We’re marking another year off the calendar here at JamesSuckling.com in the time-honored tradition of hoisting a few great bottles with family and friends for all the memories the past 365 days have given us. And what a year it’s been – again! Through all its ups and downs, 2022 has at least consistently brought us excellent wines, if nothing else. The 32,000-plus wines we rated over the past year from all the world’s major wine countries and regions have been a joy to uncork, and we look forward to more of the same next year.
But onto the New Year’s celebrations. Each of the JamesSuckling.com staff members has his or her own favorite wine lined up for the Eve or Day, depending on their celebratory inclinations, offering you a glimpse into how some of the finest wine minds in the business work when it comes to picking that just-right bottle. Let’s start with our own No. 1, James Suckling.
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JAMES SUCKLING, EDITOR/CHAIRMAN:
I was thinking about what Champagne to serve for New Year’s Eve. At first, I thought about a fancy bottle like a rare vintage of Krug or a collectible year of Dom Perignon, but I just want to drink a solid non-vintage during the evening with friends and members of my team at James Suckling Wine Central, our restaurant in Soho, Hong Kong. And I want to drink a number of bottles. It’s New Year’s Eve, right? So, it’s gotta be the Louis Roederer Champagne Collection 243 Brut NV.
The blended Champagne never disappoints, and it’s based mostly on chardonnay with the rest being pinot noir and pinot meunier – 42 percent, 36 percent and 22 percent, respectively. This is only the second release of the Collection bottling after last year, when the 242 was launched. It’s a change from Roederer’s Brut Premier, whereby all the wines are now from their organically grown vineyards as well as an evolving solera blend called the “perpetual reserve,” and 10 percent other reserve wines aged in oak barrels.
“We wanted to link or best-selling Champagne to our terroirs,” Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon said to me last June while I tasted with him and the cellarmaster at their winery in Reims.
The Louis Roederer Champagne Collection 243 Brut NV is really well priced for the quality, and I appreciate its vinous and complex aromas and flavors. Wine Searcher says the average price is $64 in the United States, but I think you can find it for a little less. Happy New Year!
JO COOKE, TASTINGS EDITOR:
The only problem about living in Italy, especially in a small seaside village on the Tuscan coast, is that it’s tough to get hold of any decent wine from anywhere in the world outside Italy itself. Well, perhaps that’s not the only problem, though the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages. But if you’re a riesling fan like me, it’s enough of a headache. Luckily, my JamesSuckling.com colleague, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott, takes pity on me, regularly sending me a six-pack of German or Austrian riesling jewels from his home base in Germany to keep the smile on my face.
The latest, very welcome box arrived just in time for Christmas and, I’m afraid, has been too hastily devoured. But I managed to save the last bottle for the New Year festivities. A couple of friends are coming over for an aperitivo before we hit the town, and I’m going to open the Korrell Riesling Nahe Paradies Trocken 2015, which Stuart described in his tasting note as a “unique Nahe wine!” What more could you ask for?
And I’ll raise the first glass with a toast to Stuart. Thanks mate!
STUART PIGOTT, SENIOR EDITOR:
My first encounter with my New Year’s wine was a revelation. There had always been a gaping chasm between cool-climate Germany’s sparkling wine potential and the reality in the glass. That is until I picked up my first glass of Aldinger Sekt Württemberg Brut Nature 2013 in June 2020.
Tasting the first German sparkling wine that could hold its own against all but the very best Prestige Cuvée Champagnes was unforgettable. Like them it was made from a blend of chardonnay (49 percent), pinot noir (30 percent) and pinot meunier (21 percent). Also like them it spent years maturing on the lees from the second fermentation in the bottle (five years and two months).And the result is a wonderful richness and complexity without the slightest hint of heaviness.
Sadly, I’ve only got one bottle left and I haven’t found it on the secondary market, so, on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 31, I will wave goodbye to it along with 2022.
Let’s all hope for lots of good news and great wines in 2023!
ZEKUN SHUAI, SENIOR EDITOR:
When we turn the page on 2022, China will have finally turned the page on its strict Covid policies. After three years of trying to curb the pandemic through quarantines and ubiquitous tests, the country will finally be able to let its guard down and enjoy whatever 2023 brings.
There is no better wine than a great Chinese red to mark the problematic 2022. I’ll be toasting with a recently rated wine and one of the top-scoring reds from China this year, the Chapter and Verse Merlot Huailai Reserve 诗百篇珍藏美乐 2017.
The Chapter and Verse winemaking team is led by Zhao Desheng, a celebrated winemaker who is also at the helm of Domaine Franco-Chinois – China’s first grower of marselan and petit manseng.
The reds of 2017 have similar richness and density to the warm 2014 and 2019, but they are even more structured and less fleshy than the equally compact but slightly more opulent 2019. It is a vintage where Bordeaux grapes shined. Syrah and tempranillo, too.
The 2017 Reserve Merlot is glossy, deep yet sophisticated, with dusty cocoa powder, iron and an almost bloody character to the dense plummy fruit. There is lots of resolve and freshness in this long and full-bodied merlot, framed by complete, plush tannins. It is a wine that wowed me when I tasted it in the winery just a few days ago, and I bought a bottle because it will be a perfect way to say goodbye to 2022 and kick off 2023.
CLAIRE NESBITT, ASSOCIATE EDITOR:
It’s always a Champagne for me at New Year’s. This year, I will be celebrating with a few close friends in Hong Kong and I’ve chosen the N.24 iteration of Laurent Perrier’s Grand Siecle. Their prestige cuvee is always a blend of three exceptional years and spends more than 10 years on the lees in their cellars.
To me, it’s a Champagne that inspires thought and reflection and is an apt wine with which to say goodbye to 2022: an extreme whirlwind of a year, from no travel since the start of the pandemic to spending six months on the road with JamesSuckling.com, alongside personal milestones.
N.24 is a blend of chardonnay and pinot noir base wines from 2007, 2006 and 2004. It walks the tightrope of complexity and elegance, avoiding any heaviness or richness, perhaps in part due to Laurent-Perrier’s meticulously precise, stainless steel-only winemaking. It was showing serious structure and phenolic tension when we first tasted it three years ago, and I am very much looking forward to popping open a bottle this weekend to welcome in 2023.
KEVIN DAVY, TASTING MANAGER:
2022 was a year of reopening and 2023 should be a return to normality. This New Year’s Eve, I will therefore pop a bottle of Henri Giraud Champagne Argonne Brut 2012.
2023 will mark my 10th anniversary in Hong Kong, and 2012 was the year I decided to pursue wine as a career and not just as a passion. It was also in 2012 that I first cracked open Henri Giraud’s Champagnes, but it was in Hong Kong that I tasted Argonne for the first time. Named after the forest from which the barriques used in fermenting the wines originate from, the wine is an inspired decision by the winery to use the proximity of the forest to its best advantage.
Argonne is a wine above all, and I will enjoy it before, during and after the meal, one sip at a time. I will toast to nice memories and “future nostalgias.” Happy New Year, everyone!
