Editors’ picks – December 2024

Sylvia at the Kozlovi?
winery tasting its
Malvasia IstrianaSylvia Wu
Editor Decanter China, and Regional Editor for Asia, Northern & Eastern Europe

As Decanter’s ‘rest of world’ Regional Editor, this year I had the pleasure of visiting some unusual yet fascinating wine regions and discovering the unexpected. In China, during my first return to Ningxia since 2019, my top discovery was Hongsipu, the cool, southernmost sub-region. Winemaker Li Cai’s Qianhongyu Cabernet Sauvignon 2020, from Huida Sunshine Ecological Winery, features bright fruits with an ethereal freshness rarely found in sun-blazed, continental Ningxia. Sadly, Hongsipu is prone to severe spring frosts, and some of Li’s top plots, used for making this wine, have already been wiped out.

Back in Europe, a short trip to the Istria peninsula in the Adriatic brought me to legendary Croatian producer Kozlovi?. Here we learned how the nuanced expressions of Malvasia Istriana reflect the subtle differences in vintage conditions and terroir. The Santa Lucia 2015 was one of my favourites – the gentle texture and delicately woven flavours remind me of Grace Wine’s Misawa Vineyard Koshu from its high-altitude Akeno site at the foothills of Mount Fuji in Japan. The same could be said for the Domaine Sigalas, Santorini Assyrtiko 2023 (£33.30 Vinvm), which offers a perfume and mellow texture reminiscent of lemon essential oil.

On the sparkling front, this year’s Hungarian Wine Summit took me to the lakeside region of Balaton, where traditional-method sparkers such as Garamvári’s Optimum Brut 2019 shine. Back home, from the unmissable annual WineGB showcase, Ridgeview’s Blanc de Noirs 2015 (£60) and Nyetimber’s 1086 Rosé 2013 (£175) were among my top picks. Both bear witness to how English wines can age gracefully, developing texture and depth while the spine of acidity still points straight at the future.

James Button
Regional Editor, Italy

Sassicaia may be an obvious choice for a wine highlight of the year, but in my opinion the 2021 (£280-£350 Frazier’s, Hedonism, Songbird, The Oxford Wine Co, Valvona & Crolla) really is one of its best-ever vintages: breezy and super-fresh, it dances across the palate effortlessly but has the structural underpinnings for a long and joy-giving life. Il Marroneto’s superb Brunello di Montalcino 2019 (£98-£120 Armit, Averys, Hic, Wine Republic), and its equally spellbinding single-vineyard Madonna delle Grazie 2019 (£389 DBM Wines), are in a similar vein and exemplify the beauty of restrained winemaking from Montalcino’s north slopes.

Meanwhile, Italian importer Vinexus’ annual London-based anteprima tasting of Brunello, Barbaresco and Barolo, conceived by its late owners Nicolas Belfrage MW and Nick Bielak MW, has become an annual pilgrimage to preview more than 100 wines from soon-to-be-released vintages. This year, two wines stood out: Famiglia Anselma’s Le Coste di Monforte Barolo 2021 for its seductive blood orange and cherry perfume, grippy tannins and precise, ferrous palate; and Canalicchio di Sopra’s Vigna Montosoli Brunello di Montalcino 2020, which combines earthy cherry and dark fruits soaked in bitter herbs with beautiful lifted potpourri and sage notes. (Look out for the Brunello di Montalcino 2020 vintage report in our March 2025 issue, which will also cover the 2019 Riservas.)

I visited Etna several times this year; my highlights included Pietradolce’s dark, perfumed and brooding Barbagalli 2019 (£142.40 Armit, Vinvm), Ciro Biondi’s generous, saline and fragrant San Nicolò 2022, Cottanera’s effortlessly classy Etna Bianco 2022 (tasted alongside a 2013 that demonstrated this wine’s graceful ageing arc), Passopisciaro’s unique Franchetti 2022, and Girolamo Russo’s Feudo 2022, which I declared in my notes to be ‘in another league’. And then there’s Sciara’s 1520 Metri 2021, the first vintage from Europe’s highest vineyard, way above the Etna DOC limit. Imagine…