Vinous (95)

Golden yellow. Musky aromas of peach, butterscotch and cinnamon rise above the honeyed botrytis. Full-bodied caramelized fruits overwhelm the palate, only just balanced by the wine's oyster shell salinity. Succulent sweet nectarine pervades the finish. This wine still needs time.

Vinous (95)

Golden yellow. Musky aromas of peach, butterscotch and cinnamon rise above the honeyed botrytis. Full-bodied caramelized fruits overwhelm the palate, only just balanced by the wine's oyster shell salinity. Succulent sweet nectarine pervades the finish. This wine still needs time.

James Suckling (100)

A gently spicy thread here with all manner of fresh fruit that’s just so ripe. This offers very intense mangoes and apricots with peach essence and gentle candied kumquat. The palate is like a perfect sphere of flavor, completely seamless. This is melded together by an extraordinary vintage and delivered to the greatest heights of sweetness and balance. Really a perfect wine. Drink over decades.

James Suckling (100)

A gently spicy thread here with all manner of fresh fruit that’s just so ripe. This offers very intense mangoes and apricots with peach essence and gentle candied kumquat. The palate is like a perfect sphere of flavor, completely seamless. This is melded together by an extraordinary vintage and delivered to the greatest heights of sweetness and balance. Really a perfect wine. Drink over decades.

Decanter (93)

Facing south and southwest, the Nyulászó vineyard features brown and yellow clay soil. Minerality sets the tone of this 2016 dry Furmint, with struck match, ripe peaches, honeysuckle and dusty dried apricot aromas. The palate is explosive, warm and spicy, with layers of citrus, dried apricot, fig, melon and hints of white pepper, refreshed by a solid backbone of acidity. The concentrated flavours follow all the way to the lingering finish, complex and sophisticated.

Each case contains 1 bottle each of:

1. Mezes Maly Great First Growth 6 Puttonyos 2008 | 18.5/20 points Jancis Robinson MW
2. Szt Tamas First Growth 6 Puttonyos 2008 | 19/20 points Jancis Robinson MW
3. Nyulaszo First Growth 6 Puttonyos 2008 | 18.5/20 points Jancis Robinson MW
4. Betsek First Growth 6 Puttonyos 2008 | 18/20 points Jancis Robinson MW
5. Birsalmas Second Growth Aszu 6 Puttonyos 2008 | 18.5/20 points Jancis Robinson MW
6. Gold Label 6 Puttonyos 2008 | 17/20 points Jancis Robinson MW

1 x 50cl each of the following selection:
Royal Tokaji Blue Label 5 Puttonyos 2016 | 17.5+/20 Jancis Robinson
Royal Tokaji Aszu Tokaji Gold Label 6 Puttonyos 2016 | 17+/20 Jancis Robinson
Royal Tokaji Szt Tamas First Growth 6 Puttonyos 2016 | 18++/20 Jancis Robinson
Royal Tokaji Mezes Maly Great First Growth 6 Puttonyos 2016 | 18.5++/20 Jancis Robinosn
Royal Tokaji Betsek First Growth 6 Puttonyos 2016 | 18+/20 Jancis Robinson
Royal Tokaji Nyulaszo First Growth 6 Puttonyos 2016 | 17+/20 Jancis Robinson

Wine Enthusiast (100)

This is going to be a major, impressive wine. All the elements are there: ripe blackberry fruit, powerful acidity, dense tannins and spice. It has the structure to live on for decades.

Experience the captivating elegance of the Schafer-Frohlich Felseneck Riesling Grosses Gewachs 2019. This exceptional wine, produced by the renowned, family-run Schafer-Frohlich estate, is celebrated for its intense minerality and vibrant fruity complexity. Skilfully crafted in the Nahe region of Germany, this Grosses Gewachs - or 'great growth' - stands as a testament to the exquisite Riesling grapes harvested from the steep, slate-rich Felseneck vineyard.

The 2019 vintage showcases the house's signature biodynamic practices, artfully combining hand-harvesting, spontaneous fermentation in traditional oak barrels, and meticulous ageing for a refined balance of natural acidity and nuanced flavour profiles. Expect invigorating notes of lemon peel, white peaches, and an undercurrent of steely minerality. The Schafer-Frohlich Felseneck Riesling Grosses Gewachs 2019 is a masterpiece of enology and a true expression of terroir, upholding the estate’s uncompromising commitment to quality and finesse. Perfect for those who value precision, authenticity, and the sophisticated beauty of Riesling at its finest.

James Suckling (95)

The combination of cool, peachy aroma and flintiness makes the nose of this wine totally ravishing. Then, the brilliant minerality on the sleek and sharply focused palate adds another compelling argument for the greatness of this wine. Love the very long, crystalline finish. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (100)

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James Suckling (99)

Very cool and reserved at the front, but this is an enormously deep and complex wine that has staggering mineral intensity. The lime and oolong-tea freshness effortlessly swallows up the unfermented grape sweetness, as if it didn’t really exist. Some will criticize, saying that this is too radical, but that’s what creates the great excitement! The herbal freshness at the finish is really astounding. Drinkable now, but best from 2023.

Wine Advocate (94)

Like the Spätlese, the 2014 Juffer Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese also offers a still reductive, somewhat untamed and very stony bouquet with a rather discreet fruit aroma. Round and juicy on the palate, this is an elegant, pure and salty Auslese of remarkable finesse and lightness. The wine seems a bit lighter and less concentrated than the Auslese from the Niederberg Helden. Nice purity and delicacy.

Wine Advocate (99+)

Fermented in glass balloon for 22 months and bottled at the end of August this year, the 2018 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese is highly concentrated yet pure and spicy/stony on the apricot-scented nose that is enormously detailed and refined for this class. Enormously rich and juicy-piquant on the palate, this is a fantastically precise and stimulating TBA that will become a legend years from now. This is a perfectly balanced noble sweet wine with unreal precision. Picked with 201° Oechsle and bottled with nearly 7% alcohol, 318 grams of residual sugar and 11.5 grams of total acidity. Tasted from AP 22 20 in September 2020.

Vinous (90)

Good full ruby. Expressive aromas of black fruits, violet and nuts. Sweet, fat and dense, with rich, slightly medicinal dark berry and shoe polish flavors. Builds nicely toward the back, finishing with smooth but firm tannins, a note of dark chocolate and a touch of youthful austerity.

Wine Advocate (91)

The purple/black-colored 2007 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port exhibits an alluring bouquet of mineral, pencil lead, espresso, violets, black currant, and fruitcake. Dense and structured on the palate, it has an excellent integration of alcohol, acidity, and tannin. It should be one of the longer lived wines of the vintage with 12-15+ years of aging potential and a drinking window extending through 2037.

Falstaff (96)

An intriguing mix of cream, vanilla and smoke makes for a dramatic opening. Creamy mousse defines the palate, expressing salty oyster shell and preserved lemon, shortbread richness and subtle saltiness. The smoky echo returns on the finish which is of pristine lemon expressing depth and soaring freshness in equal measure. The finish is pure and lasting. Lay this down and you will have treasure. Drink by 2035.

Vinous (91)

The 2015 The Trouble With Dreams was tasted twice. The first, disgorged in April 2020, exhibited a little sweet botrytis that Sugrue advised might have originated from a warm night in October. A later disgorgement is more nervy on the nose, displaying a distinct sea spray/oyster shell influence that translates across onto the palate. Taut and more linear, it has a strictness and stoicism that I admire. Brisk and mouthwateringly saline on the aftertaste. Certainly the second disgorgement is superior.

Wine Advocate (97+)

The 2011 Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha Vintage Port is a typical field blend aged in used French oak vats. It comes in with 105 grams per liter of residual sugar. The youngest, fleshiest and fullest (perhaps because it is the youngest) of this vertical except for the unbottled 2017, this is also one of the most delicious. The fruit is so delectable that, at first, you don't notice how much pure power it has. Then, it's gorgeously textured, precise, focused and penetrating.

Wine Advocate (100)

The 2017 Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha Vintage Port is a field blend of typical grapes (like Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca) aged for 20 months in French wood. It comes in with 105 grams of residual sugar. When last seen, this was only a tank sample. A darker flavor profile than the regular Taylor's, more leaning to plums and blackberries, this shows all that great Taylor's fruit and welds it to a serious backbone. The regular Taylor's seems a bit brighter, while this seems a bit sterner and richer, but at this point in their very young lives, I am not sure there is a lot to choose from qualitatively. That may change, in favor of this, I think, as they go further into their very long lives. Today, there isn't much to separate them except style and price. I'd take this, both for the style and the upside potential, but the price spike is certainly worth noting for many, while the qualitative difference is nominal.

Vinous (98)

It has a greenish, tawny rim, quite deep at its mahogany core more than you would expect for a Port of this age. The nose is quite arresting, does not hang about, delivering a cornucopia of aromas: grilled walnuts, espresso, smoke, antique bureau and dried fig, all extremely well defined. Monitoring this over three or four hours, it gains intensity, hints of liquorice and menthol joining the chorus line, just the right amount of volatility. The palate is medium-bodied, slightly viscous on the entry, very spicy with sweet honey and brown sugar notes, completely offset by the combination of natural and volatile acids. Despite its age, this is a fiery Port with extraordinary lingering notes of Japanese shiso leaf, fig jam, damson and stem ginger, clean and poised with that volatility kicking towards the finish. This has wonderful sweetness, with 218g/L residual sugar that counters any oxidation. At around £4,000 per bottle, it is not inexpensive. But you are paying to drink history, knowing that it will never be released again. Of course, this 1896 is ready to be drunk now, but such is its concentration and vigour, that it could be cellared if you insist on your fortified wine being at least 125 years old.

Jancis Robinson (17.5)

Blackish crimson with medium rim. Heady and ripe on the nose. Subtle and savoury. Satin-smooth palate entry and a very dry end but really exciting and herbal in the middle. Very much in the Taylor's idiom. Neat and ambitious.