2021 vintage: 50% Barbera, 18% Dolcetto, 17.5% Bonarda, 11% Freisa, 3.5% Croatina

"If you’ve ever dreamed of moving to Italy and opening your own agriturismo or small-town trattoria, you’ve probably imagined the wine you would serve at lunch alongside your saucy tagliatelle ai funghi or tender prosciutto crudo. You want something juicy, versatile, and joyous: a red with some good acidity to complement your simple home cooking and just enough tannic spine to stand up to the dishes on your table. It needs to be light and vibrant enough to leave you with postprandial energy. You just might not have known precisely which bottle from which region it would be. Well, here it is: a Piemontese red made mostly from Barbera and its supporting cast of Bonarda, Dolcetto, and Freisa, grown in sand and limestone soils around the picturesque hillside town of Cisterna d’Asti. In contrast to the exalted Baroli made to the south, Tenuta La Pergola specializes in the humbler side of Piedmont’s wine culture, which can be every bit as satisfying. The azienda’s Monferrato Rosso is the quintessential house wine, whether it’s my apartment in the Bay Area or your future casa in Italia. It is the red to always have on hand." - Kermit Lynch Wines

"For this over-delivering Beaujolais-Villages, Jean sources organic grapes from excellent parcels around his village of Villié-Morgon as well as Lancié, Saint-Amour, and Saint-Étienne-la-Varenne, and ages the wine through an extended élevage more akin to that of his renowned Morgons than to other regional bottlings. Accordingly, the wine evolves slowly, becoming more poised and complete. Evoking pomegranate, rhubarb, and black tea, the result is a beautiful initiation to Jean’s house style, distinguished by a mesmerizing tension between depth, density, silkiness, and elegance." - Kermit Lynch Wines

Seriously this white blend is on a whole different level. It's like Kate Moss apple sauce lean, and loquat drippy juice! Like being a kid again on the hottest day of the year and you've stolen an apricot off of the kitchen counter and the skin tickles your nose when you tear into the orange flesh. - Rootdown Wines

Oohhhheee baby, This 2022 Es Okay Red Blend is just like your first crush. Enticing with with its delicate aroma of fresh rhubarb & raspberry pie straight from the oven, and baby leaves on a dewey morning. Its youthful freshness hits you with a 1, 2 punch! - Rootdown Wines

In 2023, we were offered some amazing Chardonnay grapes from three renowned Santa Barbara County vineyards. In fact, the properties involved often find themselves in 95+ point rated wines. Despite this pedigree, fruit remained unsold even as harvest approached.

We’ve never been too much into making white wine – it is a bit more precise – like baking versus cooking. But we often find ourselves in need of a white wine for winemaker dinners, at tastings, and even at home. We were torn and discussed it for several days. Ultimately, it came down to this: 2023 was a superb vintage with a long, cool growing season, the type we haven’t seen since 1999. It was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.

The wine clearly reveals the character of the vintage: elegant and refreshing, featuring a delightful blend of pear, apple, and citrus flavors, with a subtle touch of grapefruit. It carries hints of freshly grated ginger, lemon balm, and a crisp sea salt minerality. The finish reveals intricate notes of fresh herbs like lemongrass, adding a layer of complexity to the experience. - Adam Lee Wine

91 Points – Billy Norris of Antonio Galloni’s Vinous

“A new joint-venture project between Adam Lee, Morét Brealynn and John Wagner, the 2023 Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County is a blend of fruit from Peake Ranch, John Sebastiano and Sierra Madre. It’s loaded with bright, super-ripe red fruit, cinnamon and sweet rose petals. Lively and cheerful, this is a monster value with super-high-quality winemaking. Enjoy it over the next three to five years.”

A retired vigneron in Fleurie offered to rent Yann this parcel after tasting his wines at the local café in the town center (he was quite impressed). The vigneron told Yann that the wines reminded him of the bottles he drank when he was a young winemaker in Fleurie, and wanted Yann to continue the tradition of this type of winemaking. This old vine parcel officially is classified as Beaujolais appellation, but lies just across the path from Fleurie designated vineyards. Like everything at the domaine, this wine is naturally vinified without any added yeast or SO2. - Paris Wine Co.

Jean-Louis Dutraive is known throughout the land as a true master of Gamay. In addition to his masterful skill of producing some of the best wines in the Beaujolais, he is also a local legend with a seemingly never-ending supply of saucisson that appears at apéros any time of day.

Following vicious hailstorms in 2016 and 2017 that destroyed much of their harvest, Jean-Louis created the Famille Dutraive label with his three children: Justin, Ophélie, and Lucas. In addition to providing much-needed bottles to sell through these leaner years, the Famille Dutraive label was a way to integrate the next generation into the domaine.

The Famille Dutraive wines are made from purchased grapes sourced from carefully selected parcels that follow the spirit of organic farming, whether or not they are certified. The wines are vinified according to the same philosophy as those from the Domaine de la Grand’Cour. - Paris Wine Co.

This is being stored off-site and will require one week for fulfillment.

Jasper Morris (94-96)

Review Date: 01/2024

Bottled end October. Fine pale lemon colour with a definite green tint. Tense powerful crisp fruit, the crunchy side of orchard fruit, then builds in richness to the back, before rediscovering its minerality to finish. Notably persistent, I can see the point in Musigny Blanc more easily than I used to! Drink from 2030-2040.

Burghound (95)

Review Date: 06/2024

Note: from a .67 ha parcel of chardonnay. A ripe yet distinctly cool nose combines notes of citrus confit, spice, Granny Smith apple, white peach and an all but invisible application of wood. The super-sleek but almost painfully intense larger-bodied flavors possess a mouthfeel that is akin to rolling rocks around the mouth on the bone-dry, youthfully austere and compact, indeed very tautly wound, finale that goes on and on. This is terrific and as good a vintage for this wine as I have seen since the 2015 when they began declaring it as Musigny Blanc again. It won't be easy to find but this is one to strongly consider.

Vinous (91-93)

Review Date: 01/2024

The 2022 Musigny Blanc Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru was bottled at the end of October. It has an attractive nose with scents of grapefruit, white peach and wax resin, quite pithy in style. The palate is well-balanced with a fennel and walnut-tinged entry. As usual, I'd never get this as a Chardonnay - it's a sui generis - but quite delicious.(NM)

Wine Advocate (92)

Review Date: 01/2024

The 2022 Musigny Blanc Grand Cru exhibits aromas of pear, citrus zest, white flowers and musky apricot, followed by a medium-bodied, pure and delicately satiny palate underpinned by racy acids. It's a solid effort.(WK)

This is being stored off-site and will require one week for fulfillment.

Jasper Morris (95-100)

Inside Burgundy, November 2023

(95-100) As mentioned in the introduction, there are seven separate parcellaire cuvées of Musigny which will be blended. We tried four of them, representing different sectors. Les Petits Musigny (north): An even purple, succulent red fruit. Fresh raspberry and strawberry, touch of liquorice, very even, fair acidity, soft tannins. Les 13 ouvrees: Stonier than north Musigny. A touch darker in colour and definitely a richer bouquet, more headily floral. More clearly the weight of Musigny, but also shows as quite a bit riper. Grand Musigny Haut: A glowing mid purple. A lovely tensile strength, not so evidently ripe, but correctly so, red to dark red in fruit. Good acidity, and fairly complete. Grand Musigny Bas: Glowing purple perhaps fractionally deeper than the upper part. The nose is less extrovert but clearly has superb class and a poised density. The sense of completeness of GM Haut but noticeably more intense through the mid palate. The fruit is a fraction riper, perfectly so, with a few suggestions of dark raspberry in the fruit. Very persistent indeed and a freshness to the finish, enough to make a major wine. I don’t feel it correct to award five stars until I have seen the full blended wine, preferably in bottle, but I certainly don’t rule that out.

James Suckling (99)

Jamessuckling.com, July 2024

A great Burgundian legend is back in very top form. Enveloping nose of red fruit, red roses and wildflowers. Anything but dramatic, this stuns you with its incredible finesse and extraordinary textural complexity. On the upper edge of medium-bodied, also thanks to the fabulously fine tannins that interlock perfectly with the intense minerality to drive the super-long finish. Drinkable now, but best from 2025. - Stuart Pigott

Decanter (98)

November 2023

A tasting of each of the seven 2022 Musigny VV sub-sections and an approximate blend hint at a wine of almost voluptuous sensuality, with expressive mulberry and pomegranate fruit and hints of earth, smoke and liquorice that waft from the glass. The texture is powerfully tannic and dense but almost infinitely silky, and there is a dynamic interplay between the perfumed fruit and robust structure. Ideally, wait a decade before opening.

Burghound (94-97)

January 2024

This is aromatically quite similar to the 1er except that it is notably more restrained and requires considerable swirling to coax the nose to reveal its nuances. On the palate though there is noticeably more size, weight and mid-palate density thanks to the abundant sap that imparts a highly seductive mouthfeel while also buffering the firmer, though just as fine, tannic structure shaping the hugely long, youthfully austere and decidedly powerful finish that is akin to rolling tiny rocks around the mouth. This is also positively brilliant with the development potential to match.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (94-96)

January 2024

The 2022 Musigny Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru is very attractive, bursting with aromas of cherries, raspberries, blood orange, rose petals and vine smoke. Full-bodied, rich and concentrated, it's layered and fleshy, with a deep and seamless core of fruit that conceals powdery structuring tannins, concluding with a broad, perfumed finish. If this fulfills all its promise in bottle, it may make my score look conservative.

This is being stored off-site and will require one week for fulfillment.

Jasper Morris (97)

Inside Burgundy, November 2023

In bottle. Made as three cuvees, then assembled. A rich mid purple with a deliciously heady bouquet, the sumptuous side of dark raspberry, perfumed yet precise, purple fruit with some redder layers beneath, a little white pepper spice, multiple layers of fruit, very engaging with just a very slight youthful bitterness. Irreproachable.

Decanter (96)

June 2023

We tasted an assortment of barrels from the 2022 vintage: one from the southern end of Bonnes-Mares, one from the middle, and one from the north. The portion from the south showed results that are supple and elegant with a lovely fruit and impressive length. The center shows a lovely richness and density, and the sample coming from the northern end of the vineyard showed more reduction, but there was a lovely finesse and an elegant raspberry note. The blend should produce one of the wines of the vintage in this appellation.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (95)

January 2024

Another cuvée that was also in bottle when I visited, the 2022 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru unfurls in the glass with aromas of cherries and raspberries mingled with exotic notes and sweet forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, layered and fleshy, it's concentrated and textural, with nicely integrated tannins, lively acids and a long, saline, rose-inflected finish. Its more sensual style is a welcome evolution.

Burghound (94)

James Suckling (98)

jamessuckling.com, July 2024

This great Bonnes Mares starts cool and restrained, but expands rapidly as it moves over the palate, with delicate, spicy almond and cream character. Mouth-filling and generous yet subtle and light-footed, this is at the upper limit of medium-bodied. Then a huge wave of salty minerality comes through at the finish to give the wine a whole extra dimension and making this an almost overwhelming expression of beauty. Drinkable now. - Stuart Pigott

This is being stored off-site and will require one week for fulfillment.

Burghound (94-96)

Wine Advocate (92-94)

Jasper Morris (91-94)

Inside Burgundy, November 2023

The vines used for the 1er Cru are those in Musigny itself which are less than 25 years old. Currently that means just one plot of 0.27ha planted in 2007.Four and a half barrels made. Medium to deep purple, nicely perfumed including a little barrel. It is a little bit more in the line of a single flavour, though it is a fine one, and the Musigny provenance shows in the length of flavour. A little bit of cherryade fruit drops. Drink from 2029-2034.

James Suckling (95-96)

jamessuckling.com, July 2023

Enticing sour-cherry and floral nose that is still a bit reserved. Ripe, velvety and stony all at once. A wide spectrum of red and black fruit, plus a touch of smoke. Seriously structured on the medium-bodied palate, but with lively freshness at the tight finish. From this producer’s vineyards in the Musigny Grand Cru that are under 25 years of age.