The Latest Cristaldi Scores
Vintage
Wine
Color
Rating
Vintage
Wine
Color
Rating
This Pinot is not 100% Pinot Noir—there’s a small portion of Sangiovese and Grenache Noir in the blend. It’s sourced mostly from the estate, with additional fruit coming from select Sonoma Coast sites. Fermentation takes place warm in stainless steel and moves relatively quickly before the wine is barreled down for 10 months in 15% new French oak. There’s a real forest-floor, underbrush, wild-berry character here, accented by a pop of minty freshness, violets, and blue-fruit notes. Pomegranate-seed tannins and velvety textures frame the palate, finishing with lengthy blood orange and zesty grapefruit. The wines in the Banshee portfolio are better than ever—bright, fresh, and full of tension.
Partially fermented in French oak and stainless steel, the wine underwent full malolactic fermentation and spent eight months aging in 30% new French oak prior to bottling. It is sourced mostly from the Foley family’s estate vineyards, which are farmed by the family. The wine is bright, showing citrus and orchard-fruit tones with candied ginger and white flowers. A crunchy, juicy acidity drives the palate, balanced by plenty of richness, toasty oak, vanilla, and a touch of grilled pineapple on the lengthy finish.
Winemaker Jake Lachowitzer, formerly the assistant winemaker at Chalk Hill, took the reins in 2024. Grapes are whole-cluster pressed and fermented in stainless steel. The wine is incredibly aromatic thanks to the addition of small amounts of Muscat Canelli and Muscato Giallo, which contribute high-toned floral and honeysuckle notes. On the palate, everything comes together with a pop of saline acidity and fresh, ripe melon and mango, finishing bright with a chalky mineral edge.
The Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon comes from estate fruit across Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley, Sonoma Mountain, and Knights Valley. At its suggested retail price of $30, this is a fantastic value. It delivers a generous punch of savory Sonoma character—sagebrush, wild thyme, and bay laurel—wrapped around beautifully pure cassis and blackberry fruit. Elegant cedarwood spice adds lift, while fine tannins and earthy tension shape the palate. Super-pristine fruit and balanced structure make this a killer wine for the price.
From the Sexton Valley Vineyard in the Sebastopol Hills, this Chardonnay is whole-cluster pressed, undergoes partial malolactic fermentation, and is aged entirely in stainless steel. The result is a bright, energetic wine that’s light on its feet yet full of character. Aromas of lemon oil, lemon zest, and white flowers lead to a palate brimming with tangerine peel, crunchy kumquat skin, and vibrant acidity. The finish lingers with stony, wet minerality and subtle notes of lemon curd.
The 2022 Twin Ridges Chardonnay is sourced from a site rooted in Goldridge soils and composed of Wente, Robert Young, Clone 96, and Clone 4 selections. Aged 18 months in 30% new French oak, it’s clean, balanced, and beautifully focused, with alluring orchard fruit aromatics accented by hints of ginger and delicate French pastry. The palate shows great energy and tension, with layered flavors and a refined, medium-bodied finish.
Sexton Hill Vineyard is a steep, north-facing site located about 10 miles from the cooling influence of the Pacific Ocean. The vines are planted in Goldridge sandy loam soils, and the wine was aged 10 months in 35% new French oak. This is an easy-drinking, focused red with mixed berry fruit, appealing aromatics of clove, anise, and gentle wood smoke. The palate is supple and balanced, finishing with a smooth, velvety texture that makes it effortlessly enjoyable.
The 2022 Sexton Hill Vineyard Chardonnay comes from a site in the Sebastopol Hills with vines rooted in classic Goldridge soils. Aged 18 months in 25% new French oak, it’s a ripe, orchard fruit–driven wine with crisp, crunchy acidity and lingering notes of buttered croissant and almond pastry. Rich and attractive without ever feeling heavy, it remains lean, focused, and full of flavor
Perhaps the boldest, most expressive, and structured of the five Balletto wines tasted during my visit to the Sonoma County Vintners offices, this was a clear standout in the lineup. The BCD Vineyard lies on rolling hills that rise toward the coastal mountain range, a site that imparts both freshness and depth. Fermented with indigenous yeast in small six-ton open-top tanks and aged in French oak barrels, the wine opens with sumptuous cedarwood aromas intertwined with cherry and clove, creating an alluring impression of cherry-scented wood smoke. Medium-bodied on the palate, it delivers supple tannins and concentrated mixed berry fruit, finishing with notes of clove, incense, and wet slate minerality. A wine of impressive length, tension, and energy.
From Hambrecht Vineyard at the top of Dry Creek Road, this Zinfandel was aged for 16 months in three-year-dried American oak barrels. It is robust and powerful — a fitting send-off, as it is the last Zinfandel B Cellars will make. Dark-fruited and savory-spiced, with ample tannins and rich brown baking spices, it shows fig paste, cherry fruit and gorgeous length.
This is a spectacular Zinfandel, with gorgeous red- and black-toned aromatics, loamy earth, robust tannins, and impressive acid grip. Beautiful, lacy ironstone minerality and apple-skin tannins bring freshness, verve, and drive, all framed by sturdy, firm structure that underscores the juicy, ripe, concentrated fruit from 130-year-old vines. Impressively long and layered for a Zinfandel. Aged in 40% new French oak.
Sourced from Calesa Vineyard, a Petaluma Gap site perched on a high plateau with northwest-facing slopes and soils flecked with gravel and quartz. The nose is absolutely gorgeous — dark cherry fruit, warm brown baking spices, a hint of soy, black truffle, and velvety tannins, with a touch of sea-salt savor. The palate shows impressive depth: grapefruit peel, black sea salt, a broad, velvety texture, and a refined, seamless expression. Terrific grip and tension, yet still lush and inviting. Super cool — this one will fire you up.
From Manzana Vineyard, planted to Clones 777 and 828, and blended together. The site sits off Occidental Road, a hillside parcel close to Kanzler. The nose is elegant and expressive — cherry fruit, sagebrush, bay laurel — like walking in a cool Redwood grove — all building into medium richness with sweet baking spices woven around dark cherry and raspberry. Medium-bodied, with velvety tannins and a touch of cola root, plus lovely ironstone and earthy minerality and a hint of black-truffle charcuterie on the finish. Bâtonnage begins with more frequent stirring and gradually tapers off, after which the wine is racked into roughly 35–45% new French oak for 15 months. Bottled unfiltered and unfined.
Nightwing is super silky and luscious, built around a core of dark berry fruit and rich brown baking spices. The palate is wonderfully broad — velvety and silky at the same time — filling in all the gaps and finishing with a fabulous, laser-like line of complexity. It’s classic Venge style: hitting all the broad-palate markers yet finishing with lift, lightness, and brightness.
What a luscious, lovely, rich, and creamy Chardonnay — with plenty of acid verve. Delicious vanilla shows on the back palate alongside well-integrated cedarwood spice. There’s ample crunchy acidity to keep it fresh, bright, and classy. From Calesa Vineyard, all night-picked, whole-cluster pressed, given a two-day settle, then treated with a small sulfur adjustment before native-yeast fermentation. Some lots underwent native malolactic fermentation. Bâtonnage starts with more frequent stirring and tapers off as the wines age in roughly 35% new French oak for 15 months. Bottled unfiltered and unfined.
Wow — this is all acid. Candied mineral freshness, citrus fruit, bone-dry, crisp, vivid, clean, and bright. Wet chalk and slate, with a brightness that’s hard to beat. “These grapes hold their acid like a railroad track,” says winemaker Kirk Venge. Some honeyed notes and jasmine flowers linger on the finish. You need a pecorino drizzled in honey with this.
There’s a gravelly freshness that lifts out of the glass, carrying ultra–dark berry fruit with an impressively dense core — so pure, clean, and fresh that the wine is genuinely refreshing, yet still endowed with the depth and tannic intensity you want in a long-lived Cabernet. Tobacco spice, dried violets, and black fruit layer in alongside cool wet-slate tones on the impressively long finish. Del Rio Vineyard is a steep site straddling the highest reaches of Chalk Hill Road in the southeast corner of Alexander Valley, rooted in chalky volcanic soils. This is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 22 months in 100% new French oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Wow — this is something. Positively stellar, full-bodied, with chewy tannins that are perfectly framed, elongated and almost sensual in the way they caress the palate. The wine is rich, full-bodied, generous and complexly layered with mixed-berry fruit, yet it is overwhelmingly mineral and tension-filled. A distinctly gravelly complexity is evident, thanks to the vineyard’s soils — gravelly clay and gravelly volcanic deposits spread across the site — and the result is a wine of unimaginable freshness. It is spectacular. The SJ Ranch in Alexander Valley is a 7.9-acre vineyard of volcanic soils adjacent to Verité off Thomas Road. Cabernet Sauvignon Clones 337 and 7 are blended and aged for 22 months in 90% new French oak, then bottled unfined and unfiltered.
A beautifully full and expressive red wine, offering red cherry and blackberry fruit with graphite, fleshy new-wood cedar, and a savory olive-tapenade character. The palate is super creamy and richly textured, driven by pristine dark-berry fruit that leads into mulberry and blueberry. The tannins are gorgeous — cedar-kissed, full-framed, elongated, almost beam-like — and the finish carries a seductive mineral intensity that stretches out over lingering fruit and stone. Just splendid in 2023. Aperture’s Oliver Ranch surrounds the Michelin-starred restaurant Cyrus in Alexander Valley. Winemaker Jesse Katz has worked with this fruit since 2010 and produced his first single-vineyard bottling from the site in 2014. Designed by famed viticulturist Phil Freese in the 1980s on an old riverbed of polished stones, much of the 3.6-acre ranch is dry-farmed.
The Proterra (formerly known as Nomad) is a blend of 82% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Malbec, and 1% Petit Verdot. The name changed with the 2022 vintage. Aged 22 months in 85% new French oak. The wine is dark-fruited and savory-spiced, with notes of fig paste, blackberry, cherry, and cherry pie, along with salted dark chocolate and black-tea tannins that are substantial — almost chunky — underscored by good acid tension. Fragrant sagebrush and bay laurel add layers of complexity and spice. It’s a long, full-flavored wine with full-bodied richness that finds balance in its acid backbone, an impressive feat given the vintage.
