10 of My Favorite Wines of 2018
Nothing came easy in 2018, wine included. Climate change and extreme weather, which many winemakers have little experience in navigating, have majorly affected wine at the vineyard, in the cellar, and on the price tag too. But unlike the state of Western democracy, I still have a lot of faith in the future of wine. Producers old and new are committed to honoring their regions, grapes, and techniques, while also finding ways to push the envelope and make quality juice.
This list is to celebrate some of those wines. I say “some” because it would be impossible for me to list alllllllll the noteworthy bottles I had this year. As a wine writer, there are qualities I am objective about (like flaws/faults), but as a consumer first and foremost, my priority is to highlight the stuff I couldn’t stop thinking about this year. Just like produce, wine can be seasonal, so though you might not find these particular bottles in your local stores, think of this list as a handy cheat sheet: Use it to keep an eye on the producers, importers, regions, and varieties that will blow you away, and you’ll drink well through 2019, and beyond.
1/11Costadilà Bianco “450 slm” Prosecco NV
Veneto, Italy
Importer: Louis/Dressner, ~$20Drinking the “450 slm” is like drinking young Elvis Presley’s “Harbor Lights.” It’s unfiltered and a little rough around its edges, but ultimately elegant and romantic. Named after the elevation of its vineyard, the “450 slm” is made with traditional Glera grapes and one of few Proseccos to use native yeast. It glows a straw yellow shade, and smells of pears zested with an Italian lemon. It tastes like walking on a beach of cold, smooth, salty stones, with strong notes of apple and smoked papaya strung together by twangy acidity and carbonation that flickers like coastal lights in the distance. I’m taken not only by the quality of winemaker Ernesto Cattel’s wines (especially considering the region generally produces boring, indecipherable, mainstream bottles), but also his passion to revitalize Veneto with better farming practices and traditional winemaking. It was an incredible loss when Cattel passed away in August, and I hope to see his visions for better Prosecco, and a better Veneto, live on.
2/11Breakout Producer: Anders Frederik Steen
Ardèche, France
Importer: Zev Rovine Selections, ~$30ishI was cruising around the natural wine fair Brumaire this past March when a few modestly labeled bottles caught my eye. One, in simple type, read, “Let’s Eat The World We Want to Live In.” I nodded to myself in agreement and reached for a taste of the Sauvignon Blanc, Carignan, Syrah, and Grenache blend. Feral but sleek, perilous but mostly sultry, it’s a juicy jaunt down the prickly primrose path. It smells like you're running through blackberry brambles in the middle of a pine forest. It tastes like a pile of boysenberries and acacia drizzled in strawberry balsamic, a touch of coconut oil, and a dose of Brett. I was floored—and so was everyone else, apparently: I was only allowed to buy one freakin’ bottle of it when it finally came to Los Angeles. Steen, a former Noma sommelier who’s been making wine since 2013, has become the “It” winemaker in America. So I spent the year scrutinizing every creation of his that I could get my hands on, only to find they were all well worth the hype. (Fellow BA editors also love “The Artist Formerly Known as Peach,” a blend of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon with a fragrant orchard blossom nose and a summer-ripe peach bite.)
3/11Remi Poujol “Le Temps Fait Tout” Blanc 2016
Languedoc, France
Importer: Terrell Wines, ~$20I bought this wine with a shrug as an economical way to fill out a case for a long Labor Day getaway, and it was crowned the crowd favorite by the time we were packing our bags. It has the loveliest reduction on the nose, like a lit match held to dusty roses and dried mangos. The palate transports you to hot afternoons with apples, orange blossoms, and wet grass wafting off flinty gravel. Light but layered with supple tannins that sneak up on the finish, “Le Temps Fait Tout” is a wine that is just as easy to get lost in discussing as it easy to drink without a care. Sophisticated yet a total vacation, this is the white wine that should be in your fridge all summer long.
4/11Meinklang “Graupert” 2016
Burgenland, Austria
Importer: Nomadic Distribution, ~$25THIS FREAKIN’ WINE. (Sighs through pursed lips, rolls eyes, shakes head.) This Pinot Grigio from Meinklang is produced on Austria’s largest biodynamic farm, but it drinks like a rare gem, and should be treasured as such. Not only does it pop with flavor, but it will give you some real feels. Cloudy and ripe cantaloupe in color, the Graupert has a seductive musk of apricot, nectarine, orange rind, and gardenia, and tastes like pithy grapefruit and lemonade with a tight, striking acidity that races right to your loins. It’s sexual tension in a glass, and I honestly catch myself batting my eyelashes at it every time I drink it.
5/11Lammidia “Frekt” 2017
Abruzzo, Italy
Importer: Zev Rovine Selections, ~$30This is lust from the toes up! I tried it at a wine fair in Italy, and then proceeded to buy the rest of the bottles they had with them to bring back to the States. This skin-contact Pecorino d’Abruzzo (the grape, not the cheese—I know, who knew?) is misty marigold in color, smells like peppered papaya cologne on the nape of a neck sweating orange zest, and tastes like white peaches atop fresh linen sheets woven with clove, pineapple, and lavender. Medium bodied and well-structured with a soft tannic finish, “Frekt” is a bottle that will leave wine geeks freaking and craft beer lovers converting.
6/11Lamoresca Rosato 2017
San Michele di Ganzaria, Sicily
Importer: SelectioNaturel, ~$30I cannot believe people are still sleeping on Lamoresca. Filippo Rizzo’s wines are some of the most underrated in Sicily. And while the Bianco whispered like a soft, lemongrass fog and the Mascalisi is a house staple, it was the Rosato of Nero d’Avola and Frappato that I couldn’t stop buying this year. It was the most perfect year-round rosé: It looks like a liquidized candy apple in a glass, smells like pomegranate and blueberry compote served over plumeria, and tastes like fluffy strawberry shortcake made of ground freesia and drizzled with ruby red grapefruit juice.
7/11Methode Sauvage Rorick Heritage Trousseau
Sierra Foothills, California
Distributor: Revel Wine, ~$28Methode Sauvage’s Trousseau is the best friend you that have a gut-wrenching crush on. All you want to do is hang out with it non-stop, even though it breaks your heart every time you finish a bottle and then see it hanging out with someone else on Instagram. It smells like sour cherries, yellow roses, and orange rinds dancing on the couch in a cloud of cannabis. Bright with acidity that shines like a room flooded with natural light, it tastes like salted pomegranates tangled with tangerines, and finishes all mulled cranberries and limestone. Youthful but evocative, comfortable yet arousing, winemaker Chad Hinds’ Trousseau isn’t just “new” California, it’s f-ing great California.
8/11Olivier Lemasson “Poivre et Gel” 2017
Loire, France
Importer: Louis/Dressner, ~$25Olivier Lemasson’s “R-13” (R for rouge, 13 for the vintage) was the wine. You know, the one that hooked me on the stuff forever. At the time, I was mostly drinking California reds from the grocery store, and it blew my mind. It had so many flavors that I’d never tasted in wine before; it was floral but woodsy, a little salty with a sour beer quality, and it was the first time I experienced Brettanomyces. I hadn’t had anything quite like it since—until this. The year 2013 was a particularly cold one for the Loire, giving the wines heightened acidity, and in 2017, the region experienced a devastating frost. This was terrible for Lemasson and his grapes, but for me, it was a delicious trip down memory lane. Cheekily renamed “Poivre et Gel” (pepper and frost) from the “Poivre et Sel” (pepper and salt) moniker the blend is typically given, this unusual vintage was made of 80 percent Grolleau, 10 percent Pineau d'Aunis, and 10 percent Gamay. The “Poivre et Gel” reminded me so much of the R-13, with its inky raspberry hue, jasmine and wet redwood bouquet, and flavors of peppered blackberry jam slathered onto cool slabs of limestone sprinkled with flowering thyme and splashed with lemonade.
9/11Le Coste “Le Primeur Pour les Filles” 2017
Lazio, Italy
Importer: Scuola di Vino, ~$35“It's like perfume-y, but there’s also something rotten. And I know that sounds crazy, but I can’t get enough of it.” That’s Jennifer Lawrence as volatile housewife Rosalyn in American Hustle talking about her favorite nail polish, but she might as well be talking about Le Coste’s “Le Primeur.” The character (and her prized top coat) always pops in my head when I drink this highly aromatic Aleatico—an unfiltered, light Italian red that shines like glittery cranberry nail polish, literally shimmering with lees (residual yeast particles). It smells like canned lychees muddled with lilacs, and tastes like meaty peonies dipped in concentrated cherry sauce topped with raspberries and bay leaves. If that sounds crazy, that’s because this wine is, and it does it oh so very well.
10/11Domaine de L’Ange Vin (Jean-Pierre Robinot) “Le Regard” 2016
Loire, France
Importer: Zev Rovine Selections, ~$50This bottle of Pineau d’Aunis waltzed on to my list in the eleventh hour, as if it had been patiently waiting in my wine fridge for this moment, rather than the real reason: Because I’m not in the “Poppin’ Robinot Whenevz” tax bracket. But “Le Regard” makes me wish I was. This deep and hazy scarlet colored wine goes down like the best party punch of your life, smelling and tasting of ripe raspberries and guava massaged with pepper and grapefruit pith dusted with chalk. The night I opened my first bottle, Quinn Kimsey-White of Psychic Wines and I lost our minds over its infatuating fruit, zippy acidity, and fantastic minerality, while my other buddies downed it like Arnold Palmers. Not the easiest thing to watch when you’re not LeBron James, but what is wine if not to be enjoyed?
11/11Producer to Keep an Eye On: Kindeli
New Zealand
Importer: Percy SelectionsYes, there are stunning paintings of topless foxes on the Kindeli labels, but don’t let that distract you from the wines. This new addition to Percy Selections’ strong portfolio of natural producers sold out its first drop in under two months. These incredible blends from New Zealand were the most staggeringly aromatic and cohesive wines I had all year. It would be hard to believe the “Verano” (Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir, Syrah), the “Primavera” petillant-naturel (Syrah, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Chardonnay) and the “Tinto” (Pinot Noir and Syrah) could ever taste unified, but sipping through the lineup was like taking one more step through a tropical rose garden. I’m looking forward to the 2018 vintage nearly as much as I am looking forward to a summer vacation, probably because that’s exactly how these wines taste.
