Who’s going to list the top 10?
What about Schrader and Anderson Conn Valley?
He upgraded his scores on all of the '09s from Anderson Conn Valley.
Hard to do in that there are 23 wines at 98 and above, and 56 wines at 97 and above! The sheer number of 95-100 pointers seems staggering.
Schraders all received 96 to 98
Sounds like AG is evolving into the existing Parker scoring range rather than resetting it more conservatively. Bob must have had a come to Jesus… Points fuel wine sales, sell subscriptions, and reinforce TWA’s influence. 
Nice job Justin. You nailed this one… Hope Ric keeps pricing the same. On another note has anyone ever tried to schedule a visit there ? My buddy couldn’t get them to respond to an email…
Todd- I have tasted the 10 Kap and they are outstanding.
Some additional reviews will be posted at the end of Jan online. Would expect to see Lewelling and Seven Stones although I bought the 09 SS and now pass on Lewelling…
Nice to see some love for 2 of my favorites Larkmead and Drinkward…
Overall impressive job on the notes.
2002 formans drinking beautifully
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Kevin, time for you to retire the myth that Galloni has a European palate. Between his love of 2007 Piemontese Nebbiolo and 2009/2010 Napa Cabs, he has left Parker, Suckling and Laube in the dust as the world’s leading fruit bomber. Galloni has a palate. So do you. So do I. To claim anything greater about Galloni is foolish. Under his new Napa Cab rating system, anything under 96 is barely drinkable plonk. Parker may have slung the indiscriminate 100s around, but on his wildest day, he did not hand out 95+ scores to virtually anybody who made wine in a given vintage…
It seems that he has swallowed at least some of the Kool-Aid but he also seems to like some old school wines like Togni–certainly not fruit bombs. But there sure are a lot of HIGH scores flying around.
If you followed Antonio’s reviews of Piedmonte, none of this should surprise you. He’s always tried to be style neutral. Clericos, Sandrones and L. Piras have done just as well as G. Conternos, Cavallotto’s and Rinaldis. It’s the same story for Cabernet it appears. He’s going to give good scores to the old Parker wines but also revive classics that Parker neglected. Parker has much more of a preference for a specific style than Antonio IMO.
I think the comments on 2007 Piedmonte are a little naive. Just because they’re fruit-forward when young you’re convinced they won’t be good wines in 10 - 20 years? Piedmonte had delivered way too many surprises from vintage to vintage after ageing that I wouldn’t be nearly so confident to make these claims.
+3.1415 etc.
Not evolution, Jim…jumped with both feet, and has out-Parkered Parker (and Big Jay) except for the laying on of 100s. Even a cynic like myself has a hard time envisioning Parker and Galloni sitting across a table from each other and deciding to diddle points upward because it is good for business in the ways that you describe above, but Parker has been helping friends sell wine and making political statements with points for years, so I suppose it is not that much of a stretch. If Galloni really feels that way about an insane number of Napa Cabs over two vintages, then he either has no taste for fine wine or, more likely, has screwed up his palate in record time with robo-tasting. This is consistent with his pimping of the fruit-bomby, early-drinking 2007 Piemonte vintage, and not at all consistent with his Piedmont Report work back in the day. I do wonder if it is a sign of the times that the only 2010 vintage 100-pointer went to a winery owned by a Korean dog food maker! 
Charles, I think that your comments were directed at my comments more than Scott’s. Naive? Doubtful. My Nebbiolo drinking experience is long and deep. I do not say that the 2007s will not age, or even that there are not plenty of tasty wines. I also agree that the Piemonte has delivered surprises, but most often in the emergence of under-appreciated vintages, not in disappointment from great, classic vintages. 2006 was a concensus classic vintage. 2007 was not to anyone but Galloni. He does strive to be style-neutral, and succeeded for a time. Even then, however, the biggest numbers and the greatest praise went to the traditionalists. Something has changed, and not for the better…
Comments were directed at both. “Drinking the Kool Aid” implies that he’s subject to the influence of someone else’s palate, effectively impugning his motivation and that is a reach IMO. With respect to 2007, I think it’s hard enough to define a “good” vintage of Piedmonte on release so I don’t claim to be able to define what “classic” is supposed to mean. I am just saying it’s just as possible that 2007 turns out to be like 1990 as it is that it turns out to be like 1997. Maybe more so given Antonio’s a pretty experienced nebbiolo taster.
Which Vine Hill wines did he review? TIA
2010 Vine Hill Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon 96+
2011 Vine Hill Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon 92-94
Readers are right to point out that there are a lot of highly rated CA wines in our new issue. As always, I tasted hundreds of wines that didn’t make the cutoff for inclusion in this issue, but these are some observations on the wines that did make it in.
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Some properties like to show only their top wine (or wines) so there is always the potential for some adverse selection that can skew average results across an issue upwards. I do my best to taste as broad a selection for each winery, but that isn’t always possible.
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The landscape in California continues to change at a remarkable pace. Consider the number of new wineries that have been added to the WA’s coverage under my tenure that weren’t even making wine when Bob was covering CA or that he wasn’t tasting. Some of these include Vineyardist, Vine Hill Ranch, Bure, Rivers-Marie, Gandona and Brand, all of which are top flight in my view.
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As I wrote in the introduction, we are seeing a growth in second wines. This is a way elite properties can continue to command top prices. Like the Bordelais, these estates bottle only their top juice under their main label (or labels) and the rest goes into their second wine. A perfect example is Blankiet, which now makes 600-1,000 cases of Prince of Hearts. Before 2008 (the first vintage) all of that juice was going into Rive Droite and Proprietary Red. That makes a huge difference in the quality of their top wines. There are also several wineries I know of (and probably more) that make lower-priced labels that are only sold in other countries and that you will never see in the US.
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A handful of high quality properties that were missing in our coverage for a variety of reasons are back in Issue 204. These include Turley, Diamond Creek and David Arthur, again, all top-flight estates. The number of Turley wines alone in Issue 204 is around 50.
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Typically in this article I would have included more notes on the 2011s, the vintage that is still in barrel. As I explained in the introduction, because of the late harvest that year, many 2011s were still very raw and unfinished at the time of my fall tastings. The 2011s were much more difficult to taste this fall than the 2010s were during the same period a year prior. The absence of ratings/notes on 2011s, the vast majority of which are likely to come in lower than their 2009 and 2010 counterparts, also contributes to the high percentage of wines with big scores in Issue 204.
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I do love the 2010 vintage at a large number of estates
Lastly, on the subject of Piedmont, one of my first loves, I have always been fascinated by the 2007 vintage. It is a vintage that combines elements of hot, ripe years (especially in the fruit and textural richness of the wines) and cooler, more classic years (in the aromatics). When all was said and done, the growing cycle in 2007 was actually longer than average. It is not a classic year, but one of the things I like about the vintage is that the average level of quality is high. In other words, knowing nothing, you have a better chance of finding a good wine in 2007 than in some of the surrounding vintages. Personally, I buy the producer much more than the vintage, and am starting to regret not having bought some of my favorite wines in 2007. Cascina Francia comes to mind. Of course, taste is always personal, but I think the 2007s will develop quite well, although the 2006s, the best 2008s and the 2010s are likely to develop at a slower pace. Not a bad range of vintages from which to choose.
Look at the threads here and there… People just love being told they have a pretty baby.
Wine X 94-96 points… I don’t flip, but that’s a Score!! Wine Y 98 points… YIPPEE! Etc etc etc.
Maybe this has been done subconsciously rather than intentionally, I can’t say. But what seems obvious is that there has certainly been a change in Galloni’s scoring the past few years, and it is apparently accelerating.
Thank you for the post Mr Galloni
+1
Scott,
Are the Corison scores for the 2009 or the 2010 vintage?
TIA,
Paul
09 on Corrison and Continuum
10 on Corra
(just noticed since they’re on the same page)