My Favourite Wines, Top Discoveries and Experiences of 2011

I feel like a respite from all the self indulgence that the Christmas holidays force upon me and feel my thoughts turning back to wine. As the New Year is coming up fast I thought that I would attempt to tell you about my wine highlights for the year.

Most of my top wines have been written up here on my Wine Page, but some have slipped through the net and are new today. Please always remember that this is an entirely personal list, but I hope you enjoy it and that it gives some food for thought.

Sparkling Wines

I was really spoiled for fizz this year, 2 Champagne tastings stand out in particular:

Champagne:

Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut Non Vintage based on the 1953 vintage
This whole tasting was extraordinary and provided a wonderful insight into a type of Champagne that it is all too easy to take for granted – read about it here.

1995 Perrier Jouët Belle Époque
In February I was lucky enough to taste four different vintages of Belle Epoque out of jeroboams, the 1995 was the standout wine for me, but they were all superb – read about it here.

Australian Luxury

Like lots of us in wine I have tried a great many Australian wines in my time.  Many of the wines that excited me in my youth came from down under, but I have rather foolishly ignored what Australia can offer for far too long. However, a few experiences recently have made me realise that I should rekindle that dormant passion and renew acquaintance with some of the amazing wines that Australia makes.

Some recent Australian highlights have been a range of wines from Grant Burge – whose sensational Barossa Valley wines should be more widely celebrated – and unearthing a bottle of 1992 Lindemans Limestone Ridge Coonawarra Shiraz-Cabernet. This had been sleeping in my wine rack and had developed more complexity than I would ever have imagined. Interstingly the current vintage, 2008, has 14.5% alcohol – whereas my 1992 came in at just 12.5%.

So this new found desire to study Australia more together with my ongoing mission to discover great wines that do not require a mortgage for me to buy them, took me to this years Wolf Blass Luxury Release tasting.

Riesling – a world tour

Riesling growing on the banks of the Moselle in Luxembourg

Riesling is a bit like Marmite – you either love it or hate it. Most of us in the wine business love Riesling, indeed many of us would class it as one of our favourite grapes, right up there with Pinot Noir.

Ask most consumers to list their favourite grapes, however and it is pretty unusual for Riesling to feature at all.

Personally I love Riesling, I find it a grape that I can get passionate about. What is more I seem to like all styles of Riesling, whether steely dry, off-dry, medium-dry or richly sweet – all can be wonderful in their place and make refreshing Summer wines.