92-94 Jasper Morris, MW - Inside Burgundy

Pale lemon and lime, the bouquet of the Charmes offers significantly more weight than any of the village cuvees, with the faintest of positive reductions, not especially a feature at this domaine. Fine density of white pears with some yellower plum notes, lightly saline at the finish, very attractively balanced and persistent. Tasted: 10/1/2021.

93 Allen Meadows - Burghound

Restrained if elegant and very pretty aromas are comprised by notes of essence of poached pear, spice, just sliced citrus and a whiff of acacia blossom. Here too the medium-bodied flavors are both caressing and seductive before tightening up on the sappy, chalky and equally dry finale that is shaped by lemon-tinged acidity. This beauty of a Charmes is quite firm and will need the better part of a decade to realize its full potential.

92 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

Moving to the 2020s, the 2020 Côte Rôtie Les Schistes has a terrific sense of elegance and purity, with medium-bodied aromas and flavors of smoked red and black fruits, ground pepper, iron, and bacon fat. With silky tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish, it can be drunk any time over the coming decade or more.

97 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

Gorgeous aromas of dried flowers, currants, bark, and forest floor. Lead pencil, too. Tobacco. Full-bodied yet racy and polished with fine and silky tannins that run the length of the wine. Crunchy and fresh at the end. Give this five or six years to come together. Supple yet structured. It builds at the finish. Try after 2028.

97 Markus Del Monego MW - Tasting Book

Intense purple colour with violet hue and black core. A great and mutli-layered with very classic character. Mature fruit, juicy blackcurrants, ripe blackberries and elderberries, dark chocolate and hints of coffee, backed by restrained gingerbread spices and fine earthy minerality. On the palate well structured and concentrated with noble tannins, refined acidity, multi-layered with excellent length. A great Issan.

96 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

The 2020 Château D'Issan is a stunningly good Margaux, and this is another estate that seems to producer brilliant wines every vintage. Pulling from 51.04 hectares of vines and a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, the rest Petit Verdot and Malbec, it's a selection of just 45% of the total production and spent 18 months in 50% new and 50% once-used French oak. Beautiful, spiced-laced red and black fruits, chocolate, smoked tobacco, and incense notes define the aromatics. These carry to a medium to full-bodied restrained, elegant 2020 with terrific mid-palate density, ripe, velvety tannins, and terrific overall balance. This is one of those beautiful, classic wines that grows on you with time in the glass, and hats off to Emmanuel Cruse for yet another incredible wine. It's going to evolve for another 25-30 years if well-stored.

96 Georgina Hindle - Decanter

Wonderfully intense on the nose, so ripe and concentrated with some toasted oak aromas. Supple and vibrant on the palate, the fruit is clean and crisp with tannins that are fine but firm, just giving the expression some tension and linearity. Cinnamon and clove edge the bright blackcurrant and black cherry fruit with lovely acidity. This is plush, and firm at the same time, clean and clear, fragrant and ripe. Lots going on here with bitter dark chocolate too. It’s all happening. Needs time to relax but this is wonderfully nuanced and really quite captivating. Grippy and refreshing, leaves a lingering impression.

96 Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

A successful wine that has lived up to En Primeur promise. The emphasis remains on texture and depth, velvety tannins, perfumed violets, rose and raspberry leaf aromatics, slate, crushed rocks, serious at first then softening to show raspberry puree and smoked blackcurrant fruits. Cocoa dusting on the finish and clear spice, a little austere right now. The terroirs of the newly-purchased Château Pontac Lynch are in this Issan vintage, meaning the blend uses five grape varieties for first time. Not easy to add these distinctive varieties while maintaining the elegant, finessed style of this estate, but it works. 50% new oak, 38hl/h yield.

92 Eric Guido - Vinous Media

The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino opens with a bouquet that blends savory herbs and worn leather with crushed wild berries. It's softly textured and round, with a pretty inner sweetness and juicy red fruits cascading under rosy inner florals. The 2019 tapers off long and gently tannic, as a bump of residual acidity maintains an energetic feel.

92 Audrey Frick - jebdunnuck.com

The garnet/red 2019 Brunello Di Montalcino is potent on opening, with aromas of dried cherries, leather, cedar, and cocoa powder. Rounded and full-bodied, it expands on the palate with fleshy tannins and a ripe mid-palate and finish. It’s showing well now and is an approachable and generous style that I would prefer to drink over the next few years before it loses freshness. Drink 2024-2030.

95 Eric Guido - Vinous Media

Brooding yet intense, the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino bursts from the glass with a wave of autumnal spices, crushed cherries, cedar shavings and steeped plums lifted by pine hints. This is deeply textural, elegant and refined, with a dense wave of ripe wild berry fruits, all guided by vibrant acidity, offset by oranges and balsam herbs. It finishes grippy and extended with a black hole of tension and a sweet and sour sensation that lingers on and on as crunchy tannins resonate throughout. The 2019 is youthfully backward today, yet there's a balance that can't be denied, especially as I watched it open up over twenty-four hours. This is a total pleasure to taste. Bury the 2019 deep in the cellar.

95 Monica Larner - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The Uccelliera 2019 Brunello di Montalcino offers ripe fruit, a note of cooked blackberry and pomegranate juice. Along with oak spice and dried bay leaf, there is a spot of creaminess on the mid-palate that recalls cheese rind or aged chèvre with a crust of black pepper and thyme. That note blows off, however, and the wine returns to dried cherry with a medicinal or herbal twist. There's a lot going on. The wine needs more time in bottle to address the fine, chalky tannins. It is elegant now but poised to improve. Production is 36,000 bottles plus larger formats.

94 Wine Spectator

Dense and muscular, this red delivers a broad swath of cherry, plum and floral flavors, supplemented by iron, eucalyptus and sanguine notes. Tightens up on the finish, leaving a compact impression, yet this is persistent overall. Best from 2027 through 2045. 3,166 cases made, 1,500 cases imported.

91 Wine Enthusiast

"Ripe and soft, impressively rich, with tight citrus minerality."

90 Anthony Mueller - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Made from a blend of 40% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Sauvignon and 36% Cabernet Franc, the fleshy and approachable 2018 Pollard Vineyard Red Wine offers aromas of crème de cassis with blackberry skin. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is delicious without being overly complicated by oak and displays complex layers of savory herbs that sway with a delightful expression of sweet red fruit before concluding with a persistent finish. The wine rested in 20% new French oak barrels. Only 555 cases were produced.

94-96 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

The 2023 Syrah Colson Canyon Vineyard comes from great vineyard (which is owned and farmed by Tensley) located in the hills above Los Olivos. Darker red and blue fruits, dried flowers, sandalwood, and peppery, spicy notes all shine here, and it’s medium to full-bodied, with a balanced mouthfeel, fine tannins, and outstanding length. This cuvée always benefits from bottle age, and I don’t expect the 2023 to be any different.

92 Wine Spectator

"Very rich and elegant, this is loaded with flavors of dried apricot, butterscotch and white chocolate. The long and zesty finish is filed with smoke and toffee." —K.M.

91 Wine Enthusiast

The fresh black currant fruits show strongly in this ripe, perfumed wine. The blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc hangs well together, giving some firm tannins as well as spice and youthful fruitiness. Drink from 2025.

91+ John Gilman - View from the Cellar

"The new release of the Billecart-Salmon non-vintage Brut Réserve, which I encountered at the great Champagne tasting at Crush Wines and Spirits here in New York in December, is comprised mostly of fruit from the 2008 vintage and the vast majority of the blend is one third each of chardonnay, pinot meunier and pinot noir, with none of the base wines going through malolactic fermentation for this bottling. The bouquet is deep and quite lovely, offering up scents of apple, tart orange, a lovely base of complex soil tones, warm bread and a gently smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and snappy, with a fine core, absolutely exquisite balance and focus, very refined mousse and excellent grip on the very long and classy finish. This is a lovely bottle of Brut NV that will only get better with a bit of bottle age. 2013- 2025+." (02/13)

91 Wine Enthusiast

"Made with a high proportion of Pinot Meunier, this is elegant, fruity, with plenty of good acidity and a wonderful floral character. It is so fruity, fresh, a wine for real enjoyment. (Reviewed 12/11)"

91 Wine & Spirits

"This blend includes 40 percent pinot meunier, the balance equal parts pinot noir and chardonnay. Its remarkable fruitiness might be tied to the firm’s long, slow, cool fermentations, which, they believe, allow meunier to maintain its perfume. This is a graceful, vinous Champagne with dramatic high notes of roses and red fruit, finishing clean with a grounding of pale earthiness. It’s a lovely prediction of what Champagne might become in a warming climate." (12/13)

90 Wine Spectator

"Bright, with tangy acidity and a lively bead, this displays fruit-forward flavors of macerated apricot, pineapple and Granny Smith apple, with hints of ginger, biscuit and kumquat. Drink now through 2016. -AN" (10/13)