Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 83

34TH A NNUA L B U YING G U ID E

A RME N I A W H I TE

A UST R ALIA RED

BEST CHIL AR

BEST GRENACHE

276867

93 | Zorah

A UST R A L I A W H IT E
BEST CHARDONNAY
125729

95 | Joshua Cooper

tow taking you deeper into red cherry and
pomegranate, leaving you in the midst of succulent tannins, receding slowly into addictive
freshness that immediately brings you back
for more. Or so it did for me. This is an Aussie cabernet with elegance, one with decades
of life ahead. -J.G. (W&S 10/20) § Negociants
USA/Winebow Imports, NY

$90

2018 Armenia Heritage Chilar ^ In Zorik
Ghabarian's quest to revive Armenia's rich
viticultural traditions, he's launched Heritage, a series of wines dedicated to forgotten
indigenous grapes. This ﬁrst release is made
from chilar, a green grape with waxy, ﬁrm
skins that he found in old plantings, where
it was interspersed with the more common
areni. Fermented with ambient yeasts and
aged in karasì, Armenia's traditional clay vessels, it spent two months on the skins, gaining a rich, smooth texture. It smells curious at
ﬁrst, like raw oats (or maybe clay), but it blossoms on the palate, notes of orange ﬂowers
and juicy peach ﬂesh deepening into roastedpecan richness. It's opulent and mouthﬁlling, with enough stony minerality to keep it
savory, and enough acidity to keep it clean. It
lasts for days after the bottle is opened, too,
boding well for future development. Pour it
with roast monkﬁsh or a pork chop, or simply
a bowl of mixed nuts. -T.Q.T. § (W&S 4/20)
Garber & Co., Los Angeles, CA

$60

2018 Macedon Ranges The Old Port Righ
Chardonnay ^ Joshua Cooper grew up at his
family's vineyard, Cobaw Ridge, a high-altitude site in the Macedon Ranges that his
parents farm under biodynamics. In 2012,
he started using their facilities to make his
own wines, purchasing grapes from neighbors who shared a farming philosophy. This
wine comes from some of the ﬁrst chardonnay planted in the region, the vines now 36
years old, growing in Cambrian soils with
patches of granite at an altitude close to
2,000 feet. The concentration of the fruit,
at 1.4 tons per acre, sets up the initial darktoned ﬂavor, a complex mix of struck match,
malt, rice and orange spice. With air, a youthful energy takes over, delivering fresh ﬂavors
of peach fuzz, tart apricot and lasting chamomile savor. It's a substantial wine that feels
sprightly and keeps getting better over the
course of a week. Regrettably, there are only
125 cases for the world. If you ﬁnd some, cellar it. -J.G. (W&S 10/20) § Vine Street Imports,
Mount Laurel, NJ

Wine & Spirits

BEST SHIRAZ

124942

94 | Yangarra Estate

$100

2016 McLaren Vale High Sands Grenache ^
The Smart family planted grenache at the
highest point in their Blewitt Springs vineyard in 1946, where the deep sands restrict
the vigor of the vines as well as the amount
of fruit they yield. Now owned by Sonoma's
Jackson family, the vines are dry farmed by
Michael Lane, who works under biodynamics. Winemaker Peter Fraser destems it, keeping half as whole berries, then ferments it
spontaneously in open-top vats and ages the
wine in used French oak barrels. It's a complete wine, offering a completely different
perspective on grenache to a Rayas fan, with
the kind of textural pleasure that will satisfy
(or create) a fan of McLaren grenache. It's
elegant, tense and ﬂoral, with crunchy red
berry ﬂavors and ﬁne, persistent tannins: a
powerful young wine with years of development ahead. -J.G. (W&S 2/20) § Sovereign
Wine Imports, Santa Rosa, CA

BEST CABERNET BLEND

124868

95 | Penfolds

$150

2016 South Australia St. Henri Shiraz ^
There's no new wood to get in the way of
St. Henri's blackberry freshness-the wine,
developed by John Davoren in the 1950s, presented Penfolds' top-level shiraz matured in
large, neutral oak vats rather than the hogsheads Max Schubert was using for Grange.
The 2016 is fragrant with dark fruit that
seems to slow time-associate editor Corey
Warren compared it to bullet time in The
Matrix. Meanwhile, the gentle texture has a
silken touch, even as the wine is super-concentrated. A remarkable vintage of St. Henri
that will age for decades. -J.G. (W&S 2/20) §
Treasury Wine Estates, Napa, CA

AUSTRALIA DESSERT
BEST MUSCAT
125953

96 | Chambers Rosewood $350

125987

95 | Vasse Felix

$165

2016 Margaret River Tom Cullity ^ This wine
is dedicated to the founder of Vasse Felix,
one of the pioneering growers in Margaret
River; the vines Virginia Willcock farms for
this wine are descendants of the cabernet
sauvignon and malbec Tom Cullity planted
in 1968. Ocean currents meet red and black
currants in this smooth and luscious blend,
engaging for its voluptuous texture as well as
its splash of colorful fruit. There's an under-

Rutherglen Rare Muscat ^ The Chambers
family has been growing grapes in Rutherglen since 1858, maintaining a stock of fortiﬁed wine in casks that they treat like a solera. Steve Chambers, the family's winemaker
since 2001, pulls his Rare Muscat from barrels ﬁlled with wine that's more than a century old. Having put his Rutherglen stickies
aside for a month between tasting them and
writing them up, I found the freshness of
this Rare Muscat, in particular, seemed turbocharged by that interlude. Unlike some of
the other ancient wines from Chambers's cellars, this has none of the crypt and all of the
autumn sunshine, its vibrancy and supple
textures gaining ground after a month, even
if the initial scents of roses are gone. -J.G.
(W&S 10/20) § Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA

WINE & SPIRITS

BUYING GUIDE 2021

https://www.yangarra.com/ https://www.penfolds.com/ https://www.vassefelix.com.au/

Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020

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