sFMW 97+ Points: “Sourced from 40-year-old vines from Charley Heintz’s site just east of Occidental.  This 2022 radiant Chardonnay offers up a deep, rich, lush style body with electrifying notes of bright orchard fruits, brioche, and a whiff of minerality.  Incredibly well-balanced, with a touch of amalgamated acidity, it showcases a lush and rich mid-palate and a long, sophisticated finish. This is a classic Sonoma Coast Chardonnay that can be enjoyed now, and should drink and cellar well for a good decade!”

Robert Parker 97 Points: “Mae Estate is brand new cuvée from Tyler. “This place came on the market in 2014,” explains winemaker Justin Tyler Willett. “We had contemplated buying a place, so we will break ground here in 2022 on a new winery.” Located in the Sta. Rita Hills appellation on marine sediment soils, the Mae Estate will become the new home for Tyler wines. The 2019 Chardonnay Mae Estate is a beautiful first iteration. The nose features creamy panna cotta, lemon peel and pastry aromas streaked with sweet spice, and the palate has a unique satiny texture that coats the mouth and draws out its plush, creamy citrus and apricot layers. Don’t hesitate to try this promising new cuvée from Tyler”

TWI 96 Points: “The 2022 Kanzler Vineyard Pinot Noir sports a medium to deep ruby-purple color and flashy scents of fresh raspberries, Bing cherries, and strawberry and rhubarb pie, leading to hints of underbrush, wet slate, and dried thyme. Medium to full-bodied, the palate shimmers with energetic red berry flavors, supported by fine-grained tannins and a refreshing ling, finishing on a lingering earthy note.”

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James Suckling 95 Points: “A structured and layered white with apple, light honey and acacia aromas and flavors. Medium to full body. Creamy mouthfeel. Phenolic texture that runs through the wine. Flavorful yet subtle finish. Touch of flint and cedar. Drink or hold.”

The Wine Independent (Lisa Perrotti-Brown) 96 Points: “The single-varietal Altamura 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, aged for nearly 3 years in barrel, is deep garnet-purple in color. It opens with earthy/savory notions of tree bark, black truffle, dried herbs, and Indian spices leading to a core of stewed plums, redcurrant jelly, and boysenberries plus nuances of tobacco leaf, dried mint, and fallen leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate is fantastically elegant and refined, with red berry sparks lifting the dense black fruits supported by plush tannins and bags of freshness, finishing long and minerally. This is impressive!”

Robert Parker 99 Points: “The 2019 Cabernet Franc feels like a finished wine, although it is still maturing in barrel. The nose offers super pure violet, green pepper, exotic spices and blackberries, and the palate is fresh with youthfully gregarious fruits, finishing with great length. This was made entirely from free-run juice and will be aged for about 30 months in new French oak.”

Jeb Dunnuck 97 Points: “The 2019 Red Wine Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard is cut from the same cloth as the 2018 and has a rich, full-bodied, nicely layered style revealing big, chocolatey fruits as well as notes of scorched earth and graphite.”

Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points: “A very attractive and floral perfume cascades from the glass of the 2021 Chardonnay The North Slope Vineyard. Displaying a bright yellow-golden color, it leads with notes of honeycomb, melon, incense, and lemon rind, and although it’s full-bodied, it reveals a more linear and elegant profile on the palate, with a silky texture and a mineral accent of wet asphalt. It’s a very pretty style of white with a graceful and savory finish. Drink 2024-2030.”

96 points Jeb Dunnuck: “From the Russian River Valley, the 2019 Pinot Noir is layered with spice and a perfume of incense, five-spice, and kirsch. The palate is elegant, with beautiful concentration all the way through, and offering notes of raspberry leather, forest herbs, and cedar. Hold 2-4 years and drink over the next 10 or more years.”

FMW 96 Points: “The 2021 La Sirena Chardonnay, Russian River offers up  flinty and bright fruit aromatics.  This lush, full-bodied wine showcases an elegant body loaded withs pure fruit,  lime zest, green apple,  umami richness, and a whiff of minearlity.  The wine offers both power and elegance.   Bright, freshly styled crushed white flowers, more apple fruit and a touch of toasty vanilla are a nice crescendo for this great youngster’s long finish.

Vinous 95 Points: “The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Lewelling Ranch Vineyard is precise, with strikingly beautiful aromatics that make a strong first impression. Beautifully sculpted, and gorgeously nuanced, this Cabernet captures the very best qualities of this terrific Napa Valley vintage. Graphite, black currants, scorched earth, and polished tannins round things out in style.” Vinous  95 points. 

Jeb Dunnuck 99 Points: “More mineral aromas emerge in the 2021 Pinot Noir Scallop Shelf, with notes of wet stone, black raspberry, and fresh herbs. Medium-bodied and more tension-driven, it’s taut with orange zest, clove, and gravelly, saline earth. It’s going to need time to unpack. Drink 2026-2046.”

Jeb Dunnuck 97 Points: “The 2022 Pinot Noir Radian Vineyard is also off-the-hook good and shows the talent of this winemaker with reds as well as whites. Black raspberries, crushed stone, pressed flowers, and some background black tea notes all define the aromatics, and it’s medium to full-bodied, has a seamless, elegant mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. Coming all from the Radian Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills, all destemmed, and aged 12 months in 18% new oak, it’s going to deliver the goods for 7-8 years at a minimum.”

Jeb Dunnuck 99 Points: “A bigger, richer, more structured wine, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder Estate Vineyard has brilliant black fruits, tobacco, iron, and subtle smoke-like nuances in a full-bodied, concentrated, layered package. This is pure Mountain Cabernet genius, and while it’s far from unapproachable today, it will benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age. It’s up with the crème de la crème of the vintage and should be snatched up by readers.”