A rich and dark-fruited wine with complex aromas of brooding black cherries, resinous herbs and mint. The palate is juicy, with broad tannins and flavors of cherries, sage and black tea. Medium- to full-bodied. Drink or hold.

California Pinot Noir with a French touch. This single-vineyard wine is big and juicy with notes of cherries, oak, and a nice balance on the palate. It has good depth with supportive acidity and not a tannin in sight. It is extremely smooth.

The 2022 vintage of Albariño from Pazo Barrantes is a lovely wine. As I mentioned in my note last year on the 2021 version, the wine is given nine months aging on its fine lees, with a small percentage of the cuvée aged in acacia barrels, rather than stainless steel tanks. The 2022 version offers up a bright and complex bouquet of lemon, tart pear, salty soil tones, wild fennel, citrus peel and a topnote of dried flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a lovely core of fruit, excellent soil signature and grip, fine balance and a long, precise finish. Good juice. 2025-2035.

The 2021 Rioja “Reserva” from Marqués de Murrieta is made this year from a cépages of eighty-six percent tempranillo, eight percent graciano, four percent mazuelo and two percent garnacha. The wine was aged for twenty-six months in American oak casks prior to assemblage. It comes in at 14.3 percent octane in this vintage and offers up a simply outstanding aromatic constellation of sweet dark berries, cassis, Cuban cigar wrapper, a beautiful base of chalky soil tones, a dollop of Rioja spice tones, woodsmoke and a refined framing of American oak. On the palate the wine is deep, pure, full-bodied and nicely ripe, with a stunning core of fruit, superb soil undertow and grip, ripe, buried tannins and great length and grip on the very well balanced finish. There is just a whisper of backend heat here from the wine’s octane, but it is very minimal and will not adversely affect how the wine ages. 2037-2085.

The 2020 Rioja “Reserva” from Marqués de Murrieta is just a touch lower in octane than the superb 2021 version, as this vintage the wine comes in at an even thirteen percent alcohol. The wine is crafted in this vintage from a blend of eighty-two percent tempranillo, eight percent graciano, seven percent mazuelo and three percent garnacha. The wine’s élevage in cask was twenty-one months in this vintage, with the barrels again all made of American oak. The wine’s aromatic constellation is utterly refined, wafting from the glass in a mix of cassis, black raspberries, Cuban cigar wrapper, coffee bean, a complex base of soil, refined Rioja spice tones and a beautiful foundation of American oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, precise and superbly complex, with a lovely core of fruit, great soil inflection and grip, fine-grained tannins and a very, very long, seamlessly balanced finish. This does not quite have the same mid-palate volume as the excellent 2021 Reserva, but it is a touch better balanced and more elegant wine. It is a great and utterly classic Rioja in the making. 2035-2085.