Tesseron Estate, Pym-Rae, 2021

"The 6th vintage produced and the vines now have around 35 years of age. The altitude produces a natural freshness that is rare in the vintage. Bright. Lifted. Very floral. Lavender. A touch of peony and iris. Crunchy in its fruit signature. I love the vivid sensation of rose petals, painted as if by a grand master in still life. The precision grows with each vintage and this is spectacular. It’s very Bordeaux in its style and yet it expresses the Mount Veeder terroir so well. Cedar. A little red liquorice but it’s not dominant. Subtle and gently layered, it’s as if the layers reveals themselves one by one in a gentle cascade – like a slowly descending set of steps. Ample and full in the mouth but always lithe and lifted and aerial. The dry farming gives this a depth and profundity that is rare and that expresses the terroir so brilliantly. A wine that fills out in the mouth as it opens, gathering and gaining in richness and becoming more and more Californian as it does so. But there’s also no escaping the sense that this is built on Bordeaux wine-making principles. I love that combination. This is right up there with Opus One in terms of sheer quality in the vintage."

"The blackberry, graphite, blueberry, oyster shell, bark and pine needle aromas are intense and very pretty. A real sense of forest fruit to this. Medium-bodied with pretty transparency and ultra-fine tannins that melt into the wine. Racy at the end. Polished is the word. Very drinkable now, but better in two or three years."