2021 Petit Verdot / 90 Points / James Suckling

Saturated ruby. The bouquet reveals explosive cassis and cedar aroma. The palate is silky and dense with sweet, expansive dark fruit flavors and a light earthy note. Well focused and tightly structured with still firm tannins finishing with lingering rich dark red fruit notes.

This full-bodied wine brings together flavors of black cherry and black olive, with substantial spiciness from oak and moderate tannins for a lip-smacking texture. Hints of vanilla, cedar and clove accompany the black fruit notes, adding complexity and interest.

This annual post looks back at all the wines I wrote about in the previous year and singles out 50 that I thought were great wines. “Great” doesn’t necessarily imply the most profound, though several of these are as profound as wine gets; nor does it necessarily mean that these are the world’s famed wines intended for laying down in cellars for long aging. I don’t usually encounter such wines anyway.