Rare Wines

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A harvest lasting 30 days offered structure and tannins, deep and complex fruit with earthy nuances, still bursting with energy.Decanter | 97 DECBright dark ruby. Initially reticent nose opened in the glass to reveal wonderfully complex scents of black- and redcurrant, blackberry, minerals, licorice, loam and tobacco leaf, plus a whiff of leather. Seamless, savory and classy on entry if a bit subdued, then delivers lovely restrained sweetness and a complicating wildness in the middle palate that still calls for more bottle aging. Old World in its classic dryness, this highly concentrated Opus One really shines on its vibrant, slowly building back end, where the broad, dusty tannins caress and saturate the palate and allow the fruits and minerals to build. A wine of outstanding depth, clarity, finesse of grain and class; it's hard to imagine that this site could give more. Long-time winemaking director Michael Silacci noted that the estate did not strip leaves prior to the brutal August heat spike.Vinous Media | 97 VMOne of the best ever from Opus, it shows beautiful blackcurrant cabernet sauvignon character. A powerful and poised wine with well-crafted tannins. Needs about four years to soften.James Suckling | 96 JSA glorious perfume of sweet charcoal, truffle, black currants and spice box soars from the glass of the saturated purple-colored 2010 Opus One. The gorgeous aromatics are followed by a beautifully knit, full-bodied red blend (84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5.5% Merlot, 5.5% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot and 1% Malbec) displaying lots of spicy black currant fruit, medium to full body, velvety tannins, and not a hard edge to be found. The texture, length and richness are all impressive. This estate has been making great Cabernet-based wines for nearly a decade ... and this is another one. Drink it over the next 20+ years.Robert Parker | 96 RPOffers both a rich, supple, seamless core of earthy dark berry and touches of rustic loam and dried leather scents, the latter of which give this a drying sensation on the palate. Ends with dried herb, olive and savory notes that Opus fans will love, others perhaps less so. A classic Opus.Wine Spectator | 92 WS

A wine that could easily be mistaken for a First Growth, the 2010 Rauzan-Ségla is an incredibly powerful, full-bodied wine by this estate’s standards, yet it nevertheless holds onto a terrific sense of elegance as well as perfect balance. A huge nose of blackcurrants, smoked earth, tobacco, lead pencil, and spice give way to a concentrated, blockbuster styled Margaux that has thrilling depth of fruit, masses of ripe tannins, and great length and finesse on the finish. This brilliant wine is just now seemingly on the edge of its drink window and offers immense pleasure, yet it has another 30-40 years of life ahead of it. Along with the 2015 and 2016, it’s the greatest wine made at this estate in the past two decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 98 JDDeep garnet in color, the 2010 Rauzan-Ségla is youthfully reticent and closed to begin, slowly unfurling to offer notions of underbrush, black truffles, smoked meats and tar over a core of baked black cherries, prunes and crème de cassis plus touches of iron ore and crushed rocks. Full-bodied, concentrated and jam-packed with savory/earthy fruit, it has a rock-solid structure of firm, grainy tannins and oodles of freshness, finishing with great length and expression.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 96 RPOne of the top Margaux wines, this is in top form, finely balanced and as elegant as it is powerful. It is darkly structured, dense yet balancing tannins with ripe black plums. It expresses the complexity of the vintage. A wine for serious, long-term aging.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThe 2010 Rauzan-Ségla has a wonderful bouquet, very pure and engaging with wild strawberry, blackberry, rose petals and boysenberry jam. It just feels very focused and beautifully delineated. The palate is medium-bodied with lively red and black fruit laced with cracked black pepper and cedar. It is extremely balanced, almost symmetrical, with a precise and persistent finish. Bon vin. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal.Vinous Media | 95 VMFlashy style of Margaux, with alluring warm cocoa and black tea aromatics followed by cashmere-textured plum sauce, steeped fig and blackberry confiture notes. The well-integrated structure makes this seem almost accessible now, but the ample length and a smoldering tobacco note make a case for cellaring. Best from 2014 through 2030. 9,666 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WSThere’s a wonderful deep and dark fruit to this second wine from Rauzan Segla, with hints of soft tannins. Lovely ripe fruit and a chocolate, light raisin at the end.James Suckling | 90-91 JS(Château Rauzan-Ségla) The 2010 Château Rauzan-Ségla is another fine example of the vintage, but much like the 2010 Château Rauzan-Gassies, a completely traditional approach once again in the cellars here would pay dividends in terms of even more profound expression of terroir. The bouquet on the 2010 is a very classy blend of cassis, dark berries, tobacco, gravelly soil tones, classy new wood and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and sappy at the core, with fine focus and a fair bit of firm, slightly dry-edged tannins on the long and bouncy finish. A touch of the tannins here seem derived already from the new wood, but the overall balance is splendid and this wine should have no difficulty carrying its wood over the long haul. A very successful, ever so slightly “overly-polished” example of the vintage. (Drink between 2020 - 2050)John Gilman | 90+ JG

This supremely elegant and age-worthy Sassicaia opens with an intense bouquet of black cherry, Mediterranean herbs, blue flower, cedar and leather aromas. Powerful but graceful, the palate delivers a vibrant core of black cherry accented with white pepper, mineral and balsamic notes alongside youthful but polished tannins and vibrant acidity. It’s not as exuberant as some of its counterparts, but it may outlive all the other Bolgheri 2010s. Drink 2018–2040.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEThe 2010 Sassicaia is just beginning to show the first signs of aromatic development. Sweet tobacco, mint, pine, dried cherries and licorice open up in the glass, but only with great reluctance. The 2010 remains a wine of striking precision and nuance, but it also has an element of classical austerity that is especially apparent today. Readers should be in no rush to drink the 2010.Antonio Galloni | 96 AGSilky rich in colour, these wines speak of careful extraction, nothing impulsive or overdone. At six years it is just tipping over from its tight expression of youth to more open aromatics. This has a hauntingly exotic but restrained feel, with beautiful notes of leather, woodsmoke, undergrowth, still full of heady autumnal fruit. I am crunching through October leaves, with the promise of spring and of rising sage and rosemary. The lightness that comes in on the finish is striking, and yet with a persistency that hints at hidden power. Still many years ahead of it. 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc.Decanter | 96 DECCedar, sandalwood and spice notes lead off, with cherry, currant and rhubarb flavors underneath. Linear in profile, with a firm base of tight-grained tannins, this lingers beautifully on the finish. Persistent from beginning to end, this just needs time to expand. Best from 2016 through 2027. 3,050 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WSThe 2010 Sassicaia was just released and it’s an outstanding bottle. I think that people are going to love this newest Sass. The red is very aromatic with currant, dried berry, cocoa bean, and hints of wood. It’s full-bodied, with intense yet very polished tannins and a long finish. It’s very refined and beautiful with a tangy finish. The Cabernet Franc comes through here at the finish. Lively. Hard not to drink now.James Suckling | 94 JSThis vintage of Sassicaia is unabashedly green, shooting like an arrow of youthful vigor through all the succulent fruit. That frisky tartness will convert to complexity as the wine ages. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of satisfaction in the wine right now, in its graceful weave of satin textures, cool sour cherry fruit, floral scents and the flash of oak. There’s a reason Sassacaia is the benchmark against which all other Tuscan plantings of Cabernet Cauvignon are measured, as it presents those varieties in a distinctive, age-worthy and deeply Tuscan way.Wine & Spirits | 93 W&SI am perplexed by how the 2010 Bolgheri Sassicaia is performing at this moment. The wine has evolved quickly since the last time I tasted it a mere three years ago. At that time, I gave it 96 points and praised its extreme purity and pedigree. No doubt the wine still offers those qualities, but it also shows quickly developing notes of prune, jammy fruit and cherry liqueur that have abruptly moved to the front. It has consequently shifted the wine’s center of gravity in terms of its delicate equilibrium and balance. In fact, it’s almost too much of a good thing. The mouthfeel is chewy and succulent, and the bouquet is broad and flat. Now that the 2010 Bolgheri Sassicaia has completed this initial phase of its evolution, it seems stuck in a proverbial soft spot. I have shortened its suggested drinking window. There is a pungent point of volatility that is contributing to the wine’s quick decline.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91 RP