Tag: James Suckling

James Suckling is a journalist and wine critic that regularly organizes and hosts wine events in Miami, San Francisco and New York City.

On June 11 & 12 he hosted the Great Wine World New York City wine event, which was held at The Glasshouse, a venue located on the far west side of midtown Manhattan at 660 12th Avenue.

There are mega tastings and there was this. Two days of a 3 hour walk around tasting each day featuring 800 wines of the world rated 90+ points from Suckling from 380 producers from 55 wine producing countries, with different wines on each day.

This year they had 6,000 attendees with consumers and members of the trade about evenly split between them. 100% of the proceeds from the cost of the trade ticket went to the California Fire Foundation.

There was plenty of excellent juice to sample those two days. It was a little hectic and confusing because the wine booths were in alphabetical order instead of bunched up by country, so you basically spent the time wandering around cavernous venue looking for the wines you were interested in sampling. But I suppose that way most of the people in attendance didn’t congregate at the most popular tables.

It was a very nice tasting.

As usual for me at these big tastings, I focused my energies on Bordeaux and Napa Valley.

Some of what I sampled:

Old World

2015 Chateau Pontet Canet (Pauillac): Opaque dark brick, tar, graphite and dark chocolate on the nose, tight red fruit with crushed rock notes on the firm finish.

2015 Chateau Gloria (St. Julien): Opaque dark red, perfume of milk chocolate and barnyard, tight black fruit ending with crisp acids.

2016 Chateau Malartic Lagraviere (Pessac Leognan): Opaque dark purple, crushed sweet red fruit on the nose, juicy black fruit ending with a nice balance.

2017 Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande (Pauillac): Opaque medium red, sweet tree bark on the nose, tight with barnyard notes and a firm finish.

2018 Chateau Sociando Mallet (Haut Medoc): Opaque dark red, perfume of violets and plums, chewy, minty fruit with firm tannin.

2018 Chateau des Laurets Baron (St. Emillion): Opaque dark red, purple rim, barnyard on the nose, tight and concentrated with oaky tannin on the firm finish.

2019 Chateau Giscours (Margeaux): Opaque dark purple, crushed stone on the nose, tight, dusty fruit with green stem notes, silky tannin.

2020 Chateau Grand Puy Ducasse (Pauillac): Opaque dark red, black fruit and graphite on the nose, chewy, dusty fruit with slate and black olive notes on the finish, good grip.

New World

2019 Heitz Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Opaque medium purple, black pepper on the nose, concentrated and juicy black fruit with stone and crushed nut notes on the finish, good grip.

2019 St. Supery Cabernet Sauvignon “Dollarhide” (Napa Valley): Opaque black, nose of petroleum and crushed dark berries, juicy and chewy black fruit with mint notes, firm finish.

2021 Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon “Benchland Select” (Napa Valley): Opaque dark red, black olives and dark chocolate on the nose, chewy with slate notes and graphite on the finish.

2021 Louis Martini Cabernet Sauvignon “The Gryphon” (Napa Valley): Opaque dark red, crushed blueberry on the nose, concentrated spicy red fruit, with peppery notes ending with dusty, silky tannin.

2021 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon “Fay” (Napa Valley): Opaque dark red, purple rim, graphite, toast, smoke and crushed strawberry on the nose, tight and concentrated black fruit with gun metal notes on the firm finish.

2021 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red (Napa Valley): Opaque dark red, crushed blueberry and roast meat on the nose, chewy, concentrated red fruit with graphite and slate notes on the finish, good grip.

2021 Favia Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville (Napa Valley): Opaque black, purple rim, crushed blueberry and fresh rosemary on the nose, concentrated chunky black fruit, crushed stone notes and silky tannin. Firm tannin and acids on the young wine.

2021 Merus Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Opaque black, crushed blueberry and milk chocolate on the nose, chunky and chewy black fruit with slate notes on the firm finish.

2022 Quintessa Red Blend (Napa Valley): Opaque dark red, sweet blueberry on the nose, juicy blueberry fruit with dark chocolate notes on the nicely balanced finish.

2022 Amici Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard (Napa Valley): Opaque dark red, purple rim, dark chocolate on the nose, chunky and chewy with dusty, lip-smacking fruit.

2022 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir “MacGregor Estate” (Sonoma): Opaque dark brick, blueberries and forest floor on the nose, silky red fruit with dark chocolate notes.

James Suckling is a wine writer with the blog jamessuckling.com. The blog reports on news of the worldwide wine industry and reviews and rates wines using a 100-point rating scale.

Mr. Suckling hosts several wine tasting events throughout the year and on June 5 & 6 he hosted the Great Wines World tasting event in New York City.

It was two days of over 500+ wines from 380+ producers that have been rated 92-100 on the JamesSuckling.com website. Those wines and the producers were spread over the two days but if you only attended on one day, that was still enough time to try a couple of hundred wines.

The event was held at The Glasshouse event space at 600 12th Avenue on the far west side of Manhattan overlooking the Hudson River. It was an event space that I have never been to before.

I attended on Wednesday and the sprawling event space overlooked the Intrepid Museum which was docked right outside. There were more than enough excellent wines of the world to occupy the whole evening sampling them. I had wished that the organizers of the event had grouped the wine booths by country as they normally do instead of by alphabetical order as they did in this case which would have made things less confusing, but that’s a minor point when drinking so much good juice.

As usual, in mega tastings like this I focused my energies primarily on Bordeaux and Napa Valley Cabernet with the occasional foray into the other regions.

Some highlights:

2019 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay (Napa Valley): Medium gold, tropical fruit notes on the nose, green herbs and pineapple on the fruit with good structure.

2021 Merryvale Chardonnay “Silhouette” (Napa Valley): Light gold, lime and tropical fruits on the nose, tight, with lime notes on the fruit, good structure.

2021 Chateau Boswell Chardonnay UV Vineyard (Russian River Valley): Light gold, lime and green herbs on the nose, tight with crisp acids.

2010 Chateau Phelan-Segur (St. Estephe): Opaque medium red with a brick rim, pretty nose of mint and toasted twigs, silky and smoky fruit with a great balance.

2013 Quintessa Winery Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Opaque black, dark tar and leather on the nose, silky dark chocolate fruit with gritty tannins and a great balance.

2015 Chateau de Fieuzal (Pessac Leognan): Clear medium brick, ripe tar and cigarette smoke on the nose, toasty fruit with a long, tight finish.

2015 Chateau Prieure Lichine (Margaux): Clear medium red with a brick rim, barnyard and ripe red fruit on the nose, dusty fruit with a nice balance.

2016 Pym-Rae Red Blend (Napa Valley): Opaque dark brick with sweet cooked fruit on the nose, chewy, leather fruit on the long finish.

2016 Brane-Cantenac (Margaux): Opaque dark red with a red rim, roast meat and crushed rocks on the nose, silky fruit with herb notes ending with tight tannins.

2018 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Opaque dark red with a purple rim, toasty and smokey on the nose with turned earth notes on the tight fruit.

2018 Pym-Rae Red Blend (Napa Valley): Opaque black with a red rim, barnyard on the nose, chewy graphite fruit ending with a good grip.

2018 Chateau Phelan-Segur (St. Estephe): Opaque medium brick, closed nose of earth and tar, silky black fruit with a bitter almon finish.

2018 Marques de Carceres “Gaudium” (Rioja): Opaque black with a red rim, barnyard on the nose with chewy graphite fruit and a good grip at the end.

2018 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon “Fay” (Napa Valley): Opaque dark red with a purple rim, warm toasted nuts on the nose, juicy with a long, grippy finish.

2019 Pahlmeyer Red Blend (Napa Valley): Opaque black with sweet herbs on the nose, silky and dusty sweet tar on the fruit, nice balance with a good grip.

2019 Pontet-Canet (Pauillac): Opaque dark brick, earthy tar on the nose, silky, chewy and earthy fruit with a long finish.

2019 Chateau Batailly (Pauillac): Opaque black with a purple rim, sweet tar and roasted nuts on the nose, silky and tight with a firm, long finish.

2019 Chateau Lynch-Moussas (Pauillac): Opaque dark red with a red rim, earthy red fruit and roasted nuts on the nose, tight and smokey.

2020 Chateau Gris Nuit St-Georges 1er Cru (Burgundy): Opaque medium red, pretty nose of earth, smoke and leather with bright red fruit and firm acids.

2020 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon (Puente Alto): Opaque medium red with a brick rim, toasty roast meat on the nose, tight and silky red leather fruit with a firm finish.

2020 Chateau Maillet (Pomerol): Opaque dark red with a purple rim, tar and dark chocolate on the nose, silky fruit with white pepper notes, firm tannins.

2021 BV Cabernet Sauvignon “Georges des Latour” (Napa Valley): Opaque dark purple, chalk and crushed raspberry on the nose with tight and dusty fruit. Still young at this point.