Review: Alma de Cattleya 2023 Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc ($26)

Colombian-born winemaker Bibiana González Rave continues to deliver the hits at great price points. Bright, direct, and pretty intense, this terrific Sauvignon Blanc has mouth-watering pink grapefruit, lime leaf, clover, white pepper and quince notes with plenty of amplitude. The wine's acidity is pronounced, but it's also generous on the palate with concentrated fruit. In terms of quality, it's as good as you're going to find at this price point, and every bit as interesting as a top-notch New Zealand SB. (93 Points) 

- Tim Teichgraeber

Chappellet 2021 Mountain Estates Hideaway Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($175)

Drinking this wine so young is akin to robbing the cradle, but the tri-tip insisted. A wine club-only allocated wine, this single vineyard offering is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Chappellet family's Pritchard Hill estate at around 1,425 feet in elevation. It's still showing a bit of baby fat with violet and cocoa aromas, intense cassis and blackberry fruit, mild sage and madrone notes, rocky minerality, good acidity, and plenty of amped-up intensity, and ample but polished tannins. It will be 4 or 5 years before this wine shows its full potential, and it will have a life much longer than that. Simply first-rate. (97 Points)