95 Wine Spectator

There's a fruity side to this red as well as a spicy side, with cherry, strawberry and black pepper flavors throughout. Floral, iron and underbrush accents add depth, yet it's the beam of pure cherry that prevails. Shows prodigious length on the finish. Best from 2027 through 2043. 4,000 cases made, 1,800 cases imported.

96 Decanter

A masterclass in purity and delicacy for this 2020 vintage which manages to convey the beauty and allure of Yquem in a toned down, subtle and beguiling way. Aromas of white blossom and honeysuckle, gently caramelised Mirabelle plums and fresh apricots with flecks of clementine and grapefruit pith abound on the nose - richly scented in their individual aspects but delivered quietly, almost sultry and shy. Immediately mouthfilling and unctuous, streamlined and fresh with a sugary hit hitting first before mouthwatering acidity follows giving sumptuous succulence and vibrancy. Apricot, peach, fleshy mango and sharp pineapple give the exotic fruit zing balanced by a salty, flintiness that adds faint angles to the expression. Juicy, bright, clean and complete with hints of cinnamon spice and just-toasted bread providing the frame and structure reminding you that this is built to last. It's not as opulent as some vintages, much more understated and relaxed - and coincidentally one of the lowest in residual sugar at 135g/l - but this is a wonderful expression with control and confidence on show. It also has supreme drinkability even now with tension, clarity and energy so don't be afraid to open and enjoy this in its joyful youth. The 2020 is the smallest production since 2000 with an equivalent of 35,000 bottles made. All stock will be released for sale on 23rd March with only a small number of bottles kept back for the estate's library collection. 3.79pH. The vintage was challenging in terms of viticulture with tropical spring-like weather delivering early budburst and high mildew pressure, especially given it was the estate's first year of official organic conversion. June was wet and cool followed by a hot, dry summer. Botrytis arrived in mid-October but there was only a small window of five days and two separate passes to harvest grapes with perfect noble rot.

90 Erin Brooks - Robert Parker's the Wine Advocate

The NV Spark comes from 29-year-old vines planted in Jory soil. It is a blend of 48% Pinot Noir, 31% Chasselas, 9% Chardonnay, 6% Pinot Meunier and 6% Pinot Blanc, aged 11 months on the lees and bottled without dosage. It has a deep cherry-pink color and scents of green melon, peaches, tarragon and citrus peel, and the light-bodied palate is energetic and fruity with a refreshing finish.

97 California Wine Advisors

"Flaunting alluring aromas of creamy vanilla, cherry pie and Christmas spices, this memorable new Pinot launches forth with opulent Bing cherry, raspberry and a hint of strawberry – rhubarb pie on the silky finish. Copious notes of lavender, cassis and cranberries come through a full 20 seconds after finishing this tasty creation. This is a massive wine (almost Cab-like in its intensity) guaranteed to impress fans of the boldest Pinots such as Sea Smoke and Kosta Browne. Although a mere youth, this is already a leviathan wine that coats the palate with remarkable viscosity and seductive flavors. Enjoy the journey anytime through 2029. Decanting recommended prior to 2024. – March 2023"

96 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2020 Barbaresco Serraboella is another stellar wine in this range from Cigliuti. It offers a stunning mix of succulent dark fruit, rose petal, lavender, mocha and spice. The 2020 spent 26 months in oak, 70% cask and 30% tonneaux, the smaller barrels adding soft contours. Just bottled, the 2020 shows tons of potential. Blood orange, crushed red berry fruit, mint, spice, rose petal and a kick of sweet French oak linger.

92 Susan Hulme - The Wine Independent

Medium-deep, faded ruby in color, the 2018 Mauro Veglio Barolo Arborina has a soft and gently fragrant nose, a little 'sotto voce' or understated, but with pretty tea leaf and floral notes. It has quite firmly structured but nicely managed tannins at the same time. There is a really attractive savory, lingering finish to this wine with sweeping acidity. It is a more classic, traditional style, harmonious and very appealing. Maybe wait one to two years and keep up to 20 years.

100 Joe Czerwinski - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Lail's 2021 J. Daniel Cuvée Cabernet Sauvignon blends lots from several high-end vineyards, including Heimark (Calistoga), Vine Hill Ranch (Oakville) and Steltzner (Stags Leap), plus Lail's own Mole Hill on Howell Mountain. It's an exciting wine, starting from the pulse-quickening aromas of raspberries and black cherries tinged with dark chocolate. In the mouth, this full-bodied beauty is richly concentrated, with a sensuous texture somewhere between silky and velvety, while the softly dusty finish shows terrific length and a spine-tingling hint of licorice. To reduce this wine to deceptively simple yet hard-to-pin-down words, it's complex, harmonious and elegant, yet it's enough of its place that it could only come from Napa Valley.

98+ Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

One of the finest wines in the vintage, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon J. Daniel Cuvee is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Dutch Henry Canyon area in Calistoga, Vine Hill Ranch in Oakville, and Stelzner in Stags Leap (which was added in 2018). It spent 20 months in 75% new French oak. Still tight and inward, it has sensational purity in its currant, mulberry, truffly earth, graphite, and leather aromatics. These carry to a full-bodied, rich, incredibly concentrated 2021 that has the vintage’s fresher, focused style, ripe tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish. It's going to benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve for a quarter of a century.

98+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2021 J Daniel Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon soars out of the glass with powerful notes of warm cassis, boysenberry preserves, and black cherry compote followed by suggestions of Indian spices, mint tea, and underbrush with a hint of violets. The rich, concentrated, full-bodied palate is packed with impactful black fruit preserves layers, framed by firm, ripe, grainy tannins and a lively backbone, finishing long and shimmery.

98 Jim Gordon - Wine Enthusiast

Matching power with complexity, Robin Lail's densely concentrated, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon once again goes deep in black currants, blackberries, cocoa and toasted oak flavors while velvety, mouth-coating tannins give the structure for a long aging period. Best from 2027-2040.

94 Stephan Reinhardt - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Macerated for six to 12 hours and vinified in newer 1,200-liter barrels, the 2020 Weissburgunder –S– opens with a clear and complex, Burgundian bouquet that reveals intense and ripe fruit along with very fine oak and yeasty notes as well as spicy ones. Fermented with more lees than the standard Pinot Blanc, the S is pure, fresh and salty on the palate, very intense and elegant and with good tension and complexity on the finish. The 2020 is round and gastronomic and the finest I have tasted here. It will benefit from bottle aging (natural cork instead of screw cap).

93+ Robert Parker - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2022 Fleurie Cuvée Tardive, produced from vines averaging 80 years old, masterfully pushes the boundaries of concentration. Offering up opulent aromas of grilled blackberries and cherries mingled with licorice, cloves, white pepper, orange rind, vine smoke, struck flint and forest floor, it's medium to full-bodied and appropriately structured with abundant powdery tannins playing a critical role in bolstering the fleshy structure for a long life. The lengthy finish sees the wine's textural and mineral elements meld, guiding it to a gentle, leisurely resolve." Kenna Wells

98 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

This is a very linear red and layered at the same time, showing blackberry, blueberry, black-truffle, bark and stone character. Chalk and minerality, too. It’s full-bodied and well framed with gorgeous intensity and freshness. Muscular with wonderful structure and brightness. Salty and savory notes on the finish. Try after 2024.

97 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2018 Troplong Mondot will take readers who haven't tasted these wines in a few years aback. Stunning in its aromatic presence, the 2018 is silky, medium-in body and super-refined. Once again, I am blown away by the wine's total sense of precision. The Cabernets are only 15% of the blend, and yet the 2018 is so strongly marked by floral and savory accents. Sweet red cherry, blood orange, mint, rose petal and lavender all build in the glass. The 2018 is regal, refined and absolutely exquisite.

97 Jane Anson - Decanter

One of the stories of the 2018 vintage in Bordeaux was Troplong Mondot bringing in its first grapes on 7 September. Proof, many suggested, of director Aymeric de Gironde going too far in his quest to rewrite Troplong's powerful style. It certainly made me excited to try this wine, and I hope the sceptics were too, because this is a brilliant Troplong. Oh, and although around 80% of the grapes did come in during those first 10 days, the final harvest date was 10 October.There's clear depth just in the colour alone, and impressive complexity on the nose. There's still a whole lot of Troplong strength and concentration here, you can't get away from that with these clay and flint over limestone soils, but now it is softer, with more minerality. The relatively high alcohols are apparent in the texture but not as heat. I love the persistency here, as it drags things out in the most delicious of ways, with a slate and white pepper finish. Of the new vineyards bought (4ha from Clos Labarde and 6ha from Bellisle Mondotte), everything is in the second wine this year. The château will probably ask for some sections to be included in the grand vin in the next classification in 2022. 3.56pH. Thomas Duclos consults.

97 Jeff Leve - The Wine Cellar Insider

Concentrated, full-bodied, deep and opulently textured, there is a beautiful sense of elegance and balance here. There is richness, power but also symmetry. The purity in the fruit, along with its freshness stand out as one of the keynotes of its character. This should age and evolve for 3 decades, and be drinking perfectly after a decade of aging. The wine was produced from a blend of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc.

96 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

The 2018 Château Troplong Mondot showed beautifully. Based on 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc, it reveals a dense purple color as well as ripe beautiful aromatics of black cherries, red plums, graphite, espresso, Asian spices, and gravelly earth. Beautiful on the palate as well, it's medium to full-bodied and has a rounded, expansive texture, plenty of mid-palate depth, building tannins, and present yet integrated oak. This classic, impressive Troplong Mondot will need 5-7 years of bottle age but will evolve for 30 years or more.

96 Wine Enthusiast

The tannins are beautifully integrated into this velvet-textured wine. It has density and richness allied to concentration. At the same time, it has kept wonderful freshness and acidity to give it fine lift. The aging potential is obvious

96 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2018 Troplong Mondot is blended of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc, with 15% alcohol. Deep garnet-purple colored, with considerable coaxing and swirling it slowly emerges from the glass like a waking giant, building to a towering bouquet of preserved plums, blueberry pie and Morello cherries with gentler wafts of violets, star anise, fruitcake and cast-iron pan. The concentrated, full-bodied palate possesses impressive purity and brightness of fruit commingled with richer, riper elements and supported by firm, velvety tannins, finishing with lovely freshness and on a lingering ferrous note. It's a wine that's not just delicious, it's seriously interesting too.

96 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

The 2018 Troplong Mondot has a deep garnet purple color. It is a little closed to begin, with delicate scents of kirsch, warm blackberries, and lavender, plus cedar, pencil shavings, and tilled soil. Full-bodied, the palate is firm and grainy with very tightly wound fruits and a long, slightly warm finish.