As 2024 comes to a close the team at Farr Vintners have put together a list of their favourite wines of the year.
As before, these are not necessarily the most expensive or coveted bottles we have opened in the last 12 months, but ones that have stood out from the crowd. There are of course some very rare, unicorn wines including Cheval Blanc 1934 and a port from the 1800s, but there are wines built around occasion, people and potential, with wines that are still available and that you won't need a loan to buy.
Imogen Taylor writes...
Lorenzo Accomasso Barolo 2015 - Despite a career spanning 60+ years, I had only ever read about reclusive Barolo producer Lorenzo Accomasso. An arch-traditionalist who has spent his career shunning the limelight and all praise that has come his way, Accomasso sells his Barolos only when he feels they are ready and thinks nothing of leaving them for a decade in cask before bottling them. Selected by and drunk with Giuseppe Vajra and friends after a wonderful day exploring Barolo’s vineyards.
Vincent and Tania Carême Terre Brûlée Le Blanc 2015 - Cheesy perhaps, but drunk at sunset sitting on the beach in Pembrokeshire having got engaged an hour before was pretty special. It may not have been vintage Champagne, but it was the next best thing! Produced by Vouvray winemaker Vincent and South African wife Tania Carême who also make a bit of Chenin Blanc in the Swartland, South Africa, just a few miles from where I worked my harvest some years ago. 9 years old and absolutely singing - delicious baked quince, stem ginger and honey.
Young wine of the year – 2020 Léoville Poyferré - Excellent, impressive and a snazzy bottle to boot. You need no further encouragement to buy this fantastic St Julien.
Tom Hudson writes...
Porseleinberg Syrah 2022 - Many good bottles have been enjoyed in 2024 but I’d like to single out something which isn’t especially flash or particularly expensive either. Porseleinberg Syrah 2022. South African wines were not my thing in the past – many of them still aren’t – but this absolutely is ! It’s only the 13th vintage made of this exceptional wine originating from a marginal rugged vineyard situated on the top of a mountain in Swartland. Nor is the man who makes it flash either. Winemakers don’t come much more straightforward or modest than Callie Louw. But he is something of a genius. And he’s managed to create a wine which has fabulous purity, balance, definition, precision and power. I’m sure he’s bored (perhaps even a little insulted ?) of being told that his wine tastes like Jamet (J-P) Côte Rôtie but this is an expression of Syrah which has Northern Rhône characteristics while very much retaining its own unique personality. 2022 is the most recent release and the wine just seems to get better year on year. A super perfumed nose with distinctive ‘fynbos’ and garrigue notes transports you to the landscape of Southern Africa. Milled black & white peppercorns too. So ripe and yet so fresh. Smooth, velvety & rich but with wonderful tension and poise. Individual, rustic and still so pure and precise. An amazingly long, enduring, clean finish. The French like to talk about ‘terroir’ and this wine certainly has that in spades. But without wanting to sound pretentious it’s got something else too: soul !
Stephen Browett writes...
2024 was a spectacularly good year for opening great wines that are close to my heart as I approached my 65th birthday. First up, an old friend and customer (who I have known for over 40 years and is a fellow 1959 baby) brought a bottle of Latour 1959 to Chez Bruce. It was absolutely perfect and the very essence of Pauillac and Cabernet Sauvignon. It actually brought a tear to my eye.
In September we celebrated my 40 years at Farr Vintners with a multitude of big bottles at our office by the Thames. I’d been saving my jeroboam of Canon 1959 for a decade or two and finally decided to pull the cork. It was so youthful and smooth – very much unlike myself.
Talking of birthdays, my friend Tony’s 60th was celebrated with style as we drank Haut Brion, La Mission, Latour and Cheval Blanc 1964 in magnums. These were all fantastic, but the Cheval Blanc probably just clinched it. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest vintages ever from this legendary Chateau and pure perfection in magnum
And finally, a dinner that will live long in the memory took place in my garden in early September on the last warm evening of a not very warm Summer. Dan Keeling of Noble Rot has taken the expression “If not now, when?” to heart and the rules of entry for this one were simple. Bring the best wine from your cellar. It was one of those magical moments when everything fell perfectly into place and the stars aligned. Another bottle of Cheval Blanc 1964 was produced and then, by an amazing co-incidence, was followed by a bottle of Cheval Blanc 1934. A legend that none of us will ever taste again. At precisely 90 years from when the grapes were picked, this was a wine that really lived up to its mythical reputation. The night got even better when my friend Tim’s perfect bottle of 1990 Rayas (that he bought with his staff discount at Loeb’s nearly 30 years ago) was trumped by a bottle of the unworldly Rayas 1978. Happy Days.
And, as I travelled the country watching Crystal Palace creep into the top half of the Premier League table, my three beers of the year :-
Jarl Citra – Fyne Ales in The Bodega, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Plateau - Burning Sky in The Black Horse Inn, Lewes
Batham’s Bitter in the car park of The Great Western in Wolverhampton as they don’t let away fans in the pub.
Mark Ross writes...
1912 Niepoort Colheita - Not just one of the best wines of my year, but perhaps one of the best of the past 5 years. This had a meaty, savoury edge that was embellished by sweet figs and spice. The finish was staggering – minutes and minutes of complex flavours. Really a wine for the ages.
2002 Meursault Perrières, Robert Ampeau - This bottle was just an absolute joy. Rich and creamy but with a saline backbone, it was complex and moreish and didn’t last long! The Domaine only releases its wines when it deems them ready to drink, and they got this cuvée absolutely spot on. Despite the age, and in a world of premox white Burgundy, it was youthful and vibrant.
2011 Chateau de Fonsalette - I’m a bit obsessed with the wines of the Reynaud family, especially the bargainous Dom/Ch. des Tours. So when an opportunity presents itself to taste one of the bigger brothers at a reasonable price, I’m all in! This was 15% alcohol but didn’t feel it at all – plenty of jammy black fruit and an intensity of spice that punctuated the staggering complexity of this wine. Breathtaking.
Joss Fowler writes....
1888 XIX crafted by Poetry, Van Zellers & Co - This might just be the most extraordinary wine I’ve ever tasted and was almost beyond description. Tasting wines from the early 20th century is one thing; the 19th century is a whole new universe. Some of these very old Ports can taste more like a condiment than a drink, though this was very much the latter. A perfectly arranged kaleidoscope of flavours, none of which was a hair’s breadth out of place. Quite the most remarkable liquid, still very much alive at 136 years old and harvested with skies empty of aircraft and roads free of anything motorised. I was weepy for the rest of the morning.
2009 Pauillac de Latour - Is it a third wine? Is it a second wine? Is the premium for the label a bit much (no)? Who cares? Offered blind in the office on a Friday afternoon (by me, so I knew what it was) this was absolutely spot on, shining in the plateau of its maturity. Want to know what good Pauillac - proper mature Pauillac from a brilliant vintage, tastes like? This is it.
2004 Barolo Monfortino, Conterno - I’ve tasted Monfortino more from cask than I’ve enjoyed it from the bottle - I think the current scoreline is 5-2 - with both bottles courtesy of the same generous friend (the other one was the legendary 2002). Just about ready at 20 years old, this is one of those wines that the intellectual tasters can talk about all evening whilst the pleasure-seekers can just enjoy. No flashiness, no gloss, just impeccably-made, completely flawless, wine from a very special vineyard. This is Piedmont’s answer to Musigny Mugnier.
Ben Browett writes...
Chablis Montée de Tonnerre, Raveneau 2020 - it’s always exciting to find to French wine lists with exciting wines at barely believable prices. This was the case here but the real joy was just to drink a producer who really is at the top of their game and deserves the sky high reputation they hold. Laser like focus, incredible length, just the perfect start to a meal.
Thomas Parker MW writes...
Montrose 2020 - I have been fortunate to have this several times in the last 12 months - it is unquestionably my young wine of the year. Montrose has been on a real run in recent vintages but this is the pick of the bunch. Depth, character and precision to rival the very best in the vintage, this is a wine I can not wait to drink when mature. It is the essence of Montrose with a new level of detail.
Côte Rôtie, Domaine Jamet 1998 - No wine of the year list is complete for me without a bottle of Jamet. It was a close run thing this year between this bottle shared with friends at Noble Rot Mayfair and a 1999 at the Sportsman. This, however, was a simply immaculate bottle of 1998 - the right wine at the right time in a riotous night of excellent bottles and company, some of whom love Jamet but had never experienced a great mature bottle before. The 1999 was served next to another bottle of the 1998 that was still brilliant but not quite as electric, the '99 probably edging it on that day. Jamet's wines from the 1990s are drinking superbly now, the essence of Northern Rhône Syrah with wild, gutsy and complex aromatics and fruit, sleek textures with resolved tannins and ethereal, long finishes.
Meursault Perrières, Comte Lafon 2007 - my top white of the year was a tough choice between 2020 Pouilly Fuissé Croux et Petits Croux from Guffens-Heynen (it will unquestionably feature as it matures), the super rare 2014 Montrachet from d'Eugenie (something I'd be extremely lucky to see again) and this bottle of Lafon. In a sleepy village south of the Loire I found one of those restaurants with an incredible wine list. We dove in with bottles of Coche-Dury (2016) and Lafon (2007 and 2005) Perrières - as well as some Rousseau and Chave. All were perfect bottles but the 2007's translation of soil to glass with deep, luxuriant power and energetic, youthful vibrancy gave it the edge. An incredible, if slightly excessive, evening.
