JamesSuckling

Left: Philippe Bravay of Domaine de Ferrand shows his latest offerings in the estate's cellar. | Right: Isabel Ferrando and James check out the vines at Famille Isabel Ferrando. (All photos by Kevin Davy) The JamesSuckling.com tasting team rated 709 wines from seven countries, including Argentina, Germany, Italy and the United States, for this report, but it was in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France, where we encountered some truly distinctive offerings.

The Sil River as viewed from the vineyard of Camiño Novo in Ribeira Sacra, Spain. (Jacobo García Andrade photo) Few wine projects in Spain have so firmly established themselves across the country’s disparate and distant landscapes as Envinate. From the volcanic vineyards of Orotava, Taganana and San Juan del Teide in Tenerife to Almansa and the steep terrain of Ribeira Sacra, this collaborative venture is making wines shaped by their unique sites.

A stunning view of the Andes and nearby vineyards in the high-altitude Gualtallary region of Mendoza. (All photos by Zekun Shuai) Much like its World Cup star, Lionel Messi, Argentina’s wines have been on a scoring tear this year, reaching such stellar heights that we rated five offerings from the country a perfect 100 points and gave 30 more scores of either 98 or 99.

Left: The terraced vineyards of Tain l'Hermitage. | Right: Guillaume Sorrel of Domaine Marc Sorrel in Tain l'Hermitage produces high-quality, artisanal wines. (All photos by Kevin Davy) The Northern Rhone region of France is often reduced to a simple contrast that pits syrah-based wines produced near Lyon against the warmer, more generous south, whose landmark is Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Left: James and the team kick off their Champagne tastings at de Venoge. | Right: One of the Champanges to earn our coveted perfect rating was the dense, consistent and endless Salon Champagne Brut Blanc De Blancs 1996. (James Suckling photos) The 1904 Pol Roger Extra Cuvée Réserve showed incredible freshness, but at the same time complexity and richness, with flavors reminiscent of apple tart, brown sugar, pie crust, nuts and amontillado Sherry.

Left: Matt Courtney, the founder of Ferren and its winemaker, is focused on pinot noir and chardonnay from Western Sonoma Coast vineyards. (Courtney Humiston photo) Right: This report includes some of our initial ratings of Michigan wines, including those of Chateau Chantal in Traverse City.

Left: The Raquis dream team of viticulturist Facundo Impagliazzo (left) and winemaker Andres Vignoni.

Left: Tasting at the Mauro Molino winery with Matteo Molino and his sister, Martina. | Right: The tasting flight from Tenuta del Nicchio included the outstanding Toscana Lodovico 2022 (right). (Aldo Fiordelli photos) We tasted a huge haul of 1,306 wines over the past week from a whopping 18 countries, including such outliers as the Netherlands, Armenia, Ukraine and Israel. But it was Italy, where Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli has been ranging widely, that gave us well over half of our ratings.

Left: Vérité Winery in Sonoma had two 100-point wines in this report. | Right: The Cornell Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County Commitment 2021 wonderfully shows the ageability of Sonoma reds. (Courtney Humiston photos) The JamesSuckling.com team tasted nearly 500 red wines from Sonoma County this year in what we’re calling the "big red" category – as in not pinot noir, the red variety Sonoma County is perhaps most famous for.

The vertical of red wines Critic & Tasting Manager Kevin Davy tasted at Domaine Mas de Daumas Gassac. (Kevin Davy photo) The JamesSuckling.com team’s regular tasting of Mas de Daumas Gassac wines over the past few years has made one evolution of the Languedoc producer unmistakable in recent vintages: the greater approachability of the wines in their youth paired with an unmistakable freshness of character.