Guinigi Savor the Italian Sparkle Prosecco
Guinigi Savor the Italian Sparkle Prosecco

Wine Reviews

93

Domaine Fleuriet 2025 Les Belles Vignes, Touraine, France

An ultra-delicious white wine bursting out of the glass with lime zest and sea-spray aromatics and fragrant white flowers. Sumptuously rich and smooth in its ripe orchard fruit profile on the palate, with a brightening undercurrent of electric acidity. Great length on the medium-bodied finish. 100% Sauvignon Blanc. 13% ABV.

94

Furthermore 2023 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley, California ($55)

Crafted by Sonoma legend Ross Cobb, this Furthermore Pinot is a lip-smacking, tasty wine that shows ripe, sweet red cherry fruit and baking spices, with integrated, sumptuous cedarwood accents. It also boasts perfumed florals of red and white roses. Creamy with good mid-palate weight, and all that cherry fruit infused with blood orange acidity through the medium-bodied finish. 100% Pinot Noir. 13% ABV.

94

Château Chantecler 2021 Pauillac, Bordeaux, France ($130)

From a 2.4-acre parcel in Pauillac surrounded by the vineyards of Mouton Rothschild, Lafite Rothschild and Pontet-Canet, this 2021 is the sole wine made by Yannick Mirande. The vines are 45 years old. Beautifully polished, with soft, satiny tannins, perfectly integrated, bursting with black currant fruit, tobacco, cedarwood notes, loamy earth, and ironstone mineral notes through the medium- to full-bodied finish. 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. Abv. 13%

99

Merus 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley ($225)

Violets and iridescent boysenberry are profound flavors alongside dark chocolate and pecan. Grainy tannins leave a suede patina on the creamy palate. Sophisticated, with balletic motion.

99

Merus 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley ($225)

Winemaker Michael Beaulac joined FFWS in 2021, and this is his first vintage for Merus. “We select fruit from some of the finest vineyards throughout the Napa Valley to create a Cabernet that represents the diversity of its terroirs in a singular wine whose sum is bigger than its parts in color, structure, and complexity, resulting in a wine that is purely distinctive of Merus,” he says. While most of the grapes for this prestigious wine hail from Rutherford, several of the vineyards are owned by growers whose sites are renowned for excellence, with strict farming and harvesting protocols. A blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, it aged 21 months in 100% new French oak. Its startling perfume of chocolate, raspberry, and cinnamon is a revealing preview of its majestic character, paving the way for the dense and opulent liquid. Its engine purrs rather than vrooms, and as its sunshine-filled ripeness drapes a velvet carpet across the palate, freshness ensues, joining deep, saturated notes of boysenberry ganache.

94

Alphonse Mellot 2022 Sancerre, Petite Moussiere, France ($50)

The Petite Moussiere is crafted from all estate fruit, biodynamically farmed, and rarely distributed in the US. There’s a beautiful earthiness to these wines, and here it’s very expressive and focused, like fine apple skin, slightly bruised, with an earthy redwood bark richness, while the palate is surprisingly energetic, teeming with saline-acid tension, gentle tannins nicely integrated, medium-bodied with a long, fruit-driven finish redolent of baked cherries, raspberries, and dried apricot, underscored by a dusty mineral backbone.

97

Anthony & Clémence Touleec 2019, Les Deux Parcelles, Extra Brut, Rilly-la-Montagne Premier Cru, Champagne, France ($150)

This is an eye-opener Champagne. The first whiff reveals an intriguing and complex array of citrus and orchard fruit, like just-picked Gala apples with a squeeze of lemon or lime, and nearby, a bunch of aromatic jasmine. Immediately round, soft, and creamy, with wet stone minerality, sea salt, more lime and lime zest, and a lengthy, mouthwatering finish.

95

Diego Conterno 2020 Barolo, Italy ($70)

From 20 acres of organically farmed vines in Monforte d’Alba, coming from Bricco, San Pietro, San Giovanni, and Ginestra. Each plot is vinified separately and blended later. Ferments are native. Aged in Stockinger casks and cement. This is a profoundly structured red, with sinewy tannins and notes of cherry, dark chocolate, rose, and warm, baked earth, finishing with sagebrush, mint, and salinity.