The Latest Cristaldi Scores
Vintage
Wine
Color
Rating
Vintage
Wine
Color
Rating
The most captivating wine I tasted at the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival in October 2025 came from Kalasi Cellars. This is a medium-bodied red with redcurrant fruit and darker blueberry notes, supported by super-fine tannins that offer a pleasing grip—almost like apple-skin tannin. Brown spices weave through the palate, leading to a medium-bodied, spice-bright finish. A great food-pairing wine thanks to its grip and vibrant spice profile.
I tasted this wine at the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival in October 2025, and it was quite enticing. It offered sweet red-berry fruit and warm brown spices, with soft tannins and a medium-bodied palate feel. Notes of brown sugar, cedarwood, and charcuterie carried through on the extended finish.
This is about as sweet as they come, bursting with bright floral and citrus peel aromatics. Super fragrant and delicious, it shows a viscous texture on the palate with candied peach rings and apricot notes. The finish is lifted by balanced acidity and a touch of chalky minerality, keeping everything in check. It’s not over the top—just irresistibly moreish, making you want another sip right after the last.
This is an exceptionally well-built wine and another example of a variety that proves beautifully suited to Texas terroir. It shines in the glass with bright red berry and black cherry fruit, brown spices, rose petals, leather, and tobacco. The medium- to full-bodied palate shows crisp tannins and lingering notes of dried fruit and baking spice. Beneath it all lies great underlying tension and chalky minerality, while cocoa powder tannins build with impressive intensity on the long finish. Drink now or hold over the next decade.
This is another variety that performs exceptionally well in Texas, and in the hands of John Rivenburgh it shows remarkable focus and precision. Expressive and juicy acidity drives the wine, balanced by fine, firm tannins with a distinct mineral edge. Blue fruit aromatics and cassis mingle with loamy earth, brown spice, and wet slate notes. A rock-solid wine with freshness, tension, and energy that perfectly support its rich profile.
From the Pepper Jack Vineyard, this Teroldego is full-bodied, deeply flavored, and unapologetically muscular. Inky dark fruit, black currant, saddle leather, and black olive pit dominate the nose and palate, underscored by savory notes of tobacco, leather, and olive tapenade. The tannins are powerful and structured, carrying the wine through a finish that lingers well over a minute. Talk about your ultimate barbecue wine.
A delicious Sangiovese that builds beautifully in the glass, showing ripe cherry and strawberry fruit alongside brown baking spices and well-integrated cedar from new oak. Currant and cassis notes add depth, while crisp, crunchy tannins frame the palate. The finish is long and layered with loamy earth and a touch of underbrush.
This is a full-flavored, meaty, and muscular Grenache showing real grit and tenacity. Bold notes of black olive, ripe cherry, and cherry cola mingle with wet slate minerality and robust tannins that build toward a towering finish. Sourced from Canted County Vineyard, this lot was originally destined for a blend, but as John Rivenburgh explains, the fruit was so compelling in 2022 that he decided to bottle it on its own.
This is one of my favourite rosés from Kerrville Hills, as the Cinsault creates an intriguing and complex pink wine that leaps from the glass with bright cherry fruit, apricot, and tangerine peel. It builds with medium-bodied intensity, showing candied minerality and warming brown spices that emerge on the finish. Simply a super-pleasing rosé.
This Sangiovese Rosé is quite complex, with lovely cherry fruit aromatics mingling with notes of licorice and aniseed. Dried fruit tones emerge with air, adding depth to the richer, creamier core. A fine-boned acidity and a taut, mineral finish provide structure and lift, while gentle tannic tension frames the wine beautifully. Aged for 12 months in neutral oak.
This non-vintage white shows impressive character and texture, with a grippy mid-palate and a long, nutty richness that carries through the medium-bodied finish. The palate offers generous fruit weight, featuring layers of apricot and white peach alongside toasted almonds and buttered croissant. There’s real depth and intensity here, complemented by notes of wild herbs and dried honeycomb on the nose.
This Viognier opens beautifully in the glass, revealing candied citrus peel, dried prairie grass, and an intriguing smoky maple-bacon and white truffle richness from lees aging. Medium-bodied with a subtle, crunchy tannin grip, it shows layers of citrus and orchard fruit on the palate, while those savoury, aromatic notes reappear and linger through the finish.
This Clairette Blanche shows wonderful aromatic intensity, both nutty and citrusy, with pressed wildflower notes. The palate is soft yet textured, showing gentle grip and a touch of marzipan alongside its floral character. Typically a thin and flabby variety, here it gains impressive mid-palate weight thanks to a bit of skin contact. A fun, expressive white that’s drinking beautifully now and will continue to evolve through 2027.
This Alta Loma Vineyard Picpoul Blanc shows excellent weight and balance, with pretty notes of citrus peel, wildflowers, and honeycomb. The palate is rich and creamy, filled with ripe orchard fruit that builds in density toward a medium-bodied finish. Hints of honey and crushed almonds linger gracefully, adding depth and texture
Sourced from Narra Vineyards in the Texas High Plains, this wine was aged for 32 months in 30% new French oak. “It’s a variety we love,” says Ben Calais, “and we have a lot of wine nerds that love it. Sure, it’s a touch greener than the rest of the wines we make—we could have let it hang longer and get riper, but we don’t want to make all the same wines.” He’s absolutely right. The wine shows captivating black and green tea notes, smoked paprika, and charcuterie on the palate. Medium- to full-bodied with maple-cured tannins and impressive length, it’s the kind of wine you could imagine sipping in a Japanese tea garden.
Sourced from two sites—Family Vineyards and Bolen Vineyards in the Texas High Plains—the 2021 vintage saw reduced Merlot yields due to a spring cold spell. Aged for 32 months in 80% once-used and 20% new French oak, this wine offers striking aromatic richness and impressive mid-palate breadth. Supple-textured tannins frame spiced plum and black raspberry flavors, layered with notes of bright sagebrush, green tobacco, and cola nut that carry through a long, expressive finish.
