My list as someone who has just gotten into wine this year.
Discovery
2016 Opus One - This is what launched me into wine this year. It taught me that wines do not have to be so bold and big all the time.
2002 Joh Jos Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese - Opened the door into the magic of aged Rieslings for me.
WOTY
2000 Chateau Latour - Easily beat out all of the other first growths that I have tried so far.
2012 Keller G-Max - This launched me into Rieslings, creating a chase to re-create this drinking experience at a lower cost.
2017 Roumier Les Cras - This completely blew out my already high expectations for a wine.
2016 Maybach Family Materium
1993 Pazjos Tokaji Essencia
At this point of my wine life, it may seem that everything could be a discovery or epiphany. So I narrowed it into the wines that had the most impact. For reference, I went from drinking and tasting maybe 15 bottles a wine a year to having tasted over 500 wines this past 11 months.
Interestingly, as I think back on my favorite wines of the last year, they were mostly white wines and champagnes. My collection is 90% red wine but this year was the first year I started buying much more White Burgundy and Champagne relative to the reds. My palate seems to be evolving.
Champagne:
1995 Krug - one of the best champagnes I’ve ever had.
White:
2010 Jadot Domaine des Heritiers Les Demoiselles Chevalier-Montrachet - just a perfect white burg experience.
Favorite “discoveries” (producers I just started drinking):
-Hubert Lamy
-Laherte Freres
-PVG - maybe started in 2021 but I can’t get enough
-Extradimensional Wine Co. YEAH!
Looking back at 2022 so far, I have had very few “exclusive” bottles in 2022 (Burlotto’s 2018s is probably one exception, though a larger tasting and dinner), for the most part it seems I have quite fully embraced drinking more humbler wines. Probably a few reasons for that, among other having a toddler at home and a cellar with many wines ready to action (steering what goes into rotation) and so on. I have also had a preference for younger, energetic wines in general this year.
With one and a half month to go lets see if (and hope) updates will be required.
It was a magnificent bottle opened for NYE, yet most of it drunk on NY day. Couldn’t think of a better way to end a year and start a new - Bursting with energy, flavors and an incredible texture/finish dancing along for ages. A don’t brush your teeth before bed type of wine/finish.
Other white wines I have really enjoyed over the year have been:
2021 Keller Riesling von der Fels (impressive with incredible fruit purity and intensity - never had a dry riesling handling spicy food like that. Crazy energy)
2018 Skerk Carso Ograde (love the texture and just a terrific wine)
2021 Hofgut Falkenstein Niedermenniger Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett trocken “Egon” #19 (Loved it and the way it kept developing over days - a wine that makes me think and feel)
2016 Grosjean Petite Arvine Valle d’Aosta Vigne Rovettaz (first time and loved it - also my find of the year!)
2019 Ziereisen Weißer Burgunder (wow for a wine at this price point!)
Among the red wines it is a dead race between:
2014 Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir Liaison
2016 Elio Sandri Dolcetto
As for the E&M I like it more than any 2015 bottlings I tried of the years (know many here prefer the warmer 2015). Short notes saying: Sensational. Herbal, spices, dark and red fruits. Texture is silky woven, yet with quite some tannic grip.
The Sandri Dolcetto on the otherhand smashed me expectations and I have loved every bottle opened before. If served blind I could have taken it for a barolo yet with a slightly different fruit and texture profile (slightly less refined than a nebbiolo would have been).
Other memorable red wines:
2004 Giacomo Brezza e Figli Barolo Sarmassa (it’s quite big and powerful, maybe less about elegance but still gracious)
2014 Ronchi di Cialla Schioppettino di Cialla (I have loved the good 2014 wines in Friuli even if a difficult year with loads of rain, regret not having more of the ReNera 2014)
2011 Franck Balthazar Cornas Cuvée Casimir Balthazar (my first with some age and what a texture)
2012 Esencia Rural Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León De Sol a Sol Natural Velasco (herbal bomb and an incredible energy. The old ungrafted vines from this estate give wines that sometimes are too energetic and intense - this is now starting to calm down, just a bit)
2013 Adriano Marco e Vittorio Barbaresco Basarin (think I paid eur15 for this, a very good barbaresco and with Vittorio’s sad passing earlier this year it become more memorable)
2020 Roagna Dolcetto d’Alba (finally I got hold of it without crazy markups - lovely dolcetto, and yes this has been a year of dolcetto! Love the grape when in the hands/land of great winemakers)
1988 Spring Mountain Cabernet
2017 Bruno Clair CDB
2014 Kapscandy Grand Vin
2008 AF Gros Richebourg
1989 Berlinger Johannisberg Riesling Late Harvest
2018 Memento Mori VHR
2001 Casanova di Neri Tenuta
2005 Corison Kronos vineyard
That 2001 Faiveley Mazis-Chambertin is a great wine. I recently had it side by side with the 2001 Faiveley Corton - Clos des Corton. I thought the Mazis was the far better wine, at least for current consumption.
Another year, another Riesling:
2008 Schäfer-Fröhlich Felseneck Spätlese
With all the talk on the “Let down by Fine Wines” thread about the importance of the setting/company, this one was special because it was opened for me by a fellow Berserker in my first offline meeting.
Ganevat Grands Teppes 2015 (beat 2 Roulot premier crus in same flight)
The Reds:
Rioja Alta 890 2010
Gonon St-Joseph (multiple vintages, so good)
Bernard Faurie Hermitage 1990
Discovery of the year: The village reds from Coche-Dury: Auxey-Duresses, Monthelie, Meursault red… we put them alongside many Burgundies PC GC and they were up there… did not know he could make red wines!!
1964 Pinon demi-sec
1989 Foreau molleux
2007 High Constantia Sebastiaan
2007 Grivot Echezeaux
1989 Olga Raffault Les Picasses
1989 Pierre Sparr Mambourg Gewurz VT
Stephane Bernaudeau Les Ongles (I unfortunately did not catch the vintage…maybe 2018?)
Wow call me jealous! And nice to see some Jura mentioned here! That 2003 is the best white wine i have personally ever tasted (and Coche-Dury is my WOTY in this thread).
I am right now buying a ton of Washington State wines but this Napa offering for $39.99 might be my wine of the year.
2015 Oakville East Cabernet Sauvignon Exposure - USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville (11/15/2022)
Day 1: I am not normally a massive fan of Napa, but this is off the charts on a pop and pour. This is wine of the year caliber. Pencil lead, blueberries, minerals, sour cherry, earth, cigar and exotic spices. Long finish! Complex and all Napa wines should taste like this. 96 points
Day 2: Holding up well and offers a very Bordeaux like experience featuring gravel, minerals, sour cherry, cigar, pencil lead and blue currants. Medium plus finish. Super balanced effort. 95 points
Day 3: While still good this truly is a pop and pour and enjoy its awesomeness. Still good on day 3 however. Still shows spice, blue currants, menthol, cigar and earth. 94 points
Recommendation: This is $39.99 at WTSO and might be wine of the year. Just bought a bunch more. (96 points)
It’s a fun and fascinating topic. In past years I’ve tried to keep a list of wines that would make my top 10 or 20, but I think I’ve been fortunate this year to drink a lot of great wine and I’ve stopped. Some has been from my cellar, most has been from the generosity of friends. Ultimately it has been the joy of drinking bottles with good friends that makes the difference. Besides, I’m sure some of the wines have already been listed above. It’s not much of a secret that wines like 04 Reynard, 97 Leflaive Chevalier, Collin Roises and 93 Rousseau Beze are good. So I’ll just go with some discoveries:
Champagne:
Pierre Paillard: not a producer I knew much about before this year, but the brothers are making some fabulous wines. As with someone like Bereche, they very much look to Burgundy.
Just how good Cristal is. I mean, I knew it was great, but tasting 4 vintages of the rose out of magnum - wow.
Burgundy:
Just how good the recent Claude Dugat wines are. Some of the best 19s I’ve had.
Guffens - a friend blinded us on some 1997 which I called an 04 Meursault perrieres. I wasn’t the only one.
96 Dujac Clos St. Denis - easily the best 96 I’ve ever had. An absolutely ethereal nose and without the shrieking acidity that dominates what is otherwise an awful vintage. A real testament to Jacques Seyess brilliance.
I’ll close with one bottle. One of my friends brought a 1979 Pousse d’Or Caillerets to dinner last week. A birth vintage for me, and the bottling that was my gateway into burgundy many years ago*. The wine was great, sharing it with friends was better. Gerard Potel was a magician - I’ve never had Volnay like his.
