“I am totally with Oscar Wilde who said “everything in moderation, including moderation,”,” writes Krebiehl.
Oh what a year this has been! Thank heavens for wine is all I can say – a glass or two of fizz came as a goddess-send this year. And while I know that moderation is key* and I should not be extolling the dangerous habit of comfort drinking, wine’s power to take the edge off some crazy days was welcome this year. In fact, I believe the goddesses gave us wine precisely to ease our cares of an evening and to dispel just a little of that tension and anguish that filled the day. But before I get too sombre, there were plenty of glasses raised with friends and loved ones, we clinked glasses with laughter, joy and love. So what were my most memorable wines? Since I tasted some stupendous stuff this year, I am deliberately choosing bottles here that I drank rather than just tasted.
Well, I do start backwards: it was a festive dinner with wine-loving friends in December that held two fabulous bottles. Our porchetta roast set the Italian theme, so we started with a truly stupendous Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore 2002 – this is the iconic blanc de blancs from the Alpine heights of Trento and it sang: it was fresh as a daisy but so sonorous, so creamy! A joy. A little later that evening, a 2002 Cepparello from Isole & Olena came across almost Pinot-like in its maturity and elegance. Simply wonderful.
A month earlier, a truly unforgettable moment was marked by an old favourite: we toasted our engagement on the banks of the Thames, at dusk in the same spot where we had our first dates, with Nyetimber Classic Cuvée. Since we also had English fizz on our first date, this was totally apt and delicious. More Champagne followed that evening, but it is this wine that will be forever associated with that moment.
At long last, as probably the last wine person in London, I made it to Hunan. Two splendid wines stood out: Michel Gonet’s Les Hautes Mottes 2016 brut nature and Fürst Centgrafenberg Spätburgunder 2012. The first absolutely tense, brisk, deliciously bracing and pure, the latter scented, tenderly and deeply fruited.
Back in summer, just to prove that I drink wines other than traditional method fizz and Pinot Noir, I delighted in the perfume of Pofadder Die Ouwingerdreeks 2020 by the Sadie Family – one of the most gorgeous Cinsaults I have ever had. The next wine, likewise, was South African: I adored Iona Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc 2021. It combines intense and saline freshness with a wondrously delicious creaminess. Simply gorgeous. And Rosé Ex Machina 2016 by Sugrue South Downs was a dream on one of those bright summer evenings, wonderfully vivid and seemingly effortless yet profound.
Back in the early winter months at the beginning of this year, we enjoyed Jamie Kutch’s Mindego Ridge Pinot Noir 2019 from the Santa Cruz Mountains and my old fave, Peay’s Scallop Shelf Pinot Noir 2019 from the Sonoma Coast. Both just ringing with that perfume that combines conifer, blood orange, Pacific and Ceylon tea. Dreamy stuff. A special Pinot Noir mention must also go to Gutter & Stars Pinot Noir 2021 – translucent, tender and utterly poetic – it is made by my fellow writer Chris Wilson. And amidst a lot of really gorgeous Champagne, one stood out André Robert Les Jardins du Mesnil Extra-Brut NV.
And for just those moments that I mentioned earlier, when a glass of fizz is needed, even when it is a Wednesday night and you are trying not to splurge, it was Graham Beck’s Brut Rosé NV that gave me much pleasure with its bright fruitiness and fresh fizz. It always performs and must be one of the UK’s best value wines.
*as regards moderation, I am totally with Oscar Wilde who said “everything in moderation, including moderation.” I am sure he would have loved my favourite hashtag #fizzforever
