Weekly Tasting Report (Dec 21-30): 2020 wrap-up

This will be our last weekly report for the year. It’s been a memorable one to say the least and for obvious reasons. I hope that you have been safe and that family and business matters have been better than expected under the current pandemic. We managed to rate almost 18,000 wines in 2020 and I would like to thank my team for their work and coordination in reviewing so many wines.

I also want to thank you as a reader and follower for counting on us for our wine reviews and wine buying information. We will try to do even better in 2021 under the circumstances. And we look forward to getting out to wine country next year no matter where it may be to taste the wines, meet the producers and walk the vineyards. We still do Zoom calls just about every week but it’s not the same!

This report includes rating for just slightly more than 450 wines with most of them from myself and my tasting team in Hong Kong as well as Nick Stock in Australia with about 110 New Zealand wines. The tasting period covers 10 days. 

California accounted for most of the top ratings over the period with names like Dalla Valle and Tor taking the top kudos including the Dalla Valle Napa Valley Maya 2018, Tor Napa Valley Black Magic 2018, and Tor Napa Valley Pure Magic Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard 2018. All the wines received scores of 98 points. The last wine in the list is a new super selection from Tor Kenward from Vine Hill Ranch and his team from one of my favorite vineyards in the Oakville AVA with a long history of making great wines. Wine grapes have been grown there since the 1880s and the Phillips family have been providing wonderful fruit for producers for about a half a century.

The three wines highlight the excellence of the 2018 vintage for Napa Valley where a long growing season enabled key producers to make balanced and structured wines. We have already rated more than 500 wines from Napa in the last three weeks and we are impressed with the almost European sensibility to the wines with their beautiful structure and focus leaving much of the flamboyant and intense fruit of past vintages aside for finesse and relative elegance.

Nick has also been finishing a report on New Zealand rating almost 400 wines over the last six weeks and it appears that the country is releasing some excellent quality pinot noirs and chardonnays, particularly long time leaders such as Ata Rangi, Mt. Difficulty and Sacred Hill in this report: Ata Rangi Pinot Noir Martinborough McCrone Vineyard 2017, Mt. Difficulty Pinot Noir Central Otago Bannockburn Single Vineyard Long Gully 2018 and the Sacred Hill Chardonnay Hawkes Bay Riflemans 2019. The 2017 and 2019 are two excellent vintages while the 2018 has its charm despite the difficult grape growing season.

In addition, it’s worth noting that I tasted a few top Brunello di Montalcinos and the 2015 vintage continues to wow. The combination of ripe fruit, solid tannins and brilliant freshness makes this the greatest year ever for the famous Tuscan region. The 2016 is close too, but more tannic and slightly austere. It’s one for the cellar.

There’s lots of great bottles for the cellar in this week’s report so check it out and be safe. Happy New Year and here’s to drinking more great wines in 2021!

– James Suckling, editor