Surrounded by the premier wine merchants of Hong Kong last Friday, James spoke in a webinar with six distinguished Napa Valley winemakers in what he called, “a jam session about the incredible 2018 vintage.”
Leading up to this event, James tasted 700 bottles of 2018 reds and whites from Napa Valley. He said that what he experienced was akin to greatness. James spoke of the harmony and balance of the wines, as well as their incredible drinkability, and winemaker Kristy Melton of Freemark Abbey noted the wines’ bright, refreshing quality, which she said was in strange contrast, yet existed alongside, its complexity.
For James, the tastings even harked back to his youth, when his father would share with him wines from the 1950s. According to Helen Keplinger of Kerr Cellars, the balance of the wines becomes apparent in the emergence of the canopies, which provided just the right amount of dappled light.
Join wine critic James Suckling with his special panel of winemakers from Napa Valley as they discuss the exceptional 2018 vintage.
