Top 10 Wines of 2013

I drink a lot of wine, and over this past year have been able to share many great bottles with an array of people. In part to remember for my own sake, and also maybe one or two of you out there might be interested, I have narrowed the best down from memory to ten wines from this past year. Four white, four red, and two sparkling one being true Champagne and the other from elsewhere. If you get the chance to taste these wines, do it!

Whites

Gerard Boulay Sancerre Chavignol 2011-

Tasted in the Spring soon after its arrival, this wine instantly hit me. It was a nice Spring early afternoon turning to night, and upon opening the aromatics were intense and beckoned you to pay attention. Ah! How could a ~$30.00 wine be so grand and great!! Flint, smoke, cool Loire air, turning into mineral with nice acidity. In my mind I could picture the Loire River, meandering through vineyards and seeing a house in the distance billowing smoke from its chimney, with that and the fresh river air, the nose was made. Impeccable. The way Sauvignon Blanc should be.

Clemens Busch Marienburg 1er Felseterracen 2008-

Consumed after harvesting this historic and breathtaking vineyard, Felseterracen is the Busch family's prized plot. 80+ pre-phylloxera vines terraced between two dramatic gagged stone formations on an intense slope of the Marienburg Mountain. Light blue slate makes up the soil. Electric laser acidity in the mouth! Think the scene from Moonraker where they are fighting in space with lasers. No malolactic here. Acidity and coolness gives way to minerality that is unmistakable. This will be even more amazing with age.

Scholium Project Phillips Farm "Rhododactylos" 2011-

Named after the Goddess of Dawn, with the colour to match. Chef Tucker at the Clifton and I had ordered an eight pack of wines from Abe at Scholium following the brilliant New York Times article on the winery and Abe, and were slowly working our way through the wines after work. If you have ever had or seen his wines before, you know that the labels are all similar in that it may say the name of the wine or vineyard site, but doesn't tell you much more than that. Tucker and I would mostly go in blind with them, and read about them after to figure out what was special about the wine and where and from what it was made from. We popped this bottle, and began tasting. Almond, a little oxidative, but acidity and the clutch to make you want more. So mooreish, quaffable, attention grabbing, just, utterly unbelievably delicious! I hadn't any idea what I was drinking, I just knew that I loved it and could drink it till eternity's end. After a quick search, with disbelief we were drinking 140 year old vine Cinsault, from California! Wow! Made with a little skin contact, Tucker called it from the beginning that there was bit of tone in the pigment of the wine, a slight sparkle of orange-ish to pink, to drink until dawn.

Donnhoff Grauburgunder Trocken 2011-

Surprising. Cleansing. Refreshing! Made from the greatest winemaker in the world in my opinion, this was drunk in the wee hours in the morning at Maision Ilan in Nuits-St-Georges, Burgundy. We had been sorting all day (Monts Luisant if memory serves..) and were finally getting cleaned up. We had gone through a bunch of bottles that day, including other wines from Donnhoff ('08 Oberhauser Brucke Eisweine,) but this was really singing and so, so refreshing and delicious. Nothing to think about and nothing out of place, just a clean straightforward wine that was firing on all cylinders at the moment on a damp cold night in Burgundy.

Reds

Henri Gouges "Clos des Porrets" Premier Cru 1957-

A word to the wise, when opening something as epic as this don't wait till the end of the night. Last night working at Maison Ilan with Ray Walker, whom works out of Henri Gouges old house and cellar. He left a few bottles that were there when Ray started renting the place, this being one of them. Drank on the same day as my mom's birthday, from her birth year. Jaw dropping. Still intact.  Brown leather, dark old red cherry and deep anise-y spices ground into a mortar and pestle. Potpourri.  Still some acidity. How much longer could this live on for?!

Olivier Cousin Grolleau Vielles Vignes 2010-

First meal out after days of intense harvest work and little to eat in Burgundy. It was luxurious and needed to have a warm meal, and we decided to go to "Les Comptoir des Tontons" in Beaune following a recommendation from my friend. I have been seeking out Cousin's wines for sometime after reading about his fight with the government over AOC rules and him scoffing the system. This wine was 18E!!! on the list and I forced the table to agree to ordering it. (We were in Burgundy after all, and they were just as educated in wine as me, so I had to be forceful to get what I wanted!) Right as this was being poured the first courses came, and the pairing was a hit. I had ordered a braised tripe dish that was sitting in a pool of gelatin rich jus, and the wine ceremoniously stood right alongside it. This wine was pure funk. Black olives and gripping tannin followed by steel and copper. Dark and deep looking in the glass with an edge of neon purple on the lip. So fun to drink, a brilliant and just great wine from an honest farmer in the Loire. So utterly cheap! A reminder that great wine doesn't have to be expensive to be life changing. Search it out!

Domaine Fourrier Gevrey Chambertin aux Echezeaux Vielles Vignes 2008-

Taken blind against 2? other wines during an afternoon in Burgundy. The other was a Henri Jouan from same vineyard site and year?(memory is foggy). The Jouan was nice, easy going, bright fruit and easy to digest. (As I soon came to perceive all of his wines as.) The Fourrier on the other hand was in a tough spot. It had so much to tell, so much power sitting in the glass. It wasn't expressing it at the time, but it was there. It was emanating and contagious. On that day I was singular being the only one that enjoyed this more than the Jouan, and it was without a doubt in my opinion the clear winner. It was so intense, so focused, perhaps confused at this time, but the wine was a thinking and one day will be so brilliant. It makes me excited to this day, and confused at the same time. I hope to revisit it one day in the future, and see how far along it has come. These are the wines that make you love wine, ones that don't show everything, they seduce you and for the true wine lovers, make you come back for more. 

Domaine Francois Berthaeu Bonnes Mares Grand Cru 2010-

Blind, same day as the Fourrier above. Enamored. Pure pinot. I hadn't a clue what was in my glass, only that it was the purest and most beautiful expression of pinot that I had ever tasted. Cherry, anise, and herbaceous. The room fell silent and the air was tense-everyone was pulsing. This wine was beautiful. 

Sparkling

Vigneto Saetti Lambrusco Rose 2011-

Man oh man this wine is utterly delicious. Drank on multiple occasions. Beautiful pink hue, strawberry but a bit darker. Flush mousse with yeast acid driven pink and red fruits. My god this is just a beautiful and delicious wine, drinkable everyday and reminds you why you love wine so much. A true crowd pleaser! 

Jerome Prevost La Closerie "Fac-Similie" Extra Brut Rose 2010-

I have a giant crush on this producer, and last year searched out this rare bottling for my birthday present to myself. The regular "Les Beguines" bottling is absolutely beautiful and search worthy, and this is no exception either. 100% Pinot Meunier, I wish we had decanted this or given it more time and attention. Nonetheless a beautiful rose Champagne, bread, yeast, and ripe red stone fruit and roses on the nose. Oh my is this a fantastic wine. I hope to taste one day a bottle with some age on it, and I hope in 2014 I will get the chance to taste this again. Heaven is found here. Who doesn't love rose champagne???