Gualtallary by Alejandro Vigil. Extremely pure, mineral and seductive. A fabulous cabernet franc that grows on the palate with remarkable tension and texture. I’d want to drink a bottle now even it can hold extremely well.

James Suckling (100)

A complex, restrained and deliciously austere cabernet franc with damp earth, oyster shells, blueberries, thyme, rosemary and mushrooms. Super serious and chalky on the palate with lots of dissolved, minerally-textured tannins. Very long and uncompromising! An incredible cabernet franc from Gualtallary by Alejandro Vigil. Extremely pure, mineral and seductive. A fabulous cabernet franc that grows on the palate with remarkable tension and texture. I’d want to drink a bottle now even it can hold extremely well.

It contains two bottles of each:

2x75cl Perihelios - 100 points | Jeb Dunnuck

2x75cl Polysipine - 98+ points - Jeb Dunnuck

2x75cl Sine Fine - 98 points | Jeb Dunnuck

100 points | Jeb Dunnuck (Perihelios)

One of two perfect wines in the lineup of 2018s, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Perihelios comes from Thomas Rivers Brown and is another seamless, elegant, yet powerful wine that’s just a joy to taste. Cassis, blackberries, tobacco, graphite, licorice, and a kiss of iron define this incredible beauty, and it's full-bodied, with a multi-dimensional, layered mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, and an incredible finish. Coming mostly from the Upper Range Vineyard and brought up in new barrels, it has ample up-front appeal given its balance, purity, and texture, yet there's no shortage of tannins, and it's going to evolve gracefully for 20-25 years or more.

98+ points | Jeb Dunnuck (Polysipine)

Made by Philippe Melka and a blend of sites, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Polyspline is all Cabernet Sauvignon that saw a small amount of barrel fermentation and aging in 88% new French oak. It's the most structured, backward, and in need of bottle age of the trio and has a dense purple hue to go with powerful notes of blackcurrants, tobacco, licorice, spicy oak, and graphite. Full-bodied on the palate, it's a powerhouse of a wine that has a great mid-palate, building, substantial tannins, and a great, great finish. It needs to be forgotten for at least 4-5 years but will have decades of longevity.

98 points | Jeb Dunnuck (Sine Fine)

Coming from the talented Benoit Touquette, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Sine Fine offers more blue fruits as well as lots of floral, violet, iron, spicy wood, and lead pencil-like aromatics. Another exuberant, incredibly sexy wine under the Fairest Creature label, it’s full-bodied and has just about perfect tannins, remarkable purity of fruit, and a gorgeous finish. It's already impossible to resist, yet I've no doubt this will evolve for 20-25 years or more. The purity of fruit as well as the tannins in this wine are exceptional.

Jancis Robinson (18)

Three casks from three different spots. Slightly cloudy cherry red. Really rich and solid. From a very good producer (a long-term proposition) and made in the domaine philosophy. Lots of tannin on the end. Very energetic. Very slightly bitter on the end.

James Suckling (96)

I love the delicate nose of gardenia, honeycomb and fresh herbs. A rich yet refined Mosel riesling with exquisite elegance at the very long finish with so much mineral freshness. Drink or hold.

Showcasing the reputable cru classé vineyards of Mosel, Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Riesling GG Trocken 2020 is a harmonious symphony of quality and refinement. This splendid Riesling is produced by the illustrious Fritz Haag, a wine estate synonymous with premium consistency since 1605.

A true testament to the winemaker, this 2020 dry trocken exemplifies the virtues of German Riesling, delineating fruit intensity with remarkable finesse and clarity. With a disciplined yield restraint policy, every drop illustrates meticulous vinification and purposeful precision.

The Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Riesling GG Trocken 2020 adroitly matures on its lees in traditional 1000-litre Mosel Fuder barrels. Marked by crystalline minerality and vibrant acidity, it whispers eloquent notes of green apple, peach, and exotic spices, delicately balanced by a captivating finish. Perfectly reflected through the prism of the Brauneberger Juffer terroir, it truly is the embodiment of germanic viticulture.

James Suckling (93)

Did somebody say aperitif? Effusive white-peach, honeysuckle and vanilla-bean aromas pour from the glass of this Kabinett. A very juicy wine with wonderful lightness and mineral freshness. An ideal partner for conversation. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

James Suckling (96)

A super-filigree Mosel Auslese that impresses with fabulous delicacy and precision. So much vanilla-bean character, but also tropical-flower aromas. Beautifully integrated grape sweetness at the long, very refined finish. Drink or hold.

Wine Advocate (97)

The 2019 Truquilemu Vineyard follows the path of the brilliant 2018 with moderate alcohol (13.1%) and great freshness and acidity, a tad below in refinement (within the authentic and rustic character of the zone and the wines), from the old vines on the Coastal Range mountains where the soils have lots of quartz, full of crystals on decomposed granite with silty and sandy texture. The cool place and the soil provide very fresh wines even in warmer and drier years, worked following ancestral traditions and pruned with the moon cycles but not to a modern biodynamic calendar, but rather with local custom. Tasting the different wines from the same vineyard from 2018 and 2019 was fascinating, and the wines didn't stop changing in the glass for hours. I think all these wines are going to develop nicely in bottle. 10,021 bottles were filled in January 2021.

Wine Advocate (95)

Boillot's emblematic 2018 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Mouchère has turned out brilliantly, wafting from the glass with aromas of pear, hazelnut, dried white flowers, citrus oil, blanched almonds and smoke. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, with terrific concentration, searing levels of extract and a long, mineral finish.

James Suckling (99-100)

This shows very intense, old-vine character with bark, black mushroom and dark fruit. Full-bodied and creamy with unique flavors of earth and fruit. Layered and soulful. The best Hosanna ever? Merlot and cabernet franc. 45% from old vines, dating from the late 1950s.

Wine Advocate (100)

Sporting an opaque garnet-purple color, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Kayli Morgan Vineyard needs a fair bit of coaxing to unlock fabulously evocative notions of pure cassis, ripe, juicy black plums and wild blueberries, plus suggestions of candied violets, cinnamon stick and fenugreek, with a touch of fallen leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate is packed with poise and sophistication, shimmering with energetic black and blue fruit layers and a perfectly plush texture, finishing with a dazzling display of minerals and floral fireworks. A hands-down, jaw-dropping beauty!

Wine Advocate (96)

The 2020 Graacher Himmelreich Auslese is discreet and remarkably coolish on the dense and lemon-scented nose compared to Zeltingen and Bernkastel. White peach and nectarine aromas intertwined with coolish broken slate aromas make this a savory and irresistible Auslese, even though, or exactly because of it, this is so discreet and only subversively erotic on the nose. The palate then reveals stunning lightness and finesse based on a filigreed structure and highly refined and zesty acidity. This is almost weightless, but it has a sweet core that materializes the fruit, whereas in the transcendental Zeltinger Sonnenuhr, it's more of an idea. 7% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 19 21 in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (98)

The 2020 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese is intense and complex on the still introverted but complex nose that shows clear, bright fruit aromas (baby pineapple) intermingled with fine, flinty slate notes. What an aristocratic appearance! Round, crystalline and saline on the palate, this 2020 Auslese is much more openhearted and fruity as well as frisky and frivolous than it pretends to be on the nose. This is a really Catholic Riesling or a picture-book Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese. Its finish, however, is Protestant: rigorously linear, straight and with serious structure and grip. All in all, this is the world's most ecumenical Sonnenuhr. Pure fascination. 7% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 38 21 in July 2022.

Wine Advocate (97)

The 2021 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese is concentrated and fresh on the aromatic nose that is immediately present but also still reductive. Ripe stone fruit aromas intermingle with notes of crushed stones on a deep foundation of aromas from the soil and the fruit of old vines. On the palate, the 2021 is very fine but also intense, savory, saline and lush, leading to a long, intense and highly digestible finish with crunchy and cleansing slate features. Again, this is a fabulous Auslese from Prüm's iconic Sonnenuhr. 7% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in May 2023.

Wine Advocate (95)

The 2020 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett offers a discreet and sublime, complex and very elegant and slightly flinty nose with a coolish and very delicate expression of stewed apricots but also some greenish berries, whereas the first stony character remains. This irresistible and noble bouquet leads to a round and lush yet also refined and savory palate, with coolish apricot flavors on the long and sustainably salty finish that is firmly structured but elegant and highly stimulating. This is a superb, very elegant and complex, sustainably structured Sonnenuhr. This is already a great pleasure to drink, but you can keep this Kabinett for more than three decades easily. 8% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 05 22 in July 2022.

James Suckling (96)

This Spatlese beams you up to Cloud 9, from where you have a wonderful view over the beautiful Mosel Valley. In spite of the considerable concentration, this is super-delicate and precise on the barely medium-bodied palate. Enormously long finish, where you barely feel the natural grape sweetness. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (94)

The jasmine, honeysuckle and white-thorn aromas are augmented by a touch of wild-herb character that adds special tension. Succulent, medium-bodied palate with caramelized white-peach character, then a very clean and stony finish that is impressively long. Drink or hold.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (94-97)

Pale lemon colour. The power is immediately apparent on the nose, but in a good way. A wine for longer elevage before bottling and then worth the wait in bottle thereafter. This has all the expected volume of white fruit while retaining impeccable balance. Adds depth with time in the glass, before reaching quite a saline finish. A very youthful but impressive Clos des Mouches. I recently enjoyed a stunning bottle of the 2017, and this could very well match it in due course. Tasted: November 2021

Decanter (97)

Best in Show - Those seeking out reds based on Cabernet Franc beyond their French home are, often enough, looking for a red wine which combines something of the structure and command of Cabernet Sauvignon but with more lift, grace and aromatic refinement. The red wine from this year's brace of South African Best In Show winners fills that role admirably. It's dark in colour, with refined, complex, raspberry and root-spice aromas in subtle and uninsistent style. Look out for bright, pure raspberry fruits on the palate with a further twist of liquorice and gentian. The structure comes more from the wine's quiet, limpid acidity than from any notable tannin presence, further unscoring that accessibility and responsiveness.

James Suckling (100)

One of the most powerful and significant La Fleur-Petrus I have ever tasted with incredible depth and power. It’s full and so layered with fine and intense tannins. It shows very dark fruits, dark chocolate with hazelnuts, and milk chocolate with almonds. This will age for eternity.

Vinous - Neal Martin (100)

The 2000 Lafleur is a benchmark wine that prefigures the estate's wines in the 21st century. Though I have tasted it a dozen or so times from bottle, this was my first time in magnum…and what a wine! Showing only modest bricking at its rim, the nose is a symphony of aromas, an aromatic Pandora's Box: blackberry, wild hedgerow, black truffle, pencil box and gravel give way to more red fruit and rose petals. The palate has a heavenly balance with perfectly pitched acidity that effortlessly counterbalances the sheer weight and density of this wine. Previous examples have warned me away from cracking this open, but despite its larger format, this example is the first that entertains the notion of drinkability. That said, the 2000 is clearly a Pomerol that will span decades. The grandeur of this Lafleur is entrancing. Tasted from ex-château magnum at Kate & Kon's 40-Year vertical in Austria.

Wine Advocate (99)

One of the wines of the vintage, but likely to prove slower evolving and more introverted than its 2019 counterpart, the 2020 Lafleur unwinds in the glass with aromas of cherries, raspberries, kirsch, black truffle, orange zest and vine smoke. Full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, it's deep and concentrated, with a tightly wound core of fruit framed by rich, powdery tannins, concluding with a long, saline finish. This is another magical bottle from an estate that just seems to do everything right.

Vinous - Neal Martin (97)

The 2012 Latour…wine of the vintage? It has to be a serious contender. In this blind taste-off between the five First Growths, its quality shines through. With exceptional delineation on the nose, it just oozes class with precise black fruit, crushed stone, mint and light sous-bois. The palate is perfectly balanced with a fine line of acidity, as precise as a Swiss watch, gently building to a finish that delivers the structure one expects from a Latour. Sheer class. Tasted blind in Bordeaux.

Vinous - Antonio Galloni (92)

The 2012 Les Griffons de Pichon Baron is dark, voluptuous and immediate. A burst of sweet red plums, smoke, graphite, licorice and tobacco hits the palate. The tannins are sweet but also energetic. Extroverted in style, the 2012 also has enough depth and overall density to drink well for another decade or so. Rose petal, iron and white pepper add the final shades of nuance. Here in its first vintage, Les Griffons is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 45% Merlot.