Buyer’s Guide to Vintages November 8th Release

John Szabo’s Vintages Buyer’s Guide November 8: Wines for Every Festive Moment & Careful where you Put Your Shovel: the Best of Campania Stories 2025

By John Szabo MS, with notes from David Lawrason, Michael Godel, Megha Jandhyala and Sara d’Amato

A Flurry of Highlights

Greeting us this year with unusually early snow, November does always sees a flurry of grand releases at Vintages as shoppers gear up for the holidays and the average spend on wine go up. Speaking of averages, the mean price across all 145 products in the November 8 release is just under $38, compared to, say, an average of $25 back in February of this year. But this doesn’t mean that you must spend a fortune to get quality wine this month. All five of the WineAlign principal critics were on hand for this release to sift through and find the sharpest value.

The most expensive of our picks (Michael’s) tops out at $85.95, for the admittedly excellent Giacomo Borgogno & Figli 2021 Barolo. He describes it as “an archetype Barolo, classic in so many ways…with old-school heart and soul.” 2021 is emerging as one of the great vintages (in this great region) of the century so far, and this is surely a wine to consider gifting to your serious wine-collecting friends, or your own cellar for future enjoyment. Value can be found at different prices along the curve.

Still on value, but not requiring such patience, triple alignment fell upon the Hacienda Terra d’Uro 2011 Toro Reserva at $31.95. Now, $30+ is not a small sum to dispense on a bottle of wine, but again in relative terms we consider this an exceptional buy. For one, this 14-year-old Spanish red is in the prime of its drinking window — the cellaring has been done for you (which comes at a significant cost to wineries). And secondly, it reminded me very much of a Toro I tasted last month in Spain, the excellent and highly sought-after Bodegas Numanthia Toro (2019), which sells for about three times more, if you can find it. Terra d’Uro is a project by Spaniards Oscar Garrote and Pipa Ortega along with famed Portuguese “Douro Boy” Cristiano Van Zeller. They source only pre-phylloxera tempranillo up to 140 years old. David describes it as “full bodied, very smooth, hot (14.5%) and intensely flavoured,” while Megha adds “it is big, bold and concentrated, yet balanced.” Suffice to say that it’s a wine built to impress.

Also in the full-bodied, bold and satisfying red-wine category, though decidedly younger and fruitier, three critics lined up behind Torbreck’s Cuvée Juveniles 2022 from the Barossa Valley at $29.95 (and I could well have included it in my picks). Torbreck needs little introduction amongst the cognoscenti, long a source of substantial and impressive wines from South Australia. The Juveniles cuvée, composed of grenache, mataro, carignan and counoise, is intended to be the more youthful, fruity wine in the range, but “fruity and dainty” is only as it is defined internally; make no mistake, this is a self-assured red. As David states: “Textbook Barossa generosity and gravitas!” Sara adds: “Rich and inviting without heaviness, its brooding palate reveals layers of complexity.” Michael enthuses: “So much going on here and, at the price, it’s a really remarkable gift.”

In a similar stylistic vein but of different colour, four of us added the venerable Château La Nerthe’s Les Cassagnes Côtes du Rhône Blanc 2023 ($29.95) to our picks this week. Both David and I describe it as a, cool-weather, “winter white” — the sort of bottle one gravitates towards when the flurries are flying and warming comfort is sought. Sara suggests that its full-bodied nature has the depth to “pour alongside richer holiday dishes.”

Other highlights that earned multiple alignment include a Winealign office favorite, Schloss Gobelsburg’s outstanding 2022 grüner veltliner from the “first growth” (erste lage) Renner Vineyard ($64.95) in the Kamptal, a magnificent east-facing site on the Gaisberg Hill, long a preferred site for the variety. Rarely does a day go by without our office manager Sarah Goddard dreaming of a grüner like this, particularly unctuous and rich in the warm 2022 vintage. “A Kamptal necessity to explain just how concentrated and finessed fruit turned into top white wine can be,” says Michael.

Both David and I enjoyed the textbook aspect of Santa Carolina’s 2021 El Pacto Nº2 Carmenère ($17.95), from Los Lingues in the Colchagua-Andes, which, along with Peumo in the Cachapoal Valley, and Apalta in Central Colchagua, is the best place in Chile to grow the grape. “A great value carmenere for any carmenere purists who may be out there,” says David. So, if you’re out there, this is for you.

And lastly, don’t miss the chance to taste history, and the present, in a single wine, especially around the holiday table this season. There’s a corner of northeastern Hungary that makes some of the world’s finest sweet wines and has for over 500 years. The region is Tokaj, and in 1737 it became the world’s first officially delimited appellation of origin. Grand Tokaj, the former state-run cooperative, produces, at the top level, quite exceptional stuff, like the 2013 Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos on release now.

It’s a magnificent aszú from a botrytis-rich vintage, in which serious acids meet high sugar: nine grams of acid for 280 grams of residual sugar, big numbers even for tokaji, enough for the finish to turn almost dry — a wild taste and flavour ride. David stops at, “This is simply sensational,” while giving one of the highest scores of I’ve ever seen from him. And if you don’t get around to enjoying it this December, fear not as you can drink it pretty much whenever you want over the next 30 years. It’s timeless stuff.

New Report & Buyer’s Guide: Campania Stories 2025

View from Ischia ©John Szabo

The 14^th edition of Campania Stories, the annual preview tasting of new vintages from all regions in Campania, Italy, unfolded in May this year in Ercolano (Herculaneum) on the western slopes of Vesuvius, just outside of Napoli.

Known to the Romans as “Campania felix” or “happy country,” the region has, for at least 2,000 years, produced some of the finest wines on the Italian Peninsula, and is still one of Italy’s richest regions in terms of native grape varieties, especially the most diverse range of first-class white grapes.

I spent a week this past May tasting and touring in the region to get the beat on the latest releases, and was, again, mightily impressed with what I found. There are plenty of wines to recommend out of 200+ wines tasted, with more than a handful in the 95-plus (outstanding) point category. And if you’re looking for a vacation spot, I can’t recommend Campania highly enough, not just for wines, but also for some of Italy’s finest foods and most spectacular scenery. Click below.

Campania Stories 2025 Part One: Introduction and Buyer’s Guide to White Wines
Campania Stories 2025 Part Two: Buyer’s Guide to Red and Rosato

Below are our 21 Vintages recommendations, listed in ascending price order within style groupings.

Buyer’s Guide Vintages November 8: Sweet, Fortified, Aromatized

Cocchi Dopo Teatro Amaro Vermouth, Piedmont, Italy
$39.95, Azureau Wines & Spirits
John Szabo – This is quality vermouth, properly and pleasantly bitter (“amaro”), a rare “evening vermouth” that draws on the Piedmontese tradition of “drinking a small cup of cool vermouth with lemon zest in the evening, maybe after watching a performance in one of the historic theatres of the Savoy capital.” The original recipe by Giulio Cocchi sees Artemisia enriched with rhubarb, quassia wood, chiretta and a double infusion of cinchona, while the addition of Barolo Chinato to the base wine gives additional red wine nuances and another dimension of bitterness that I find highly refreshing and tonic.
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There are 20 other Vintages recommendations this week that are currently only available to our premium members. This complete article will be free and visible to all members 60 days after publication. We invite you to subscribe today to unlock our top picks and other Premium benefits

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“For the cost of a good bottle of wine we’ll help you discover hundreds of great ones.”

That’s all for this report, see you ’round the next bottle.

John Szabo, MS

Use these quick links for access to all of our November 8th Top Picks in the New Release. Non-premium members can select from all release dates 60 days prior.

John’s Top Picks – November 8th
Lawrason’s Take – November 8th
Michael’s Mix – November 8th
Megha’s Picks – November 8th
Sara’s Selections – November 8th

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