Sipping sustainably – Environmental, social and governance (ESG) in the wine industry: Navigating challenges for sustainable growth
This year’s annual wine tasting will feature some of the most recognized wine producers are committed to developing sustainable farming and business practices for future generations. Spanning the globe and spectrum of Certified vineyards, these are some of the most high profile wineries that are making commitments to the future of the environment as well as their staff and clients.
France
Agrapart & Fils Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne Terroirs NV
Sourced from specific grand cru plots of older vines in Avize, Oger, Cramant and Oiry, this blend of two vintages (2019/2020) displays a zesty lemon aroma, followed by a palate full of fresh apple and tangerine flavors with creamy wood touches. At 5g/l of residual sugar, this nudges into the Extra-Brut category, and it must be one of the very best examples of the style. It works particularly well as a blanc de blancs, and its dry, steely, mineral, moreish character imparts great balance to the ripe fruit profile.
Domaines Leflaive Macon-Verze Les Chenes 2022
Nicely framed with toasty oak and pastry accents, this rich white burgundy exhibits peach, apple tart and grapefruit flavors. An underlying mineral element emerges as this plays out on the finish.
Bruno Lorenzon Mercurey Rouge 1er Cru Champs Martin Cuvee Carline 2022
This is another stellar performance from Lorenzon, mingling aromas of dark berries, cassis and plums with hints of smoked meats, orange rind, dark chocolate and exotic spices in a deep and seamlessly integrated bouquet. Medium to full-bodied, it's deep and concentrated, built around powdery tannins and lively acids, its core of fruit complemented by inviting sapid nuances. This impeccably balanced wine has an identity all its own, but it could be seamlessly slipped into any tasting of the Côte de Nuits' best.
Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Saint-Joseph 2021
Using roughly 10% whole-clusters during fermentation, the 2021 Saint-Joseph offers a red-fruited profile paired with earthy gradations and leafy undertones. Medium-bodied and well balanced by bright acidity, the seamlessly sculpted 2021 comes with absolutely no hard edges and concludes with a clean finish. Chave bottled the 2021 slightly earlier than usual in order to help maintain its freshness.
Clos du Marquis St. Julien 2020
The 2020 Clos du Marquis wafts from the glass with aromas of rich berries, cherries, orange zest, pencil shavings and crushed mint. Medium to full-bodied, rich and velvety, with a sweet core of fruit, lively acids and powdery tannins that assert themselves on the youthfully firm finish, it's a serious wine that will require and reward patience.
Spain
Rafael Palacios As Sortes Val do Bibei Valdeorras 2021
The super elegant and austere 2021 As Sortes has a sense of harmony and subtleness that is moving. This is made from 100% Godello and shows great purity, precision and symmetry in the wine. It has marked granite sensations on the palate; it's very tasty, long, fine-grained and textured, with the cold texture of the year. Palacios compared 2021 with 2012, which was very cold and dry before the harvest. It has to be one of the most elegant vintages of As Sortes.
Familia Nin Ortiz Planetes de Nin Carinyena Blanco 2022
The 2022 Planetes de Nin Carinyena Blanca (Carignan White or Vi Blanc de Varietats Antigues) is slightly different, as the slopes planted with the variety just entered in production that year. The grapes ripened well, and 30% of the blend was macerated with skins for 30 days in a concrete egg. It has a nose of pollen and yellow fruit, hints of quince, the effect of the skin contact very subtle, some dry straw, a little more Mediterranean. It has only 12.8% alcohol and a pH of 3.2 with five grams of acidity. 6,120 bottles produced. In 2023, they didn't do the maceration with the skins.
Comando G Rozas 2022
The Rozas 1er Cru has a slight change in 2022 and turned into a village wine, the 2022 Rozas. They selected the best five vineyards that used to go to the Rozas 1er Cru, vineyards they have worked since 2012. In this warmer vintage, they did a softer vinification, with less maceration and more fermentation without skins, to avoid over-ripeness and notes of black fruit in the wine. It has more fruit and some silty tannins, which are more like Italian tannins in the more Mediterranean years like this 2022. This village is more subject to the changes in the years, with more herbal and ethereal notes in the wines in cooler years and juicier and with more marked tannins in the warmer ones. It has 14.5% alcohol and is more jovial, definitely not banal.
Adega Damm Ribeira Sacra Amandi Seoane Baja 2019
The grapes for the 2019 Cardia Seoane Baja come from the middle of the slope of this vineyard in Doade in the Amandi subzone of Ribeira Sacra. It is a blend of 80% Mencía and 20% Garnacha Tintorera and matured in French barriques for 11 months. It has moderate ripeness at 13.5% alcohol, with good freshness and balance. It comes through as a tasty and easy-to-drink red with fine-grained tannins and enough freshness to stand up to powerful food.
Clos I Terrasses Laurel Priorat 2020
The 2020 Laurel feels very elegant, balanced and fresh, a little lighter perhaps, with perfectly ripe tannins. This has to be one of the finest vintages of Laurel so far. After some time in the glass, the aromatics of the Syrah (which was perhaps a little more this year, some 12% versus 8% in 2019) made an appearance—violets, smoked bacon
Italy
Alois Lageder Chardonnay Löwengang 2020
First produced in the 1984 vintage, Löwengang Chardonnay is a benchmark example of the variety in Alto Adige. Sourced from the best parcels of 30 to 80 year old Chardonnay vines in Magrè, near the winery, it undergoes spontaneous fermentation in barriques followed by 11 months on the lees. The result in 2020 is a Puligny-esque wine opening with a flinty, struck-match nose introducing a clean and fresh palate that's intense, saline and persistent. The sapidity of its melon, stone fruit and tropical fruit complexity gives this wonderful vibrancy and potential for the mid-term in the cellar.
Benanti Contrada Rinazzo Etna Bianco 2021
From one of the pioneers in Etna’s Quality wine revolution comes the 2021 Etna Bianco Superiore Contrada Rinazzo from Benanti. Made with 100% Carricante cultivated on the Eastern slope facing the sea, it’s bone-dry, pristine and pure, delivering floral aromas of Spanish broom and stone fruit that carry over to the radiant palate along with green apple, peach, Myer lemon and tangy saline. Vibrant acidity lends great energy.
Ar.Pe.Pe. Valtellina Superiore Sassella Riserva Rocce Rosse 2016
The Ar. Pe. Pe. 2016 Valtellina Superiore Riserva Sassella Rocce Rosse is initially understated with timid primary fruit, blood orange and apricot. There is a pretty spiciness as well, with dried cinnamon stick, nutmeg and tanned leather. The wine needs time, and if you come back to the glass after a little pause, it sings with greater intensity and balance. This is a release of 25,302 bottles that sees 97 days on the skins and 34 months of wood and cement aging.
Padelletti Brunello di Montalcino 2019
The Padelletti 2019 Brunello di Montalcino shows hints of dried herb and ripe fruit over a nicely concentrated mouthfeel. This wine shows a classic fruit profile with bold cherry followed by underbrush, rose and earth all delivered over a mid-weight palate with fine tannins. This bottle gives you a very representative view onto Brunello and Sangiovese.
Tenuta San Guido Guidalberto Bolgheri 2022
Made with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the Tenuta San Guido 2022 Guidalberto gives you a good taste of the same DNA that brings us one of Italy's greatest wines, Sassicaia, but it's offered in a more immediate style here (thanks to the addition of the Merlot). This warm vintage opens to medium-dark concentration and very plump aromas that take you immediately to blackberry and blackcurrant sitting out in the sun at your local farmers market. The wine shows a soft and gentle side with a pretty level of elegance transmitted through the fruit freshness and the light oak spice that is discernible here but delivered with grace.
United States
The Vineyardist Sauvignon Blanc 2021
The 2021 Sauvignon Blanc is made from 70% Musque clone (the planting material originates from Eisele Vineyard) and 30% Semillon, all estate fruit. Whole clusters are pressed and only native yeasts are used. It skips out with energetic notes of freshly squeezed lemons, grapefruit, and lime leaves, with hints of chalk dust, elderflower, and sea spray. The medium to full-bodied palate has a wonderful satiny texture with a racy backbone supporting intense citrus and mineral layers, finishing long and zesty.
Walter Scott Chardonnay Freedom Hill Vineyard Mt. Pisgah 2022
The 2022 Chardonnay Freedom Hill Vineyard is savory to the core, with a burst of reduction that blows off to reveal masses of dried peach and nectarine complicated by dusty florals. It’s zesty within, with a core of vibrant acidity and crunchy mineral tones further intensified by tart green apple fruit. The 2022 finishes salty and dramatically long yet still incredibly fresh, leaving a subtle tug of sour melon. This is a wine of contrasts that’s nearly impossible to ignore.
Domaine de la Cote Pinot Noir Memorious Santa Rita Hills 2022
Bright and piercing, offering a mix of black cherry, damson plum and raspberry coulis notes laced with savory, singed sandalwood, red tea and iron details. A light stem hint through the lengthy, pure finish adds an extra textural note.
Bedrock Zinfandel Monte Rosso Vineyard Sonoma Valley 2020
The 2020 Zinfandel Monte Rosso Vineyard is a standout. Readers who want to understand why Monte Rosso is such a special site will find that here. Soaring aromatics, strikingly pure fruit and refined tannins are all signatures of a special place and a special wine. Red-fleshed fruit, blood orange, mint, spice and lifted floral overtones grace this racy, flamboyant Zinfandel-based wine. Dollops of Alicante Bouschet, Grand Noir and Tempranillo round out the field blend.
Dominus Estate Napanook Napa Valley 2021
The 2021 Napanook is composed of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it slowly emerges from the glass with expressive notes of blackcurrant pastilles, wild blueberries, and Morello cherries leading to an undercurrent of rosebud tea, cinnamon stick, and tilled soil with a waft of charcoal. The rich, concentrated, full-bodied palate delivers waves of black and blue fruit preserves supported by velvety tannins and well-knit freshness, finishing long and spicy.
Beyond
Egon Muller Scharzhof Riesling Mosel 2022 (GERMANY)
The 2022 Riesling Scharzhof was harvested in Saarburg, Wiltingen and Oberemmel and fermented spontaneously, half in stainless steel, half in Fuder. The nose has subtle yeast notes but comes across as very fresh, with hints of green apple and lemon and a slightly flinty flicker. The palate is exquisitely light and gently sweet. Herbal notions like yarrow and tansy join in with the lemon and the juicy, tart apple fruit. Much length with this weightlessness.
Kumeu River Chardonnay Hunting Hill 2022 (NEW ZEALAND)
Fragrant and succulent, with notes of grilled peach, mango and orange blossoms that are generous, fleshy and very juicy. Generous details of green tea, lemon curd and lemon balm linger, as does an appealing note of crunchy sea salt minerality.
Chacra Pinot Noir Cincuenta Y Cinco 2022 (ARGENTINA)
Fresh and floral nose with tiles, vibrant red berries and pomegranate. Stony, mineral verve. Pure and expressive with good tension on the medium-bodied palate. Silky, very nimble and elegant. Acidic red berries in the finish that cleanse the palate. So much drinkability. From biodynamically grown grapes.
Cheval des Andes 2020 (ARGENTINA)
The 2020 Cheval des Andes is the result of the union between Château Cheval Blanc, Premier Grand Cru Classé “A” of Saint Emilion, Bordeaux and Terrazas de los Andes, a pioneer of cool-climate, high-altitude winemaking in Argentina.It is a blend of 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot from Paraje Altamira in the Uco Valley and Las Compuertas in Luján de Cuyo. Aged in French oak barrels, it's purple in the glass with a garnet sheen. The nose reveals a well-judged approach to the warmth of 2020, featuring ripe plum, redcurrant, mint and hints of white pepper over a bed of bay leaf and cedar. It's dry and velvety on the palate, with rich, polished tannins that deliver a juicy, balanced mouthfeel. The balsamic notes and rich palate reflect the year's character, while the finish is dynamic and long-lasting.
By Farr Shiraz Geelong 2019 (AUSTRALIA)
A powerful nose, with the depth and complexity of cool-climate shiraz. This wine is spiced with pepper and mineral elements, leaning towards earthy. The co-fermented viognier adds a little richness to both the bouquet and palate, which has a very pleasant sweetness to start, followed by intense fruit and earthy long tannins to complete the delicate structure and overall elegance of the wine.