Susie & Peter / Podcast Episodes  / Season Six / WINES OF THE YEAR 2024

Summary

Is it a white? Is it a red?! Is it a rosé??!!

Or is our WINE OF THE YEAR none (or all) of the above…because it is, quite simply, pure gold?

Welcome to our Wines of the Year show, an annual favourite where we look back over the past year, not always entirely seriously, and raise many a glass in the process.

We recap on key news, play Guess the Missing Word in the Wine Headline, share listener input…and then recommend the wines which have made the biggest impression on us this year, from a great value red and white pair, a left-field fizz, a hot-shot producer of the year…culminating in a truly epic Wine of the Year.

Along the way we talk robots, beefing up Burgundy, tipsy shrews, BBQ sauce, dinosaurs, sherry trifle, Beethoven, childish protests and a long-dead Roman.

Links

Launch podcast on your device

Wines

This is far from an exhaustive listing of all the options we considered.

Nor do we want to spoil the surprise of what are our top gongs – ie Producer of the Year, Value Wine of the Year, White Wine of the Year, Red Wine of the Year, Leftfield Wine of the Year…and Wine of the Year.

For that, you’ll have to listen to the pod.

But we’re aware a listing of sorts is helpful so please find this below.

We’ve left off wines that are very expensive or almost certainly not available. But we’ve added in some extra wines, particularly good value ones.

Prices and stockists where we can find them. Please check vintages etc before you buy!

Sparkling

  • Waitrose Champagne Brut NV (£24.99, Waitrose)
  • Westwell Pinot Meunier MV, England (£42.50, from winery)
  • Egly-Ouriet Les Prémices Champagne Extra Brut NV (from £54, Finest Bubble)
  • Danbury Ridge Solstice 1st Edition NV (from £58, Finest Bubble)
  • Kit’s Coty Coeur de Cuvee 2016, England (£129, from winery)
  • Exton Park Cuvée M Isaac ‘BBB’ Blanc de Blancs 2015, England (£130, from winery)
  • Henri Giraud Fût de Chêne Aÿ Grand Cru Brut Champagne MV19 (from £150, Finest Bubble)

White

  • Morandé Terrarum Patrimonial Semillon 2023, Chile (£9.99, Waitrose)
  • Yealands Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2023, Marlborough (£11.99 Waitrose)
  • Florès Picpoul de Pinet Selection 2021, France (from £17.99, Wickham Wine)
  • Domaine Roux ‘Albus’ Hautes Côte de Beaune 2022, Burgundy (from £22.49, Majestic)
  • Pegasus Bay Chardonnay 2020, Canterbury (£24, Tesco)
  • Viré-Clessé 2021, Domaine des Heritiers du Comte Lafon, Burgundy (£34, Justerini & Brooks)
  • Gloria Reynolds Art & Tradition 2007, Vinho Regional Alentejano
  • Pazo Señorans Albariño Selección de Añada 2014, Rias Baixas
  • Aristos Duquesa d’A Chardonnay 2016, Cachapoal

Rosé etc

  • Thymiopoulous Rosé de Xinomavro 2022, Greece (£13.50, The Wine Society)
  • Santa Tresa Insieme Orange 2022, Sicily (£17.50, Grape & Grind)
  • Apostolos Thymiopoulos Blanc de Rosé Xinomavro Cuvée R 2009, Greece (£33, The Wine Society)

Red

  • M&S Primo Arte Primitivo 2023, Italy (£7, Marks & Spencer)
  • Errazuriz Estate Reserva Pinot Noir 2023, Chile (£9, Tesco, Waitrose or from £6.99 Majestic)
  • Casa Relvas Ciconia Touriga Nacional 2023, Alentejano (£9.95, The Wine Society)
  • Vanguardist La Petite Vanguard GSM Field Blend 2023, Barossa Valley (£16.50 The Wine Society)
  • Meerlust Red 2020, Stellenbosch (from £17.99, Majestic)
  • Thymiopoulos Earthy and Sky Naoussa Xinomavro, Greece (£24, The Wine Society)
  • Dalrymple Pinot Noir 2020, Tasmania (£34, London End Wines)
  • Mas des Capitelles Collection No. 2 2011, Faugeres
  • Hencote Pinot Noir 2022, Shropshire
  • Crystallum Peter Max Pinot Noir 2023 (£29.50, VINVM)
  • By Farr Farrside Pinot Noir 2021, Geelong (From £57, London End Wines)
  • Raen Fort Ross-Seaview Pinot Noir Sea Field Vineyard 2018, Sonoma
  • Mullineux Iron Syrah 2019, Swartland (£76, Berry Bros)
  • Jean-Luc Jamet Côte-Rôtie Terrasses 2019, France (£76, Berry Bros)
  • Errazuriz Don Maximiano 2021, Aconcagua

Get in Touch!

We love to hear from you. 

You can send us an email. Or find us on social media (links below).

Or, better still, leave us a voice message via the magic of SpeakPipe:


Video

Here’s a 50-second promo vid we did for this episode. Enjoy!

Transcript

This transcript was AI generated. It’s not perfect.

Susie: Hello, and a very warm welcome, not just to Wine Blast, but to a show we look forward to making every year: our Wines of the Year jamboree, where we take a not always entirely serious look back over the past year and raise many a glass in the process.

Peter: Yeah, we’ve got news and views for you, we’ve got the hardy perennial that is the guess the missing word in the wine headline. Beethoven is involved, I can confirm. This year, we’re going to be hearing from you, our fabulous listeners and of course we’re going to be revealing our top wines of the year, culminating in the ultimate accolade, Wine of the Year. WOTY, this is one not to miss.

Susie: Buckle up because here we go! Now we do always make a point of starting these shows with something serious and proper, just so we can pretend this is all very professional and educational. And in this context, the OIV has been reflecting on the last 100 years of wine, putting together some intriguing data about wine production and consumption from 1924 to 2024.

Peter: You know, if you were a cynic, or a serial skim reader, I’m not making any specific accusations here, but you might go away from this report. So saying something like plus a change because, you know, a brief glance at the graphs, which I did initially, I’ll be really honest, I’ll hold my hands up. You know, things like vineyard surface area, wine production, wine consumption could give the impression that, you know, everything basically grew. Wine wise up until the late 1970s, early 1980s, which was sort of the boom time. Then everything fell back to reach a level now that’s just very slightly above where things were in the 1920s. So you know, you could sort of say, is this a bit of a non story really?

Susie: M. I think that would be Ms. The, the devil that’s in the detail, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be? in reality, the wine world has changed a lot in the last 100 years. First up, wine has gone from being overwhelmingly Eurocentric to thoroughly global. I mean take consumption. You know, in the 1920s over 90% of wine was consumed in Europe. Nowadays wine is officially drunk in 194 countries. And the big story has been the rise in consumption in North America. And as these days, for example, the US is the biggest wine consumer in the world.

Peter: Yeah, that’s big change.

Susie: It’s a change. It’s a huge change.

Peter: Big change, isn’t it? And then you’ve got things like international trade in wine which has also risen. I Guess in tandem. You know, in the 1920s, only around 10% of all wine was exported, so very little sort of left. You know, these days, half of all wine is consumed outside its country of origin. So, you know, we’re talking about essentially a precious commodity with a vibrant global trade. That’s really interesting. That’s big change. So, you know, back in the 1920s, Africa was the biggest exporter of wine. You know, probably just thinking back, thinking about it, much of that was probably Algerian or Moroccan, wasn’t it red to kind of beef up Burgundy back then? But in recent years it’s been countries like Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand that have kind of led the charge of this drive to export.

Susie: So yes, the overall figures rose up to the 70s and have fallen back since, but a fair amount of that will have been oceans of cheap plonk. Pretty out of step with the modern world. So the wine world is adjusting and not just to shifting consumption trends, but also things like climate change. As the OIV concludes, and I quote, production and consumption are in constant evolution. But the wine sector is not only a long term sector, it’s also highly resilient, underpinned by truly global reach.

Peter: Yeah, that’s worth, noting in passing. Is that the OIV’s forecast, for the 2024 global wine harvest is for the smallest potential output since 1961. Just mentioning that, isn’t it because of what the OIV tersely describes as a range of weather events affecting production volumes around the globe, exacerbated by economic and market circumstances. So, you know, this sort of painful transition continues.

Susie: Well, shall we distract ourselves then from the pain with some cute animals? Or maybe not so cute. Maybe not so cute. Either way, this is the headline that alcohol alcohol consumption is abundant in the natural world. Perhaps more common than we’d originally thought beyond the odd confused moose or wobbly elephant. This is a review entitled the evolutionary ecology of Ethanol. And it basically says that humans are not drinking alone.

Peter: That’s a very comforting feeling, isn’t it?

Susie: It is.

Peter: I love that.

Susie: Caring and sharing.

Peter: It’s thought that ethanol or alcohol first became abundant around 100 million years ago when flowering plants began sugar rich fruits, sap and nectar that yeast could then ferment. most of the time we’re talking pretty low levels in nature army, sort of 1 to 2% ABV. When a fruit falls off a tree and starts fermenting, whatever. But you can get over 10% alcohol by volume in some instances. Apparently in palm fruit, for example, you can get those sort of levels of alcohol concentration. And it seems that evolution has fine tuned disability for animals to metabolise alcohol, just like we do.

Susie: Treeshrews and primates are particularly well adapted to efficiently metabolise alcohol, apparently. But the question is why, you know, what is it about alcohol that works for animals? Because the risk is, of course, you get drunk, fall out of your tree and suffer the consequences.

Peter: We’ve all been there, we’ve all been there falling out of our tree, you know, suffering adverse consequences, even the police…

Susie: But you know, anyway, there’s got to be a reason to do it. And this is what the researchers want to look into. Is it just about calories? We’re talking very ripe sugar rich foods here or is there a medicinal benefit? For example, fruit flies lay their eggs in substances containing ethanol to protect against parasites. Or more intriguingly, is there a social benefit of animals becoming relaxed and playful?

Peter: Relaxed and playful. Nailing the wine blast vibe right there. That’s, that’s what we do best. Yeah. You know, this is reminding me of, that book we cited in our previous, you know, when we had that, it was a pretty intense debate, wasn’t it, about wine and health Just a few episodes ago, the book was called Drunk, Wasn’t it by Edward Slingerland, where he argues that alcohol’s not just, you know, a bit of fun, but actually vital for human society to function. Which is why we still have it, why we seek it out. so, you know, could it be similar, I guess, in the animal world? interestingly, it makes me think there was another study out recently about one species. I think it was the oriental hornet, something like that anyway. For whom alcohol doesn’t seem to touch the sides. You know, they can metabolise alcohol up to 80%, 80% ABV without any problem whatsoever. You know, so they eat nectar and fruit and carry, you know, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the brewers yeast in their stomach. So, you know, they come across ethanol regularly and it just doesn’t seem to affect their behaviour or lifespans at they can’t get drunk, in other words, you know, they are hard as nails.

Susie: Oh, to be an oriental hornet.

Peter: But you know, maybe, maybe let’s just dwell on that thought for a second. I’m pretty happy as I am actually…

Susie: Have you met any oriental hornets? I bet they’re really happy too.

Peter: They’re all hardened drinkers, too hard for me.

Susie: But you know, maybe insects are already masters of social cooperation. And interaction and don’t need any help on that front. You know, they’ll just use the sugar and move on. while us naturally aggressive, individualistic primates do need a bit of help. Either way, this is a fascinating area of study. We can’t wait to hear more. Hopefully it could shed some light on how and why alcohol is important in nature and also with us humans too.

Peter: Cheers to that. so moving from nature to history, but sort of keeping the cute animal theme, albeit desperately tangentially. I want to pick up on the headline, did the extinction of the dinosaurs pave the way for grapes? and this is a paper in Nature Plants suggesting that after the asteroid hit the Earth and wiped out most dinosaurs about 66 million years ago, this then allowed forests to flourish, a development which favoured climbing plants like our beloved vines. not only that, but the disappearance of the dinosaurs also allowed mammals and birds to diversify, which then helped spread the grape seeds again, helping vines thrive.

Susie: So dinosaurs nil, wine one, eh?

Peter: Yeah, it’s small price. Small price to pay, yes.

Susie: So, yeah, this theory was based on new grape seed fossils, wasn’t it, Found in South America dating back between 19 and 60 million years. And, it suggests that vines have a complex history of dispersal and extinction, but essentially they seem to have thrived after the dinosaur extinction. But researchers also point to the fact that while plants, like vines, are resilient, they can disappear from entire continents, which is concerning given the potential ramifications of climate change.

Peter: Yeah, okay, so I’d like to segue neatly from M Dinosaurs to dinner, in one seamless move, with a good news story of how smoke tainted Pinot Noir has found a new use as barbecue sauce. now we’re all painfully aware, aren’t we, of how damaging smoke taint can be. we touched on this in our recent wine faults episode. We even discussed it in our very first wine blast episode when Australia had been hit by horrendous wildfires. And Clonakilla, that famous producer, for example, declined to release any 2020 wines because of smoke taint. So, you know, it is a really.

Susie: Serious issue and it also, I mean, it seems to be on, on the rise given the. The way climate change is affecting the planet with more extreme events. So there’s lots of research going on as to how to prevent or minimise or deal with the negative effects of smoke taint. But in the meantime, one enterprising Oregon winery has turned 800 cases of its prime Pinot into a barbecue sauce that apparently and I quote, has hints of allspice and clove and pairs perfectly with all your favourite grilled and smoked foods. They say, from slow cooked pork, baby back ribs, to charcoal grilled salmon or mushrooms, it’s sure to make your next backyard barbecue a tasty one.

Peter: I’m sure it is. so you can buy Durant, Pinot Noir barbecue sauce for 12American dollars.

Susie: I want to try this.

Peter: 5% of proceeds are, donated to the local Dayton fire department. the website sums it up as From Ashes to Excellence. I love that marketing strap line. But, you know, there is a serious point here too, isn’t there? You know, the 2020 wildfires in Oregon had a huge impact. about 4,900 square kilometres burned and more than 5,000 homes were destroyed. owner Paul Dur said, I’m just glad we found a use for the wine. And, it’s a fun pivot after what was a very stressful event in 2020. It’s our way of making the most out of a challenging situation.

Susie: Well, sticking with the food theme, we did come across an intriguing piece in the New Scientist entitled Can I Eat Myself Drunk? Man versus sherry trifle.

Peter: I would so love to have done this as well. A guinea pig. Next one, please.

Susie: This is, this is a piece challenging the received WISD that the alcohol we, we add to food tends to either burn off or somehow evaporate from our, beef bourguignon or sherry trifle.

Peter: Yeah, so writer Graham Lawton cites research showing that while ethanol does indeed have a lower boiling point than water, I think we all know that it’s about 78.5 degrees centigrade, which I didn’t know, but there we go. There it is. it’s rare that no alcohol will be left in a dish it’s used in, even if it’s been cooked for a long time. So he set up an experiment. Could he, I quote, eat himself drunk?

Susie: We have to say, it’s not the most scientifically rigorous of experiments, is it? I mean, he tries, chorizo flambed in what looks to be a pretty generous quantity of rum, for example, and he makes sure he mops up all the liquid with some bread. So. So you’d assume there’s still a fair amount of booze in that. His Portuguese fish stew with, white wine was cooked, covered, which again, you’d think would help retain some of the alcohol. And his sherry trifle had a booze laced syll topping. So all in all, I think he was kind of stacking the deck somewhat in his feed a little bit.

Peter: There was a lot of booze in that food. But yeah, equally, I’m not really sure you can eat yourself drunk either. I mean, what do you think? Drunk? I mean, you know, he does say he felt a bit sort of lightheaded, woozy headed after eating his, his boozy food. But I think that’s a bit different from drunk, isn’t it really? You need to eat to actually get properly drunk. Yeah, that’s a lot of syllabus to pretty extreme levels. All that said, it is clear from you know, he was using his breathalyser as he, that he is regularly way over the drink drive limit, just from eating this food. So you know, that’s definitely something to be aware of. You know, if you’re travelling for a special occasion and they’re serving boozy food, just be aware, you know, don’t let your relatives foist that massive brandy butter. Just beware. It’s the perfect excuse. Finally, I think we might have to.

Susie: Avoid my mum’s gravy.

Peter: Drink lots of water, you know, give it time. and, and, and be very wary of driving after.

Susie: Intriguing, intriguing stuff. Anyway, just one final news story before we move on and it’s that the robots are coming for wine. not to drink all our precious bottles, but to help us make the stuff by doing some of the hard work in the vineyard. For example, there are various, different projects on the go that have been reported recently. A Moet and Chandon employing an autonomous spraying robot in their champagne vineyards is one. Ah, they note it, ease of use, operator safety and effectiveness in managing difficult terrain.

Peter: It’s probably way better than me in terms of managing difficult terrain, especially after.

Susie: A glass of wine or effectiveness, frankly.

Peter: Excuse me, are you going to replace me? Okay, yeah. The next season of wine blast. I’m good. Peter is going to be a robot. Much better, much more on it. That’s all I’m going to say. but yeah, it’s also happening in the uk. Cambridge based company Autopicker is aiming to create a robot that can harvest grapes and help with canopy management. the new robot is called Vinnie, and it will apparently be able to distinguish between ripe and unripe grapes. And the idea is to help vineyard managers with labour challenges without sacrificing quality intention to detail.

Susie: And Vinnie also has rivals. another project in the UK is being led by Extend Robotics to develop a grape picking robot equipped with visual sensors powered by AI to determine which grapes are properly ripe and which is being controlled by a pilot wearing a virtual reality headset. Now this project is being developed in conjunction with Saffron Grange winery in Essex, which says one eventual possibility could be 24 hour harvest routines whereby once the Essex day shift has knocked off picking the grapes, skilled labourers in Australia could dial into the VR controls and pilot the robots by night. Now this could mean more efficient swift harvests and less losses to pest or diseases or, adverse weather events at vintage time.

Peter: Yeah, and I suppose you could do it in reverse as well, you know, labourers in the UK helping Australia given, given the way the kind of time difference is so complementary. But yeah, I don’t know. To be honest, I’m not sure how I really feel about all this, you know, if it may well be taking jobs away from real people. And I hear somehow wine made by robots just doesn’t feel quite right, does it? I don’t know.

Susie: I mean that’s not the wine being made at the moment, it’s just the picking, isn’t it?

Peter: But you know, I guess if is difficult to get the labour, which it is, especially at the right times and it helps you make better wine. I don’t know, maybe there’s a place for it in the wider.

Susie: And we’ve got mechanical harvesters anyway, haven’t we?

Peter: Yeah.

Susie: Do you think it’s worth it?

Peter: I don’t know. I don’t know. What do you guys think? Let us know right in. We’d be interested to hear your thoughts and it may be just as long as there’s a red line in terms of that. As long as they don’t start drinking the stuff, then whatever. I don’t know.

Susie: Tipsy robots. anyway, okay, right, we come on to our guess the missing word in the headline game and I’m going to start first. So here we go. Free bottle of wine hidden in what?

Peter: Sherry trifle. It’s on my mind. I’ve got sherry trifle in my mind. I’m not getting it off my mind in a free bottle of wine hidden in a Christmas tree.

Susie: hidden in a Christmas tree.

Peter: Maybe that’s again, my wish fulfilment coming through here. I don’t know. Where would you get free wine in the best treasure hunt ever? It’s kind of struggling here.

Susie: It’s a better treasure than I’ve ever done. So free bottle not quite as exciting. Free bottle of wine in small print. So bear with me. So this is the story about tax policy associates, of course.

Peter: I mean, what else would it be about? Of Course it’s that Tax Policy Associates.

Susie: Anyway, they’re a UK for. Well, they’ve got a good sense of humour. A UK firm that offered a free bottle of wine to the first person who found the offer, which was hidden in their website privacy policy. Now, it apparently took three months for someone to claim the freebie. something the company says vindicates the point of the exercise, which was to prove that nobody reads these things. You know, for what it’s worth, the Bottle was a 35 pound Pomerol, which is quite nice. And owner Dan Needle admitted the stunt was a childish protest against all businesses having to publish said privacy policies, which is time and money wasted in his view. He, added that the winner had actually kind of cheated anyway, given, ah, they were only reading his privacy policy in the first place because they were writing their own.

Peter: So it totally, totally bears his point out. By 10. By 10. Okay. Did, wine make Beethoven? What?

Susie: Oh, towering genius. I’m sure it’s more exciting than that. Even more grumpy than he already was because he was constantly hungover.

Peter: He was famously grumpy.

Susie: Oh, no. I mean, presumably this is to do with him going deaf.

Peter: Oh, stop getting it right all the time.

Susie: Goodness me.

Peter: It is, it is. Absolutely, you know, no, of course, course there is that famous and, probably apocryphal story of Beethoven’s last words being pity, pity, too late. I think we might have said that on the podcast before, you know, that was about a case of wine arriving as he’s on his deathbed and it’s getting there too late. Brilliant. But no, this was a study from Harvard University, that Beethoven’s famous later life deafness may have come on not because of syphilis, not going to comment on that. Or even loud music, but because of lead poisoning from wine. locks of Beethoven’s hair apparently showed lead levels around around 90 times what’s normal. And now that could have been partly caused by sort of eating fish from the polluted Danube or lead based wig powder. But there’s evidence of Beethoven’s doctors sort of repeatedly advising him to cut back on wine. And some wine historically was plumbed, so had lead substances added to it to make it taste sweeter, to make it look clearer and last longer. It was also a preservative. So, you know, the Harvard researchers don’t think wine killed Beethoven, but it may have made him death. So there you go.

Susie: Okay, so I’ve got a final bonus one for you. Oldest wine discovered mixed with what?

Peter: Oh, well, coke. It’s obviously Coke, Coca Cola, to make a Calli Mocho.

Susie: Of course, not actually far off because there is a Spanish connection here. Now this is a 2000 year old wine discovered in a Roman burial urn in Andalusia, southern Spain. And it was mixed with with ashes. In other words, cremated human remains, you know, probably in some sort of burial ritual. But the funny bit was when the University of Cordoba expert analysing the wine was asked if he’d considered taking a sip, he answered, it has spent 2000 years in contact with the cremated remains of a dead Roman. But it’s not toxic, so you could philtre it and try it. I’d rather someone else tried it first though.

Peter: Oh, that is brilliant. Yeah, fantastic. I love that someone else can, do it first. Anyway, so on that bombshell, it’s time to take a breath. I definitely need one because coming up, we’re going to be hearing your views and questions and announcing our, Wines of the Year. To recap so far, wine has become a precious global commodity in the last hundred years and alcohol is more abundant and perhaps useful in nature than we previously thought. Plus, you should always cheque the small print.

Susie: Now, thanks to all of you who have been in touch. We love it when you do that, particularly when it’s funny. So let’s start off on a light hearted note with a Speak pipe message sent by the inimitable Bevis Sidney, whose love of puns and wordplay must be almost as great as his love of wine. here he is with a virtuoso riff on 80s these pop song puns that he came up with after listening to our episode on Wine faults.

Bevis Sydney: Susie, Peter Legends just bins listen to Tainted Love Pod. Props to you both for the 80s pop wordplay there. Nice nod to Band Aid 2 and Farley Jackmaster Funk. Then Peter snuck in INXS in twice. Classy and subtle, but you missed these. Spoiler alert. These are neither classy nor subtle. Wet Wet Wet Cardboard Ian Jury and the block drain ymtca 1978. But who’s counting Aztec C Britain and Miami Cell Machine Methyl Captain Sensible Phil, I should quit while I’m behind. Speak Pipe Out.

Peter: If we had a gong for Speak Pipe Message of the year. Bevis, you just won it, hands down. so following our episode on Red Wine Headaches, Luca Hodgkinson got in touch from Chile to thank us because his mother in law has reactions to his red wines and now he knows why. I’m very glad to help out with mothers in Law. Always Luca, he also speculated natural wines may be more likely to give red wine headaches. Given a low sulphur regime may produce more acetaldehyde to add to that produce in the body, and which was obviously leading to the headaches. For some people it was the cause. So could be Luca, could be, I don’t know. very possible, though, you know, it probably depend on the wine and on the person, but definitely worth bearing in mind.

Susie: Now, Peggy Baudon sent a message from Italy, also on the subject of red wine headaches, wondering if traditional vine training systems such as pergola common in plat places like Valpolicella, would help reduce the incidence of red wine headaches. Given this system shades the fruit hanging beneath it, so produces less quercetin. Could this be another answer to lowering quercetin levels in grapes while retaining quality? Quite possibly, Peggy. the downside is, of course, the, the vineyard work becomes harder and more laborious, but it might also work well in sunny areas that are getting warmer because of climate change. So, yes, that is a possibility, I’d say. And thank you, Peggy.

Peter: Yeah, James Agnew wrote from Australia in response to our Hunter Valley pod to say, whilst I’ve not been a huge podcast person, I found myself deep diving into your previous episodes, hooked on how effortlessly enjoyable and seriously informative they’ve all been. you have converted me. So there we go. We are converting people to the cause. Love, love that. Thank you, James. And then Adam S. Montefiore, who helped us, research our wine and war episode featuring winemaker voices from Palestine, Lebanon and Israel, wrote to say, I, loved your analogy of a field blend and Suzy’s ide idea that each individual vine contributes to a result that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Each interview, in this episode stood alone. but we are much more interesting together than apart. Great job. Wonderful idea. Thank you.

Susie: Now, following on from our most recent episode on resistant vines, including peewees, Julie Benz got in touch to suggest surplus whey, which is a, byproduct of yoghurt making, among other things, as an alternative treatment for powdery mildew. Some something she tested on her scabiosis. Lubosh also got in touch to thank us for an informative podcast about peewees, but politely reminded us not to be chemophobic or anti sprays, saying, I think being open minded and using the best tools for achieving the goal are, in the end, a more sustainable way of working.

Peter: M And then Marco Nardi from Caractère restaurant in Notting Hill slipped into our, Instagram DMs to give us some really interesting feedback on people peewee wines. So in the show, if you remember, we’d said that these wines are not very well known for now, but if people do learn about them, for example, if they’re hand sold in restaurants, they could do well. So Marco got in touch to say the following. I’ve been listening to your podcast since the beginning and it’s my favourite wine podcast by far. I’m so happy you did an episode on Pee Wees. I’m the only restaurant in London with a selection of Pee Wees from Nicola, Biazzi, who we had on the show I started back in March. It’s working incredibly well. I even used some in the pairing with the tasting men. The general reaction is positive. The wines are very versatile in terms of food pairing, plus they carry with them the fascinating enigma of the unknown, which if explained well, captures people’s attention. It’s still mostly hand selling, but in the past couple of weeks I’ve had customers starting to ask, unprompted for, and I quote, the Pee Wee wine you have by the glass, which I see very much as a win.

Susie: That is great news, isn’t it? I mean, really interesting. Thank you, Marco. And Caractere is, is, is the one we’ve heard good things about, isn’t it? By Emily Roux and Diego Ferrari.

Peter: Absolutely. Emily being, being Michelle’s, daughter and, and that do brilliant things on in her own right and yeah, so many reasons to go there now.

Susie: Absolutely. now I’m very aware we need to get on with our wines of the year. but just to finish off on our wonderful listener input, I’d like to cite a couple of particular reviews that have really touched us. Firstly, five stars on Apple Podcasts from Johan747 in Hong Kong, who says most practical and insightful wine podcast you can find in this world.

Peter: In this world. I wonder what our sort of intergalactic podcast competition is. Makes me think. Anyway, thank you very much.

Susie: And then another five stars from Madam S Topurum in Turkey who writes, I absolutely love this show and have been listening to it for about a year now. The episodes never disappoint. They’re packed with knowledge, humour and love for life. Because what is wine if not life? Susie and Peter, thank you for your work. Keep it up.

Peter: Thank you guys. you are, what make this show happen. so please do keep up your great work at tuning in and writing those reviews and Ratings. We really appreciate it. and it really does keep us going. now, Wines of the Year. We are thirsty. Here we are, we’re ready as ever. We’ve had a very busy year. Tasting, hosting, I don’t know, traffic, travelling, filming, podcasting, of course. we have, we have even made time to do some actual drinking.

Susie: Oh no, no, definitely not working too hard. No, never do that. good lord.

Peter: Had loads of super impressive wines. Things like Yquem 2001, Sandeman 1963, Barca Velha 1985, Harlan 2012, Dom Perignon Rose 2002, Senya 98, Sassicaia 2021, Grange 2013. Stop me when I’m getting insufficient.

Susie: Boring, boring.

Peter: I’ll stop. these are not our Wines of the Year. No.

Susie: No. Because with our Wines of Year, we try to choose bottles and producers that aren’t just the most celebrated names or biggest price tags. We prefer to go for wines that are, well, first and foremost available to buy, ideally aren’t crazy expensive, but which we’ve tasted and that have moved us in some way. So I’m going to kick us off with our, Value Wine of the Year. And this is a tie actually. It’s between the Errazuriz Estate Reserva Pinot Noir 2023, which is around £9, but it’s often on offer. for example, at the moment it’s 6.99 at Majestic. And then our second value wine is the Morande Terrarum Patrimonial Semillon 2023, 9.99 at Waitrose.

Peter: Yeah, two amazing value wines. You know, we had as our top value picks in our Chilli Wines of the year. Ah, 2024 podcast and report, didn’t we, we would heartily urge you to go out, fill your boots while stocks last. These are two sensational wines for under 10 quid. You know, really elegant savoury Pinot and a kind of refreshing, intense white. You know, if you do want more info, cheque out the podcast and the report which is available on our website. But, but really great wines, you know, time. We all need to save some money.

Susie: Well, and then one other one I did want to flag up in the value context was the Waitrose Champagne Brute non vintage and it’s 24.99. And this is one I loved when I tasted supermarket own label Champagnes blind for the Christmas edition of Witch magazine. It’s made by Alexander Bonnet in the Aubrey and it’s 90% Pinot Noir. So it’s rich and rounded and yeasty. Really lovely and really good value champagne.

Peter: Okay, so next up is our left field Wine of the Year. Ah, always a fun category. we had some pretty eclectic wines in our Chile Wines of the Year, including a Fino Sherry lookalike made from old vines, Semillon, which was the Carmenere Florian number six, and a skin contact ancestral white blend from Itata from Anna Maria Comsilla Paellines 2018. But this year, our left field vote goes to the Westwell Pinot Meunier multi vintage. A delicious quirky. So quirky this wine, isn’t it seriously Yeasty, savoury, sort of bready, bruised apple, creamy. I mean, just, just a sort of wacky English visit. Utterly gorgeous and around £42.50 from the winery.

Susie: Yeah, I mean, we tasted this blind when we were chairing the the WineGB awards this year and it’s safe to say it caused a fair bit of consternation and animated discussion.

Peter: That’s what we’re gonna call it. Yeah. But it did end up with a.

Susie: Major award, which tells you anything you need to know.

Peter: The vintages in question are 2019, 2020 and 2021. A small portion of fruit from the vintages fermented spontaneously. Then in 2021, the fermenting juice was added to the base wine and bottle. When the correct sugar level was reached, it was then disgorged with zero dosage. It’s a bit mad, but it’s beautiful.

Susie: So, moving on to our, Producer of the year, which is Fernando Mora.

Peter: Yes.

Susie: Garnacha Samurai, who we featured on our Going Gaga for Garnacha episode. Producer of exquisite wines at, Bodegas Frontonio and Cuevas de Aromatic. He’s a great thinker, a great winemaker and a great person. You know, we’d recommend all his wines without hesitation. So elegant, so perfumed, so characterful, so rewarding, you know, cheque them out.

Peter: Yeah. Also, in the mix of that award were Rias Baixas, producers, Pathos, Seniorans and atis, both of whom were insanely impressive when we did our podcast on that beautiful region. So well done to them too. And now we’re going to move on to, to our Fizz of the Year. Probably your favourite category. One of your favourite categories.

Susie: Definitely one.

Peter: Although I do think maybe we should call it Sparkling Wine of the Year so it can be swatty. Anyway, our fizz of the year, ah, is the delectable Egly-Ouriet Les Premises Extra Brut. Non vintage. we had a fascinating time talking to the Eglis for our grower Champagne pod. Their wines are, ah, off the charts and this is one of their most accessible wines, price wise, without sacrificing any of that gorgeous flavour or elegance. Elegance or complexity?

Susie: No, no, I mean it’s a, it is a stunning wine. And our tastings for that episode, I definitely earmarked at the time as having potential wines of the year, quality because I felt it was one of the, one of the best tastings I’d done for quite a while. and this wine, it’s gorgeous, it’s so full of character, but also seamless, savoury, joyful. I wrote. And, and what is better than that? What could be better than that?

Peter: Totally agree. honourable mentions also go to the Henri Giro MV19, which is fabulous. Is fabulous. You used it in your Wine Masters filming. and I showed it at a masterclass. the new Danbury Ridge Solstice, the Extant Park BBB 2015 and the Kit Coty Curde Cube 2016 that won Supreme Champion at the WineGB Awards. right, we’re coming up to the big gongs now. Need to do a few lunges, few stretches.

Susie: Don’t do that.

Peter: Is White Wine of the Year. what have you got for us?

Susie: Well, so we travelled a fair bit in 2024 to many places around the world, but one particularly memorable visit was to a cooperative cellar in southern France where we had a tasting that reduced us to silence, didn’t it? And this was Carve Flores. and the tasting was a vertical of their relatively new Picpoul de Pinet Selection A, wine that combines freshness with depth and gravity and complexity and texture and age worthiness. It’s a new dimension for Picpoul

Peter: Yeah, and it’s part of a bigger story too, because this wine is part of a new category that not many people are aware about yet. a few years ago some Picpoul producers got together and said, you know, our wine’s pretty popular, but it’s famous for being cheap and cheerful. White. Right, Picpoul Pinot. What about putting our best wines into a different bottling to show how good it can really be? So they created what’s called the Patience category for separate bottlings of their most intense, complex, age worthy wines. Incidentally, not, they don’t age them in oak, they’re just sort of, ah, wines with more intensity.

Susie: And that’s what this wine is, isn’t it? It’s the Flores Picpoul de Pinet Selection 2021. It looks cool. It’s amazing value for this level. Of wine. It’s about 17.99 from Wickhams, and it’s a great story, too, so. Bye, bye, bye. That’s, what we’d say. but we’d also throw in a couple of other whites, into the mix as worthy runners up. The Vira Classe 2021 by Eritier du Caulifont is a delicious white Burgundy that’s not just for plutocrats.

Peter: Yeah, it’s quite a rare one. That white Burgundy is actually affordable.

Susie: Affordable. And we were also blown away by the Gloria Reynolds art and tradition 2007 from the Alentejo when we tried it ahead of our masterclass at this year’s Vigno de Cagia event in Lisbon. It’s gold, golden and complex. Powerful. I mean, just stunning. just stunning.

Peter: Stuff of dreams. so good, it even made us sing and dance.

Susie: Well, that’s not so good, is it?

Peter: Cheque out the video evidence, if you don’t know what I mean. Moving swiftly on to our, Red Wine of the Year. so many options here. For example, when we got here, the eraser is Don Maximiano 2021. It just seemed to follow us round this year. This one, like, like a good charm.

Susie: It did.

Peter: A lucky charm. It was our top red in our Chile Wines of the year 2024. I also then showed of an eraser is Vertical Masterclass, where we tasted back to the rather lovely 1984 Don Max. one of the first ones. And then it was also on pour at the event where we won our 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Award for this very podcast, wasn’t it? which was a very big moment.

Susie: Yeah, it wasn’t.

Peter: It meant so m much.

Susie: We’re showing off a bit now, aren’t we?

Peter: Essentially, this is an absolutely stunning new wave Chilean cabernet blend. So elegant, perfumed. It’s right up there.

Susie: What a gorgeous wine. But then, then there’s the gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous 2019 Cote Roti Terrace by Jean Luc Jamais that I tried recently and I loved. there’s the beautiful Masticapitale Fougere range that we loved when we were in, in France. The delicious hen coat pinot noir 22 from Shropshire, and the wonderful Crystallum Peter Max Pinot Noir 2023 from South Africa. So quite a lot of options.

Peter: But, but, you know, there can be only one. as the Highlander famously says. And so we have gone for one. It is the utterly bewitching, scented, ethereal, resonant wine that is the By Farr Farrside Geelong Pinot Noir 2021. We absolutely adore By Far’s wines. We never taste them and are not seduced. They’re stunning. This, this one is the most affordable one of, their range that we can try. The Sangreal and RP are also gorgeous, but a bit more expensive. And, you can get it for about 57 pounds a bottle in the UK if you hunt around, which I know it sounds crazy, but it’s a bargain.

Susie: To our mind, it’s just a gorgeous wine, an outstanding producer. On which note, we only have one gong left. Our, Wine of the Year. how can we possibly top all of this? Well, it’s a producer we have huge regard for. They do amazing things in a part of the world that’s not always the most celebrated or recognised. They bang the drum for quality, for value, for wines with character and individuality. And whenever we try their wines, we smile.

Peter: Oh, yes, yes. And this wine in question, which we have right here, is very special. it’s a wine that went wrong, it’s true, but the, the persistence, some might say bloody mindedness of the winemaker paid off. this is a wine that shouldn’t exist. Basically, legally, it occupies dubious territory. in wine terms, it’s an outlier, it’s a maverick, it’s, it’s a kind of rogue player that follows no one’s lead but its own.

Susie: So, without further ado, our, Wine of the year for 2024 is a great Greek epic and it is the Apostolos Thymiopoulos Blanc de Rose Xinomavro 2009.

Peter: Boom. There you go.

Susie: So the story is as follows. The fruit comes from a high altitude vineyard in Fitia. It was originally made as a, but its colour dropped out and the Xinomavro failed to complete its initial fermentation because of the unbelievably cold winter of 2009. But rather than throw winemaking products at it, winemaker Apostolos Thymiopoulos did something different.

Peter: He did, as all the very best people do, he left the wine on its yeast leaves in tank until 2015, letting it gain weight and complexity in the process. Fermentation, never restarted. So in 2015, let’s not forget this is already six years after the harvest, he added a portion of ripe mallet magusia to the wine and transferred it to 500 litre oak barrels where it continued fermenting for another two years. It was finally bottled in 2020. So 11 years after the initial harvest. And the result is something totally different. It’s just. I mean, in the glass, it’s just sensational. It’s golden. There’s no other word for it. It just glints.

Susie: Well, it’s almost orange, isn’t it?

Peter: In the glass, it’s amazing. And then aromatically, you give it one stiff. It’s unbelievable. Kind of lavish and exotic. It makes you think, what the hell? And then on the palate, you taste it and it’s got a fine chalky texture, which obviously isn’t sort of that normal for Rose Hill White, but a sort of lovely warming spice. Yeah.

Susie: And in terms of flavour, there are notes of ginger and dried fruits as well as fresh apricot. in the glass, it develops notes of acacia honey and buttery toast. I mean, it’s utterly intriguing, gorgeous and delicious, but also really different.

Peter: Yes.

Susie: And in this sense, it’s the perfect example of what we banged on about about in, our We Need To Talk about episode, where we made an impassioned plea for more wines with character and individuality rather than bland identikit bottlings. Here is what we were asking for in a bottle. And it’s glorious.

Peter: Yeah, yeah, totally. You know, I’d sort of describe it as a. It’s kind of a sphinx of a wine. You know, it’s in equal parts inscrutable and magnificent. It’s both incredibly open and welcoming. But then it also makes you think, doesn’t it? and you’re absolutely the money about a rose with character. you know, this is a. That disproves the myth that is just for easy summer quaffing. This is a wintry, it’s complex and food friendly and actually, think about it, it’s also probably the ultimate wine for a classic Christmas turkey meal, if that’s on your agenda at any stage. What do you think?

Susie: Well said. Yeah, yeah. And it looks gorgeous too, to pop on your taste table. A truly epic wine of the year. now we’d also flag up a couple of Themiopoulos’s other wines because they’re such a good producer. And Xinomavro is such a cool grape, so they make a cheaper. The rose de Xinomavro, which is £13.50 and which we enjoyed probably a bit too much when we were on our holiday in Rhodes last summer.

Peter: No comment.

Susie: Enough said. Sensational value wine.

Peter: It’s amazing value for. For that price. and the reds, their reds are really good too. So, we’ve got one here the earth and sky Naousa Xinomavro is beautifully fragrant and grippy. It’s kind of like a cross between Barolo and Barbera, if that makes sense. if you like Pinot Noir or Piedmont wines, you have to try this. It is great value at, ah, 24 quid.

Susie: And then they also do have a cheaper red, the Xinomavro Jeune Vignes 2022, which is 13.50. And it’s delicious, rustic, wild. It’s like a sort of a great value Etna Rosso, a really rugged and just full of character.

Peter: So there we have it. our wines of the year 2024, done and dusted. thank you for sharing it all with us. Likewise, thank you for sharing this year with us. We really couldn’t do this without you. So now it’s time to raise a glass and say, here’s to 2025 and until next time time, cheers!