And so this is Christmas. Another year almost in the books and a time for reflection on events receded, goals unheeded and the wines we needed. The latter category, of course, is a continual build, and so we march boldly into the holiday season having lined up a few more bottles tied to sweet memories as well as kith and kin.
Each of the top guns at JamesSuckling.com has his or her own favorite yuletide bottle, and many of these will be uncorked in an attempt to unleash the best Christmas (or otherwise) vibes possible on the special day. In sharing our Christmas wine picks, we hope you, too, can savor the finest offerings of the season, both in bottle and spirit.
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JAMES SUCKLING, EDITOR/CHAIRMAN:
Ever since living in England in the 1990s, I have enjoyed serving a vintage Port during Christmas lunch. I remember some rather spectacular ones, such as a 1948 Taylor and 1955 Dow, while finishing a Christmas lunch in the English countryside with an aged Cuban cigar. Those days are long gone, but I still like the tradition. It highlights, as I write often, the wonderful time message a bottle can generate when you open and drink it.
So, I will be decanting a bottle of Martinez Vintage Port 1967 for Christmas lunch at my apartment in Hong Kong with two dear friends and my Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk. I have drunk it a number of times, and it’s a balanced and linear Port with a subdued richness and lovely length. I will decant it a couple of hours before serving. And when I sip that beautiful 1967 Port, I will think back to past Christmas celebrations in England and other parts of the world as well as etch memories of the current one. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
JO COOKE, TASTINGS EDITOR:
I’ll be popping the cork on the beautiful Castiglion del Bosco Brunello di Montalcino Campo del Drago 2018 to go with the Christmas turkey this year. 2018 is the latest vintage of Brunello and, as James noted in our recent Brunello annual report, the wines don’t always show excellent balance and drinkability. But many do, and this one does in spades: it shows delicious ripe fruit, velvety tannins and great length. I don’t often drink young Brunello but am looking forward to this. Yum! Can’t wait.
STUART PIGOTT, SENIOR EDITOR:
I always pick wines that I have some personal connection with for Christmas, because they bring back those special moments of discovery.
When I visited the Standish Wine Company in Australia’s Barossa Valley with James and the team on the afternoon of Oct. 4 this year, I knew nothing except that some of Dan Standish’s wines had been given high ratings in the past. It was a cold wet day and I felt exhausted from hard work in the tasting room.
Then the Standish Wine Company Barossa Valley The Schubert Theorem 2020 completely blew my mind. It had the kind of fragrance, creamy texture and incredible length of a great red Burgundy, but all the spice of the shiraz, aka syrah, grape. Tears came to my eyes and they may do so again on Christmas Day when I open the single bottle of this wine I was able to purchase from the German importer right after that tasting.
CLAIRE NESBITT, ASSOCIATE EDITOR:
I can’t remember a single Christmas where we didn’t open a bottle of Bordeaux, even though turkey, salmon and the trimmings (a Nesbitt household tradition) might normally call for a Burgundy. The pairing is in the atmosphere: it’s all about good company, hearty food and a wine that evokes something special for us. This year, we’re opening a bottle of Château Léoville Las Cases St.-Julien 1996 (James rated it 94 points when he worked at Wine Spectator) for Christmas lunch. It’s been a family favorite for as long as I can remember. My grandfather visited Bordeaux during the 1982 harvest and bought a couple of cases, and they told him it was the best season they could remember. He didn’t drink wine particularly often, but when he did he drank good wine. Next year would have been his 100th birthday, and we are opening this bottle in memory of him.
ZEKUN SHUAI, SENIOR EDITOR:
One bottle of wine never suffices for a Christmas feast, two is barely enough and four seems like too much. Three, though, is just the right number. In China, Christmas is not widely celebrated, but it creates the perfect opportunity for a festive gathering, and I plan to hit my favorite Mexican restaurant in Beijing, Pebbles, with my devout Christian neighbor, who also happens to be a devout wine lover.
I have one white wine, one red and one sweet on my Christmas list. The white, Envinate’s Palo Blanco 2019, is an old-vine palomino/listan blanco from the Canary Islands. The 2020 vintage was an impressive delivery from winemaker Roberto Santana, and I found it reductive, flinty and full of zest and verve when I tasted it with him during a Zoom session this year. I haven’t tried the 2019 vintage yet, but my expectations are high for this Atlantic white.
For the red, I’m picking something classic and refined. Bordeaux wines are perfect for getting the job done on this front, and few producers make finer and more delicate offerings than Haut-Bailly, a true classic from Pessac-Leognan.
The Château Haut-Bailly Pessac-Léognan 2009 comes from a more opulent vintage that gives this mineral and delicate wine some richness and structure. I tasted it when it was much younger and suspect it is currently in a phase where it has started to open up and has nuanced complexity but remains youthful and pure.
And no Christmas dinner in a Mexican restaurant would be complete without a proper dessert like a tres leches. And there is no better wine to go with the sweet and airy Aztec sponge cake than the Gaia Vinsanto 2004 from Santorini. I remember tasting this stunning wine in a Greek restaurant in London around Christmas six years ago. At the time, I was studying in Dijon at the Burgundy School of Business, and the wine came from Professor Steve Charters, who ordered a glass and was happy to share it with a few of us sitting around a long table. Almost everyone took a small sip of the assyrtiko-based wine, and it was luscious and delicious. I bought a bottle and put it in my luggage. Now, it’s time to pull out the cork, and it will bring back a sweet memory for Christmas.
KEVIN DAVY, TASTING MANAGER:
This Christmas I will be serving a bottle of Mayer Pinot Noir Yarra Valley Dr. Mayer 2020 during dinner. It’s a wine I keep close to my heart for many reasons, and I always savor it as a treat. Timo Mayer is a one-of-a-kind, and acclaimed, winemaker in Australia’s Yarra Valley who produces a wide range of natural wines of high definition.
2020 was a special vintage in the Yarra Valley, as the region was struck by a series of severe wildfires, resulting in the potential for serious smoke taint in the wines. But Timo is a master of whole-bunch fermentation and often opts for carbonic maceration – a technique that is well known in Beaujolais for getting wines through challenging years.
The result is bafflingly great – a pure, deep and fruit-driven wine with a silky texture and precision that makes it difficult to believe it came from a potentially calamitous vintage. The 2020 is an anomaly in its uniqueness and testament to what great winemakers can accomplish when they fully understand their terroirs. When I open this bottle, I will cheer how special 2020 was – the year I joined JamesSuckling.com full time and also the birth year of my son. This wine can only be a blessing for Christmas.
ANDRII STETSIUK, ASSOCIATE EDITOR:
This year, James and Marie have invited me to spend Christmas together. It’s a family day, and as I’m away from home and my mother in Ukraine, I’m grateful to find family here in Hong Kong.
As wine is our everything, you always feel excited and a little pressured choosing a bottle to bring to James’ house. Luckily, I think I understand what James and Marie like. I’m getting a bottle of Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2011, not because Champagne is a kind of a no-brainer, but because Comtes de Champagne is one of my longtime favorite Blanc de Blancs, for both quality and value. And I’m sure James will appreciate it too, as I know he always has an open case at his garage in Tuscany, so maybe opening a bottle will take us all away to some peaceful, homey moments.
BILLY CLARKE, SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR:
There is no season more suited to sweet wines than Christmas, and Klein Constantia’s Vin de Constance Natural Sweet Wine 2018 is my pick of the litter. After an indulgent meal of hearty bottles and heavy food, this wine is a nice refreshing finish that is sure to leave a mark. I’ve served it to guests before, and its distinct style and complexity always spark discussion – sometimes more than all the other wines served during the dinner.
It’s got Christmasy notes of fig and citrus fruit with orange zest and a hint of stem ginger on the palate. Great length, yet not too saccharinely overpowering like other sweet wines. It’s so vibrant, fresh and zesty you’d be forgiven if you thought it had some fresh juice inside it. It’s a super enjoyable after-dinner refreshment that guarantees the evening ends on a high note (so long as the confrontational in-laws haven’t killed each other by this point).
