Jeb Dunnuck, Sept 2023
Rating: 95-97+
Drink: n/a
Lots of red and blue fruits as well as peppery notes emerge
from the 2021 James Berry Vineyard, a medium to full-bodied,
pure, incredibly elegant expression of this vineyard. I love its
fruit, balance, and length, and it shows the slightly fresher style
of the vintage while still bringing terrific depth and richness. It's
unquestionably a gorgeous wine in the making, but it’s going to
warrant 2-4 years of bottle age.
I was able to taste three vintages from Saxum, the late release
2019s from bottle, the majority of the 2020 lineup from barrel,
and a handful of 2021 barrel samples. As I wrote last year, the
2019s are just brilliant, ripe, hedonistic, magical wines, and
these late releases only reinforce that opinion. Looking at the
2020s, this is clearly a challenging vintage, with many wines
having subtle smoky nuances and firmer yet still ripe tannins