As you all know, I am a huge fan of Four Gates Winery, and yes, Benyamin Cantz is a dear friend. So, as is my custom, as many ask me what wines I like of the new releases, here are my notes on the latest wines.

I have often written about Four Gates Winery and its winemaker/Vigneron Benyamin Cantz. Read the post and all the subsequent posts about Four Gates wine releases, especially this post of Four Gates – that genuinely describes the lore of Four Gates Winery.

Other than maybe Yarden and Yatir (which are off my buying lists – other than SOME of their bubblies), very few, if any, release wines later than Four Gates. The slowest releaser may well be Domaine Roses Camille.

Four Gates grapes versus bought grapes

It has been stated that great wine starts in the vineyard, and when it comes to Four Gates wine, it is so true. I have enjoyed the 1996 and 1997 versions of Benyamin’s wines because of his care and control of his vineyard. The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes he receives from Monte Bello Ridge show the same care and love in the wines we have enjoyed since 2009. I recently tasted the 2014 Cabernet, and it is lovely while also being ripe, but the acidity there helps.

I have immense faith in Benyo’s wines, sourced from his and the Monte Bello Ridge vineyards. The other wines he creates from different sources are sometimes excellent, like the 2010 Four Gates Syrah I tasted recently. I would have sworn it was a Rhone wine, with crazy minerality, acid, and backbone, with fruit NOT taking center stage, though ever so evident, the way it is meant to be! While lovely on release, others may well not be the everlasting kind of Four Gates wines.

The wines in this release

This year, wines were missing, and you can blame the 2020 fires for that. Believe it or not, the 2020 fires affected Santa Cruz mountains as much as they did Napa Valley. In some ways, it was worse because the fires started earlier than in Napa.

This year, we have three Chardonnays, the PV, Malbec, and Pinot Noir, a Claret, and two Merlots. The Chardonnays are all very nice, some better than others, but I bought them all because I like aged Chardonnay with the kind of acidity that Four Gates has. As always, give these wines their time and due, and they will reward you for your patience.

The 2021 Petit Verdot and the Malbec are both from the Santa Cruz mountains but NOT from Benyo’s vineyards. These year’s wines almost tempted me to buy them, but I have too much wine and insufficient space. They are a step up from previous vintages, and most who buy them will appreciate them.

We have another vintage of the classic Four Gates fruit. The Chardonnays are from 2023. The Pinot Noir is from 2022. The Claret is from 2022, and it is okay, but give it some time to work itself out. The Pinot Noir is such a baby – good lord, give this time. The Merlot (the 2019 and 2021) are lovely wines, babies; leave them alone for a long time. The theme for Benyo wines made from his grapes (or the Cab, which is not for sale this year) is to leave them ALONE!

Prices and Quantities

I have heard it over and over again. That I and others caused Benyo to raise his prices. First of all that is a flat-out lie. I never asked for higher prices, but when asked about the value of his wines, the real answer I could give was more than 26 dollars.

Let us be clear, all of us who got used to 18/26 dollar prices and stocked up on his wines in those days should be happy. The fact that he raised prices, is a matter of basic price dynamics, and classic supply and demand. Four Gates has been seeing more demand for wines while the quantity of what is being made is slowing down.

The law of Supply and Demand tells you that the prices will go up, even if you beg for lower prices.

Four Gates Winery is one of the few cult wineries in the kosher wine world that releases wines yearly. Sure, there have been crazy cult wines, like the 2005 and 2006 DRC wines or some other rarities.  His wines are in a class of their own, especially when it is his grapes, and there is less of it out there. This year, you can add more California wines like Tench, Addax, Yesod, and many others to the growing list of expensive California wines.

This year, the prices reached their highest Zenith again, and most of the wines sold out within minutes, with the highest-priced wines lasting a bit longer. Good wine has been working for Benyo in small quantities so far. No one knows how much longer this will go on. Until there is a clear successor, every year may well be the last one harvested. I am not trying to sound grim or load up on FOMO; this is just the apparent reality that all of us humans face throughout our lives.

The notes speak for themselves. Again, I did not buy the Malbec or Petit Verdot this year. The wine notes follow below, in the order they were tasted – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here, and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:

2023 Four Gates Chardonnay, Ayala, Santa Cruz – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
Ignoring labels, let’s talk wine! The nose of this wine is lovely, showing sweet pear, melon, sweet green apple, oak, lemongrass, and sweet garrigue. Lovely! The mouth of this plush, full-bodied wine is lovely, ripe, not candied, balanced with great acidity, sweet pear, melon, smoke, tart-ripe apple, lovely fruit attack with fruit focus, and so refreshing. With time, this will improve even more. The finish is long, ripe, and lovely, with sweet vanilla, sweet oak, and butterscotch on the long finish. It’s not an overly oaky wine at all; the acidity and balance are lovely! Drink from 2032 until 2036. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.3%)

2023 Four Gates Chardonnay, Santa Cruz – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is lovely, oaky, smoky, ripe but balanced, with rich butterscotch, baked brioche, ripe melon, hints of pineapple, guava, mineral, slate, saline, and ripe citrus. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, but the acidity is so good. It has intense citrus, lemongrass, grapefruit, melon, pineapple, and green guava. Ripe melon is very plush and refreshing but complex. This needs time, lots of time. The finish is long and ripe, with candied melon, sweet oak, sweet vanilla, butterscotch, and sweet smoke. Fun! Bravo! Drink from 2032 until 2036. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.3%)

2023 Four Gates Chardonnay, Cuvee Riche, Santa Cruz – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is lovely, oaky, smoky, ripe, and balanced. It has ripe lemon, rich oak, ripe melon, hints of pineapple, guava, mineral, slate, saline, and ripe lemon. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, but the acidity is so good. It has intense citrus, ripe lemon, lemongrass, tart melon, and green guava. This is a very plush, refreshing, but complex wine. It also needs time, lots of time. The finish is long and ripe, with sweet vanilla and green notes that mix with tannin and sweet smoke. Fun! Bravo! Drink from 2032 until 2035. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.9%)

2022 Four Gates Petit Verdot, Santa Cruz – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is ripe and fruity, showing blue and black fruit, roasted herbs, and garrigue, with some smoke and nice earth. The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is fruity, still balanced, with good smoke, great acidity, blackberry, plum, boysenberry, loam, some oak, and nice sweet tannin. The finish is long and tannic, but this is a wine to drink now. Drink until 2026. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)

2022 Four Gates Malbec, Santa Cruz – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is classic and ripe, with black and blue fruit and dense tannin. Yes, you can smell it on Malbec, along with root beer, ripe candied plum, and rich smoke. Nice. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, intense, and beastly, with intense blackberry, plum, cassis, blueberry, sweet oak, and loam. The body and concentration are lovely. I wish it had more oak. The finish is long, ripe, not candied, balanced, brooding, with more root beer, intense fruit, sweet oak, and loam. Drink by 2028. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2022 Four Gates Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is riper than most Four Gates Pinot Noir, but the truth is the balance is incredible: ripe red and almost black fruit, cacao, sweet smoke, garrigue, minerality, and loam; this is a stunning wine. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is lovely, showing great acidity, rich black cherry, dark plum, some blackberry, mouth-draping tannin, sweet oak, lovely green notes, and lovely vanilla, all wrapped in a plush, concentrated, and elegant package. Lovely! The finish is long, ripe, balanced, creamy, concentrated, and elegant, with cacao, some coffee, sweet herbs, and sweet spices. Bravo! Drink from 2033 until 2040. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2022 Four Gates Claret, Santa Cruz – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is ripe, with a fair amount of oak to me, with black and blue fruit, rich smoke, loam, dirt, earth, and milk chocolate. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is a beast. Rich blackberry, intense acidity, mouth-drying tannin, rich salinity, green notes, roasted herbs, sweet spices, cinnamon, cloves, sweet oak, massive tannin attack, and texture—just beastly. The finish is long, ripe, oaky, and smoky, with lots of sweet spices and milk chocolate. This is a young wine for Four Gates, and though it is a Claret Label, it needs time; it is not a wine I would pop and go with. Drink from 2027 until 2035, maybe more. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.6%)

2021 Four Gates Merlot, La Rochelle, Santa Cruz – Score: 94 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine reminds me of a slutty Margaux minus the minerality, with lovely elegance, a classic left-bank slut bomb, showing black, blue, and red fruit, rich loam, some mushroom, and intense dirt, lovely! The elegance is wild, and while one may want to guess Bordeaux, the fruit and the lack of the dense minerality tell you California. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is incredible; wow, the elegance and concentration are incredible. It shows blackberry, plum, boysenberry, rich, sweet oak, and smoke, and it is so inviting but also so far away at this time. This wine is concentrated, expressive, elegant, powerful, and yet so good and refreshing. This is what wine should be! The finish is long, ripe, balanced, draping, and elegant, with graphite, forest floor, and rich salinity. This needs time, so much time. Drink from 2035 until 2040. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.3%)

2019 Four Gates Merlot, Santa Cruz, CA – Score: 94+ (QPR: GREAT)
This is a resale of the same wine he had in the 2024 releases. This allowed me to taste the wine again and sit with it for many days. I underscored this wine, and this is a slight revision to the score and notes.
The nose of this wine is ripe, with rich milk chocolate, rich plum, blackberry, smoke, sweet spices, black pepper, sweet tobacco, elegance, and lovely sweet oak.
The mouth of this full-bodied beast is ripe, but the incredible acidity and some minerality save it, with rich loam, blackberry, dark plum, raspberry, sweet oak, all wrapped in mouth-draping and elegant sweet tannin and a plushness that is impressive. The acidity and pop that show are really impressive, but the mouth is so plush, rich, layered, and not extracted, with dense fruit, acidity, and sweet oak that play well together.
The finish is long, ripe, and not candied. The oak and milk chocolate will throw you at first, but the wine is incredible, with rich salinity, milk chocolate, black pepper, graphite, and lovely smoke. Bravo! Drink from 2030 until 2037. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15.2%)