It has for one or another reason been a year of comfort wines - less exploring new wineries/wines and more wines I have like for a longer time. Partially related to the cellar inventory reduction drive, but might also have something to do with times in general (?). Probably my worst year every in terms of taking notes, will have to correct that in 2025!
Some of the wines could be called simpler, humble or something in that direction but they have been exactly what the doctor prescribed, and more.
Red WOTY - hard pick, but today it would be in this order
2015 Enderle & Moll Liaison - the Xmas bottle that was just terrific (freshest in mind as well) and shared with my brother and mother.
2015 Burlotto Monvigliero - a special wine, shared with special people
1996 Ronchi di Cialla Schioppettino - timeless and a special wine made by special people
2019 Bartolo Mascarello Dolcetto d’Alba - A great dolcetto that drank really well
2016 Milos Plavac - Singing at the moment and a singular wine, the best of Dalmatia in a bottle
White WOTY:
2022 Hofgut Falkenstein Krettnacher Euchariusberg Kugel Peter - Tight upon opening, though drinking really well, AND a month later a lot more going on and just terrific!
2022 Weingut Seehof Westhofener Kirchspiel Riesling trocken - loved everything about it
2018 Ronchi di Cialla Ribolla Gialla - continues having that terrific drive and substance and feels like it will keep going for ages
Champagne:
NV Henin-Delouvin Champagne Harmonie Brut - for the price, excellent
Suenen Oiry BdB GC - Probably the better wine of the two but had less focus and time to follow this bottle
Since, except very minor explorations this year, I’ll add a learning of the year - Grk might not age as well as I had expected, hope. The acidity and its structure, together with the fruit profile had me thinking they would age really well. Perhaps related to the winemaking (?), as almost all are made to be enjoyed quite early.
So what has been the issue - they develop some sort of at times pronounced milky/lactic flavors, it faded a bit with one bottle (out of three), but for the other two it remained quite prominent. 2016 was the vintage. Not sure I have come across this in any other wines, and two independent producers showed this character. Lets see how they develop over the coming years, but will try some of the more recent vintages to the mix in 2025.
Discovery of the year - How good many of my favorite wines that I have had less of in previous years (in the cellar but been focused on exploring) are!
Will add a discovery of the year to my wines of the year posted earlier:
2023 Zeitgeist Chenin Blanc
Really tasty and everyone enjoy it. Had to go back and buy some more, which I’ve never done for a white wine (my cellar is probably 90% still red wine, as that’s what my wife and I love to drink).
OK everyone. We have absolutely shattered any previous numbers for contributions. I have our count at 937 entries by people. Bravissimo!
I will work on the tabulation tonight, but it looks like Rousseau is the clear house winner with over 20 mentions and—perhaps no surprise—2001 D’Yquem is in strong position to be wine of the year with 6 entries----the 06 Krug Clos Mesnil is just behind it with 5. I’ll do a full inventory later. Everything, as always, will be up in the OP and I will modify the title of the thread.
Because there were so many wines input this year, I will likely only list houses that got 8 or more mentions this time around (the floor for inclusion has usually been 5). Be back with all of that later. Thank you again, everyone—this is always such fun to read and put together.
@Mike_Grammer, thanks for the work compiling the list. Here’s a tip. If you want your wines to make the list, share them with fellow Berserkers. In addition to the 2001 d’Yquem, each of the following got multiple votes from different Berserkers who drank them with each other (and they all made my list as well):
A bit late to the party, as is usual, but I finally managed to enter my final TN from 2024 to Cellartracker, so finally I can check out my highest-scoring wines for the year! And since I doubt my entries are going to make any kind of changes to the final tally, I don’t mind they come in so late. I hope you don’t, either!
Anyways, my entries are:
Kopke 50 Years Old Tawny (98 pts.)
2010 Albert Gessinger Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese ** Alte Reben Caldo Infernale (98 pts.)
1968 Taylor (Fladgate) Porto Vintage Quinta de Vargellas (97 pts.)
2001 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie (97 pts.)
2010 Albert Gessinger Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese ** Alte Reben Caldo Infernale (again, this time 97 pts.)
N.V. Taylor (Fladgate) Porto 50 Year Old Tawny Golden Age (97 pts.)
I guess you have to make sweet stuff to make it to the top echelon - only one dry wine here!
(Also one beer made it to the top as well - 2023 Nøgne Ø Dark Horizon 8 Sherry Edition, 97 pts.)
Clocking in at 1549 tasting notes for 2024, this was a lot more material than what I have written in a long time - I haven’t written this many tasting notes in a single year since 2015 (when I wrote 1775 notes)! This might be one of the reasons why I’ve been falling back on my backlog; since 2020 I’ve been writing about 1000-1250 notes per year, so apparently 2024 was a pleasant 20-50% increase from my regular TN rate!
I know this thread has been resurrected from the dead, but wanted to chime in that I just had my first Ledrus ('14 and '15) a couple of weeks ago, and they really are incredible wines. I get the hype. So severe, crisp, mineral, and intense (especially the '14). Very cool wines. It’s unfortunate where the pricing has went with these (retired great artist premium and all).
I did not have the 2001 Yquem last year so could not vote for it. But, having had it several times over the year, I have to say that it is a great wine and a worthy wine of the year.
