My year-end wine review found me leafing through notes on the 4,000 or so wines I tasted in 2018 to select my \u201cbest of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, it was surprisingly tough to choose only 10 top experiences, writes\u00a0Elin McCoy. The pages of my notebooks are studded with stars, especially for vintages of fine Bordeaux (including 2016s), California cabernets from wineries celebrating 40th and 50th anniversaries of their founding, and luxury Champagnes from the superb 2008 vintage.<\/p>\n
The wines that made the biggest impression, though, were those that made me reflect on where the wine world has been and where it\u2019s headed.<\/p>\n
This year, my picks range from a Champagne-quality blanc de blancs sparkler from New Zealand to a cult syrah from Washington state to an unusual bargain from the remote island of Pantelleria, along with a grand, sweet wine that\u2019s one of the world\u2019s best values.<\/p>\n
Overlooked grapes, undervalued classics, dry wines from sweet wine regions, and new sparkling wines will help shape what we drink in 2018.<\/p>\n
2016 Marco de Bartoli Integer Zibibbo ($30)<\/strong><\/p>\n On my first-ever visit to the remote Italian island of Pantelleria, I found my bargain of the year: this fragrant, powerful, dry white, with citrus and chamomile flavors. It\u2019s made from native grape zibibbo, used only for the island\u2019s famous sweet passito wine until Sicilian winemaker Marco de Bartoli saw its dry-style potential. His son Sebastiano ferments the grapes for this wine on the skins, like an orange wine. We sipped this vintage on the winery terrace overlooking vines planted in volcanic sand.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one more example of how sweet wine regions (think Tokaji) are making dry wines from their grapes.<\/p>\n 2007 Klein Constantia Vin de Constance ($95, 500ml)<\/strong><\/p>\n This opulent, apricot-colored nectar from South Africa is one of the world\u2019s great sweet wines, prized by Napoleon and Queen Victoria. I\u2019d never tasted this superb vintage until it was served at a small dinner at Pomerol\u2019s Ch\u00e2teau Clinet, alongside the great 2007 Ch\u00e2teau d\u2019Yquem.<\/p>\n It stood up to the comparison. The Vin de Constance was as complex and rich but at one-fifth the price of Yquem\u2014which doesn\u2019t have to battle\u00a0baboons to survive.<\/p>\n NV No. 1 Family Estate No. 1 Reserve ($96)<\/strong><\/p>\n My surprise of the year was a brilliant sparkling wine discovered on a weeks-long tasting tour of New Zealand. I sampled it with winemaker Daniel Le Brun after he knocked off the neck of the bottle with a saber.<\/p>\n The crisp blanc de blancs has deep lemony fruit and toasty notes; like his fabulous, impossible-to-find luxury cuv\u00e9es Virginie and Adele, it rivals Champagne quality. Le Brun, a Champagne native, pioneered the traditional sparkling-wine making method in Marlborough decades ago.<\/p>\n 1990 Mount Eden Cabernet Sauvignon Old Vine Reserve ($150)<\/strong><\/p>\n I attended half a dozen retrospectives of California cabernets this year, but the one that most stood out was at Mount Eden Vineyards, perched 2,000 feet up in the Santa Cruz Mountains.<\/p>\n Luckily, my rental car had four-wheel drive for the two-mile ascent on a twisting dirt road. Longtime winemaker Jeffrey Patterson lined up vintages 1990 to 2000 of his estate cabernet sauvignon and Old Vine Reserve cabernet for me to compare.<\/p>\n The 1990 Old Vine Reserve was one of my several favorites, with cigar box and berry aromas and layers of deep, rich fruit\u2014proof that Napa cabernets are not the only ones that age with dignity. It\u2019s nearly impossible to find outside online auctions, so look for the 2011, 2012, or 2013 estate cabernet, for about $75 a bottle.<\/p>\n 2014 Cayuse Syrah Cailloux Vineyard Walla Walla Valley ($270)<\/strong><\/p>\n At Matter of Taste, a wine weekend put on in New York by Robert M. Parker\u2019s The Wine Advocate, Washington state vigneron Christophe Baron presided over a rare seminar on his cult syrahs.<\/p>\n All had the spicy complexity of the best northern Rh\u00f4ne reds. I loved his best-known wine, Bionic Frog, but gave the edge to this structured yet succulent syrah from a single vineyard that showed a plush core of fruit overlaid with leathery notes.<\/p>\n Washington state wines should be more widely loved!<\/p>\n 2015 Bonny Doon Vineyard Popelouchum Grenache (not yet priced)<\/strong><\/p>\n This delicious grenache was an exciting taste of the future: an experimental first vintage from winemaker-pundit Randall Grahm\u2019s new project on California\u2019s Central Coast.<\/p>\n The ambitious idea behind his Popelouchum (Pop-loh-shoom) estate is to create an American grand cru\u2014a unique, great wine that reflects American terroir.<\/p>\n He also wants to \u201coutsmart\u201d climate change, partly by using biochar (a charcoal product) to help soil retain water. With pure red-fruit and licorice flavors and the succulent texture of a Burgundy, it\u2019s Grahm\u2019s best wine yet.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not available commercially, but the 2019 vintage will be.<\/p>\n 1947 Ch\u00e2teau Smith Haut Lafitte Rouge (about $500)<\/strong><\/p>\n Just before the official en primeur tasting week in Bordeaux, the owners of Ch\u00e2teau Smith Haut Lafitte, Florence and Daniel Cathiard, invited me to a vertical tasting of their red\u2014eight vintages that end\u00a0in the number seven, from a barrel sample of 2017 back to one from 1947.<\/p>\n Most were poor years\u2014until the final one in the lineup:\u00a0The year 1947 brought one of the few legendary vintages of the 20th century for Bordeaux. The 71-year old wine was still brimming with life, spice, leather, and fading cherry aromas, soft red fruit flavors, and a long, long finish.<\/p>\n Of the others, 1977 was the worst; it was green and not attractive.<\/p>\n The years 1957, 1967, and 1997 were slightly better;\u00a02007 was\u00a0light but pretty, while 1987 still had lovely savor and fruit. The 2017 was looking good, with a silky texture and attractive notes of fruit and cassis.<\/p>\n Why do\u00a0 this? It\u2019s a great way to show how the wines of the estate, even in poor years, have evolved.<\/p>\n 1995 Louis Roederer Cristal Vinotheque ($1,300)<\/strong><\/p>\n Last summer, I lunched with visionary winemaker Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon at Maison Louis Roederer\u2019s elegant 19th century H\u00f4tel Particulier in Reims, filled with contemporary art.<\/p>\n We sampled several grand vintages of Cristal Champagne, including the 1995 Cristal Vinotheque, a new, further-aged version first released last year. Only 400 bottles were made.<\/p>\n It\u2019s wonderfully seductive, combining ultra-fine bubbles with a silk and velvet texture, aromas of truffles, and enormous complexity.<\/p>\n 2015 Domaine de la Roman\u00e9e-Conti, Roman\u00e9e-Conti ($25,000)<\/strong><\/p>\n For a Burgundy aficionado such as myself, Domaine de la Roman\u00e9e-Conti\u2019s annual pre-release tasting is special, a rare chance to compare the same vintage of all the domaine\u2019s eight wines, each from a grand cru vineyard.<\/p>\n 2015 was a perfect year, with the best growing conditions in 50 years\u2014so said co-owner Aubert de Villaine, who\u2019s not given to exaggeration.<\/p>\n This one, from the Domaine\u2019s tiny Roman\u00e9e-Conti vineyard, was vinous perfection, with amazing floral aromas and layers of opulent, savory fruit. Will it be as legendary as the 1945, which sold for $558,000 a bottle at auction this year? Maybe. We\u2019ll have to wait a few decades to see if it stays fabulous as it ages.<\/p>\n 1846 Old Sercial Madeira (5-gallon demijohn, at Christie\u2019s auction, $39,500)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I was one of few people to witness the recorking of a demijohn of this 19th century Madeira in a cold warehouse in New York\u2019s Bronx borough\u00a0and later to sample it at a pre-auction tasting at Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n Dry, tangy, rich, and salty, with piercing acidity, this\u00a0was a taste from another time\u2014172-years-old\u2014with a violets-and-vanilla aroma that lingered, even in an empty glass.<\/p>\n Discovered hidden in New Jersey\u2019s Liberty Hall Museum, the wine underscored the notion that Madeira is\u00a0 immortal.<\/p>\n
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