Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently.

This week included some heavy hitters—expensive, prestigious wines that all seemed to show up recently for reasons unknown. But I’m certainly not complaining.

First up are a couple of wines from one of Santa Barbara’s more impressive wine projects, Racines Wines, which is a collaboration between Étienne de Montille and Brian Sieve of Burgundy and Rodolphe Péters of Champagne. I tasted their very impressive sparkling wine last year, and was excited to see their newer still releases, starting with these two Chardonnays from the Santa Rita Hills. The first is their multi-vineyard blend which hits all the right notes. The second wine is a single-vineyard bottling from the Wenzlau Family Vineyard that vibrates with a fantastic stony minerality. Both are highly recommended.

Dominio Fournier is a relatively young winery project owned by Gonzalez Byass, producing a range of Tempranillo-based wines in the Ribera del Duero region of Spain. They sent me their Reserva blend from 2016 that remarkably might still need some aging before it can be fully appreciated.

I’ve long had a soft spot in my heart for Feudi di San Gregorio, which I was finally able to visit in person a couple of years ago on my first trip to Campania. Their Piano di Montevergine is their Reserva Taurasi Aglianico from a single vineyard of old vines interplanted with hazelnut and olive trees. It usually benefits from a lot of aging, and despite this being the 2016 vintage, it could use some more time.

I regularly buy the wines of Il Poggione in Montalcino for my own cellar, but a sample showed up out of the blue recently, it was a nice surprise. However, what was also surprising was that the wine felt a bit out of joint, much more angular and high-alcohol than I normally expect from this producer. The 2019 vintage was by any account an excellent one in Tuscany, so this isn’t a case of a wine made in adverse circumstances.

The folks at Yalumba in Australia’s Barossa Valley sent a few wines this past week, including a lovely pair of Cabernet-Shiraz wines, one of which, the 2019, is a current release, the other, a 2014, what they call a Museum release. It was fun to taste both side-by-side, each excellent in their particular point of evolution.

Speaking of “museum” releases, the PR folks representing Cos d’Estournel in Bordeaux recently sent me a press release about the offering of the 2010 vintage as a library release. I get a lot of press releases from luxury brands announcing their latest releases, and I always politely make it clear that the chance of me writing about some new luxury release without tasting it is about as close to zero as you can get. Usually, these responses are met with silence, or occasionally a “Thanks, but we don’t send samples.” In the case of Cos, however, they said they would be happy to send me a bottle. And I was just as happy to taste it. They’re frankly one of my favorite producers in Bordeaux (though this is from a guy who isn’t a massive Bordeaux nut). The 2010 is in perfect shape, and I think it is the age at which I most enjoy drinking Bordeaux.

Sticking with the luxury theme for a moment, I also received a bottle of Pym-Rae, which is the wine of the Tesseron Estate on the slopes of Mount Veeder. Tesseron, of course, is the name behind the superstar challenger estate of Pontet-Canet in Bordeaux. Tesseron purchased Robin Williams’ Napa estate, which he named Pym-Rae after the middle names of his two children. Tesseron retained the name out of respect for Williams.

I found this wine, my first taste of the estate, extremely high-quality, if a bit brash and brawny for the efforts of a Bordelais, even one with Michel Rolland as a consultant. I was even more surprised at the estate’s use of such heavy bottles, given the sustainable focus of the family and its wineries.

Last but certainly not least in the luxury department, I also received a bottle of Nicolas Catena Zapata, the flagship wine of Argentina’s Catena Zapata winery. Famed for its age-worthiness, this 2020 bottling is indeed quite young and needs some time to fully blossom into the fullest expression of its potential, but the wine is very refined and impressive.

That’s all for this week. Notes on all these wines below.

Tasting Notes

2022 Racines Wines “Sta. Rita Hills Cuvée” Chardonnay, Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara, California
Palest gold in the glass with a hint of green, this wine smells of lemon peel, lemon oil, and pink grapefruit. In the mouth, faintly saline flavors of lemon pith and grapefruit are shot through with a touch of nutty toasted oak and a hint of struck match. Excellent acidity and stony, wet chalkboard minerality. 13% alcohol. Score: around 9. Cost: $45. click to buy.

2022 Racines Wines “Wenzlau Family Vineyard” Chardonnay, Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara, California
Palest greenish gold in color, this wine smells of lemon oil, resin, and white flowers. In the mouth, crystalline flavors of lemon oil, grapefruit pith, and white flowers have a shimmering quartz-like quality and remarkable silky weightlessness. Fantastic acidity and stony depth. Outstanding. 13% alcohol. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $100. click to buy.

2016 Dominio Fournier “Reserva” Red Blend, Ribera del Duero, Castilla y León, Spain
Dark garnet in color, this wine smells of earth, cherry, and oak. In the mouth, muscular, leathery tannins wrap around a core of cherry and faintly bitter herbs mixed with earth. Leather and oak linger in the finish. Ultimately this wine is slightly more bitter and woodier than I would like, with a sort of density at 8 years of age that suggests it will be a long time in loosening up. 100% Tinta del Pais (aka Tempranillo) grown at 780 meters of elevation. Fermented in a combination of steel and wood tanks, with pumpovers. Aged for 15 months in new French oak, and then in bottle. 14% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $50. click to buy.

2016 Feudi di San Gregorio “Piano di Montevergine Reserva” Aglianico, Taurasi, Campania, Italy
Medium to dark ruby in the glass, this wine smells of dried herbs and flowers. In the mouth, fresh herbs, dried flowers, and notes of berries are wrapped in fleecy tannins as bright acidity keeps things from feeling too heavy on the palate. Notes of earth mix with chopped fresh herbs for an overall savory expression that has a nice stony underbelly. Ages for 18 months in barrel before bottling. 13.5% alcohol. Certified B corporation. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $75. click to buy.

2019 Il Poggione Sangiovese, Brunello di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy
Medium ruby in the glass with coffee highlights, this wine smells of raisins, incense, and leather. In the mouth, bright citrus peel acidity makes raisin and prune flavors bright and juicy as dried herbs and dusty earth are wrapped in a thick, fleecy blanket of tannins. Notes of dried herbs linger in the finish, with a hint of graphite and the barest hint of alcoholic heat. 15% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $75. click to buy.

2014 Yalumba “The Signature – Museum Collection Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon – Shiraz” Red Blend, Barossa, South Australia, Australia
Dark garnet in the glass with some ruby highlights, this wine smells of faintly minty cherry and leather, with hints of flowers. In the mouth, juicy and vaguely meaty flavors of cherry and cedar mix with dried herbs and fresh herbs. Fleecy tannins coat the mouth and the faintly salty, meaty quality blends with the cherry and herbs for a mouthwatering package. Aging beautifully. The tannins stiffen with time. A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon and 43% Shiraz. 14% alcohol. Comes in an overly heavy bottle weighing 1.52 kg when full. Score: around 9. Cost: $56. click to buy.

2019 Yalumba “The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz” Red Blend, Barossa, South Australia, Australia
Dark garnet in the glass with ruby highlights, this wine smells of minty herbs and bright cherry fruit tinged with cola. In the mouth, cherry and a hint of blackberry mix with cedar and dried herbs as excellent acidity keeps things fresh and bright and leaves a hint of citrus peel lingering in the finish with chopped fresh herbs and a touch of oak. Fleecy tannins coat the mouth and flex their muscles over time. A blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon and 48% Shiraz. 14.5% alcohol. Comes in an overly heavy bottle weighing 1.52 kg when full. Score: around 9. Cost: $42. click to buy.

2010 Cos d’Estournel Bordeaux Blend, Saint-Estèphe Grand Cru, Bordeaux, France
Very dark garnet in the glass with ruby highlights, this wine smells of cigar box, dark cherry fruit, and pencil shavings. In the mouth, beautifully refined, powdery tannins coat the mouth as bright cedar, cherry, dried herbs, and juniper notes mix with graphite and dark earth. Fantastic acidity and balance. 14.5% alcohol. Comes in an overly heavy bottle weighing 1.59 kg when full. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $370. click to buy.

2019 Tesseron Estate “Pym-Rae” Red Blend, Napa, California
Very dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of cherry and tobacco leaf. In the mouth, supple, fine-grained tannins wrap around a core of black cherry, raisins, cocoa powder, and licorice. Decent acidity. The dusty tannins begin to dry the mouth slightly, as notes of pencil shavings, raisins, and licorice linger in the finish with a touch of alcoholic heat. Reads as slightly over-ripe, but has enough acidity to keep from feeling too dense on the palate. A blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Merlot. Aged in 55% new French oak and 45% concrete tanks. Demeter-certified biodynamic and certified organic production grown at 1800 feet of elevation with an average vine age of 32 years. 15% alcohol. Comes in a nasty heavy bottle weighing 1.63 kg when full. Score: around 9. Cost: $366. click to buy.

2020 Catena Zapata “Nicolas Catena Zapata” Red Blend, Mendoza, Argentina
Dark garnet in color, this wine smells of cedar, cherries, crushed nuts, and herbs. In the mouth, fleecy tannins wrap around a core of black cherry, plum, and dried herbs made fresh by excellent acidity. A fresh, chopped herb coolness lingers in the finish, as the tannins stiffen and notes of graphite and wood emerge with time. Poised and taut with youth, this wine will blossom with age. A blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 21% Malbec grown between 3117 and 4757 feet of elevation. Fermented in a combination of steel and upright French oak barriques. Ages for 24 months in 100% new French oak before bottling and then aged between 12 and 18 months in bottle before release. 14% alcohol. 2500 cases made. Comes in a nasty heavy bottle weighing 1.66 kg when full. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $100. click to buy.