As 2024 draws to a close, we asked some of our team to share their wines of the year.
To view all the wines from this article, please click here
La Vitoriana, La Vizcaina de Vinos, Bierzo, Raúl Pérez, 2021
This was a wine I had never tried before and knew little about, which made the experience all the more memorable and surprising. Although the signposts were there instantly - complex perfume, great texture and overall sense of harmony – Raúl Pérez’s Viariz La Muria 2021 is like the world’s very greatest wines in that it does not give it all to you straightaway. Such stylish and effortless power and complexity, a fragrant mix of salty and spicy dark and blue fruits with notes of damson sweetness. A little airtime in the glass and each layer of flavour gradually peels back steadily and consistently. Such finessed grandeur. Wonderful. Really its own thing, but if comparisons had to be drawn it would be like a Mediterranean hybrid of Cote Rotie and Hermitage. This is at the top of the Raúl Pérez qualitative (and price) tree so I am going to cheat here and give an honourable mention to 2021 La Vitoriana from his La Vizcaina label – I can’t think of a better single-vineyard bottling that delivers such a moreish, refined, terroir-infused wine.
Maximin Grünhauser, Abtsberg, Riesling, Kabinett, von Schubert, 2023
My favourite bottle this year is perhaps less about the wine itself and more about the impression it had on the person I was drinking it with. It was a Friday lunch with a friend and customer, one well versed in the great wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy. The pub was a good one with a fine chef at the helm, and it was one of those crisp December days that cannot help but lift the spirits. With tasks to do that afternoon I’d arrived with a bottle of Kabinett from Maximin Grunhaus. It was their finest vineyard, the great blue slate Abtsberg from the excellent Kabinett vintage 2016. We ate crab on toast followed by sole with brown butter. My guest took a sip, I registered a touch of surprise in his eyes, then went on eating. He admitted it was sweeter than he’d expected. “What did you say the alcohol was?”, he asked towards the end of his first glass. “Oh, just 7.5%” I replied. The wine was young and primary but none the worse for it, its sweetness held in suspended animation by the fine fresh acidity. By the second glass my friend looked up from his glass and said, “this really is very good”, and by the third glass we were wishing it had been a slightly bigger bottle. The food removed the sense of sweetness leaving just dancing intensity, the acidity sliding through the buttery sole with consummate ease. A love for German Riesling blossomed before my eyes, making it the most satisfying bottle I’d drunk all year. Inspiring in others a love for bottles that they might otherwise not have encountered will never grow old. I also got those tasks done that afternoon…
Château Pichon Comtesse de Lalande, 2ème Cru Classé, Pauillac, 2022
Would it be cheating to have a whole vintage? When we sampled 2022 Bordeaux from barrel, I thought it the greatest vintage I’d ever tasted. Now in bottle, we’ve had the opportunity to re-assess and confirm this assertion. For me, 2022 trumps other modern-day triumphs such as 2019, 2016, 2010, 2009 and 2005. The 2022s have an X-factor that sets them apart. One Bordeaux grandee who isn’t prone to hyperbole proclaimed it, “this generation’s 1961”. Simply, it’s the bee’s knees, the cat’s whiskers, the dog’s... If I had to choose just one bottle, it would be the magnificent Pichon Comtesse, a wine that harnesses the power, concentration, and luscious core of the vintage with the finesse, aromatics and ethereal qualities of Pichon. It’s like a modern-day interpretation of the magnificent 1982, i.e. perfection!
Zellerweg am Schwarzen Herrgott, Riesling, Grosses Gewächs, Battenfeld-Spanier, 2023
I am spoilt for choice when it comes to picking from my regions. Should it be an Italian, Spanish, German, Alsatian, Loire, Rhone, or Southern Hemisphere wine that gets the nod? Realistically, I tasted so many outstanding wines from this vast spread of climates, cultures, and grape varieties, that there are dozens that could claim top honours! Ultimately though, it’s hard to look past tasting the 2023 dry German Rieslings as a highlight of the year. As top GGs increasingly set the tone in Germany for the reputation of a vintage, and estates break their backs to deliver on these quality wines, there are producers in 2023 who made the wines of their lives! Two mornings in the Zellertal vineyards in June with Klaus-Peter Keller and Carolin Spanier-Gillot left me concluding that this wild and windy, limestone valley on the Rheinhessen/Pfalz border is an area we’ll be hearing a lot more about in the years to come. Taste this vibrant, elemental, environment through the lens of Battenfeld-Spanier’s Am Schwarzer Herrgott GG 2023 and you’ll never look back!
Château Meyney, St Estèphe, 2012
At the 10-years-on Southwold blind tasting of all the top Bordeaux Chateaux, Meyney 2012 topped the St-Estephe flight, beating illustrious names such as Calon Segur, Cos d’Estournel and even Montrose. This plucky underdog is fast becoming my go-to claret for delicious home drinking. I bought a case at the start of the year and each bottle has managed, impressively, to improve on the last. It has entered a wonderful phase of its evolution with some exquisite graphite, forest floor and cigar box notes, overlaying the still vibrant, succulent, red and black fruited profile. It is actually so versatile and reliable, it could be made by Ronseal. We’ve been so impressed by its development that we just bought another parcel from Bordeaux. So, fill your boots, pockets, nap sacks, suitcases and cellars with this delicious, affordable Claret.