Celebrity Life

A wine critic and now restaurant owner, James Suckling explains why he gave up one of the most enviable jobs in the world to set up on his own and move to Hong Kong.

Wine Critic James Suckling

Seated comfortably in his Soho wine bar and restaurant, which has been pretty much the centre of his world since the early months of 2020, James Suckling looks like an extremely happy man.

One of the world’s most respected and influential wine critics, he has the privilege of doing a job that he absolutely loves and seems delighted to share his great good fortune with everyone around him.

In almost 40 years in the industry, he thinks he must have tasted and rated a quarter of a million vintages; his JamesSuckling.com website gets around 600,000 unique visitors each year; he holds decorations from both the French and Italian governments, as well as honorary citizenship of the Italian wine-making town of Montalcino in Brunello; and he’s the only wine expert offering classes on Masterclass.com.

Appearances to the contrary, though, Suckling’s professional journey has been neither straightforward nor smooth. He readily admits his Staunton Street establishment, James Suckling Wine Central, which he and his Korean wife and business partner Marie opened in October 2018, almost went under before it was rescued, bizarrely, by the Covid pandemic.

And why he decided to throw in what must have been one of the most envied positions in the world of wine, as senior editor and European bureau chief of the oenophiles’ bible, the Wine Spectator, to move to a part of the world he hardly knew, is another story entirely. The way he tells it, though – accompanied by self-deprecating smiles and laughs – you’d think it had all been plain sailing.

Back at the beginning in 1981, when Suckling returned home to Los Angeles after taking a post-graduate degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin, he’d found himself jobless until he answered an advertisement “for position at a tiny magazine called the Wine Spectator, run out of a garage in San Diego”. Not only did he get the job, but within four years he found himself in Paris, remaining in Europe for the next decade and a half, “learning on the job, travelling around and meeting producers”.

For a young man whose own wine epiphany began while at university (he’d shared a bottle of 1966 Château Lafite with his lawyer father and declared, “Wow, this wine stuff’s amazing”) it was, he says, “an amazing start to my career, and I learned so much”.

“I lived in Paris for three years and then moved to the UK. I was there for 10 years, then moved to Italy and then I came here. During that time the Wine Spectator had grown to become the biggest wine magazine in the world, and all that time I was tasting, travelling and building the magazine.” It was then, too, that Suckling first met Marie, who worked at the venerable London wine merchant Corney & Barrow, though the romance didn’t blossom till later.

The idea of upping sticks and moving to Hong Kong came shortly after the difficult decision to leave his comfortable and highly influential position at the Wine Spectator. “I’d been there for 29 years, and I just decided it was now or never. It was a crazy move – I was 50 and it probably was foolhardy in a way, because I had this really cushy job and was living in Italy. But then I was thinking, do I want to spend the rest of my life working for the same company? And I’d always thought it would be amazing to do my own thing. So I just did it.”

The following year, Suckling attended the 2011 Wine & Dine Festival in this city, alongside other noted experts from around the world. By that time, Hong Kong had already removed all government duties on wine, a move that almost overnight had turned the city into the region’s premier wine-trading hub.

“And that,” says Suckling, “was the main reason I moved.” Coincidentally, Marie had also left London for Hong Kong, where, she says, “We met at the Wine & Dine Festival’s big event at the Grand Hyatt. After two years, we got married in Korea.”

Suckling had decided that video was the way to go for his website, which would be the centrepiece of his solo operation. “My partner, James Orr, was a really close friend who was into wine and cigars; he still owns a small part of the company. He was a film director, producer and writer – he did Three Men and a Baby and Sister Act 2. We had this idea that the site would be just video – we were way ahead of our time because now everyone’s doing streaming video … And so he and I travelled around wine regions, and did videos of tastings with wine producers. And for about six months, it was going OK, though not as well as I’d hoped."

“I realised that I had to get back and start tasting wines, but also that people didn’t want to pay for video. I was running out of money. But then I happened to be with a friend of mine, Mike Diamond from the Beastie Boys, at his house in Malibu, and I told him, ‘Dude, I’m running out of money.’ And he just goes, ‘And why did you think people would ever want to pay for your videos? It’s like people wanting to pay for my music. You’re gonna have to do events, you should do wine events, just like years ago we’d go on tour to sell CDs.’

“So I started doing wine events. And the first place I did wine events – profitable wine events – was in Hong Kong. At the time, it was just me and an assistant. I knew collectors like Henry Tang, Peter Lam and George Wong, and a few wine merchants, but I wasn’t really that connected – though one of my best friends, Patricio de la Fuente, who own Links Concept, was really helpful. But I could see that with no taxes and [the proximity to] China – even though the market hadn’t really developed to what it is today – this was the international wine hub for Asia. And then I met Marie – and she took pity on me!”

The business, says Suckling, really didn’t start making sense financially until around five years ago. “It took a while – it was really touch and go, and pretty scary, to be honest. But now, as you can see, we have 15 employees and a restaurant, which has been a lot of work but now is really successful.

“We opened the restaurant in October 2018, and now it’s doing really well. It never did so well – last month was our biggest, 500 wines by the glass and we have a really cool local chef who studied in Paris. But it took a long time – and it’s interesting because if it hadn’t been for Covid, we probably would have closed. The demonstrations were very difficult and while Marie and I were away in Napa Valley a lot of people were leaving. When we came back in March 2020, it was on its knees, so Marie actually went into the kitchen and started cooking Korean food. [Asked whether Korean food goes with wine, Suckling says, “Of course it does. I eat Korean food every day and I drink wine every day.”] And in the first few months, I was even on the floor serving wine – well, I had nothing else to do!"

“During Covid, website subscriptions actually went up 50 percent, and people weren’t travelling. So ironically, Covid was better for our business. I remember talking to a friend from Boston Consulting Group, who said, “James, you’re OK, but you have to focus on the local economy. And that’s what we did with the restaurant – and we did events. So it actually worked out well, though it would be nice to travel again and do events around the world.”

The outcome is that Suckling now finds himself in the paradoxical position of running both a locally focused wine bar and restaurant, and an internationally oriented wine website, 50 percent of whose visitors are based in North America. “I was recently named one of the 100 most important members of the US wine industry. I’m not sure they know I’m a Permanent Resident of Hong Kong,” he says with a laugh. “Most people think I live in New York.”

Thanks to Hong Kong’s duty-free regime, running a wine-tasting operation here is simplicity itself, he says. “Because there’s no tax, people just ship the wines here. In Hong Kong this year, we’ve tasted about 18,000 wines. The logistics have been great – a producer in Bordeaux just gives his wine to DHL and it’s here in two days. It’s just like door-to-door. And that was one reason I thought that if one day I didn’t want to travel as much, Hong Kong would be great because there are none of these logistical problems."

“If you’re in the US, each state has different laws on shipping wine, and to import wine you need licences and all sorts – and I just thought this could be so easy. And it’s turned out to be a godsend, and wine producers are fine with it. We just tasted 1,500 wines from all over Spain … even barrel samples: this year I tasted 1,500 barrel samples. People pull a sample from a barrel, bottle it, cork it and then they ship it over. Isn’t that cool?”

Indeed, though they’d like to be able to travel for, say, a month to Italy or California, he and Marie have no desire to return to the old regime of being away for 225 days in a year, flying to San Francisco or Burgundy just for dinner. “What’s been exciting about this place was that being stuck here almost two years, I’ve really had the chance to see people and talk to them, see what they drink and what they’re interested in with wine,” Suckling says.

“And I realised that for years, as a journalist or with the internet, you don’t really get the chance to talk to people and understand what they enjoy, whether it’s food or wine. I’ve really enjoyed getting back to, you know, grassroots or basics. Because sometimes you get detached – ‘Oh, I’m this wine critic or I’m that important journalist or whatever.’ I read The New York Times, and sometimes I find the writing can be a bit elitist. And I think that’s just because, as journalists, you get detached from your readers sometimes.

“It’s been a lot of work, though. I think you’ve probably heard people saying, ‘Never, never start your own restaurant. Because you don’t make any money and it’s a lot of work.’ Well, everything they tell you about restaurants is true, but at the same time, it’s been really fun. And now it’s working well. So I’m pretty proud of that. It’s worked out.”

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Shanyan Fok Koder and Richard Bassett explain how a Hong Kong art entrepreneur joined forces with a former special-forces soldier to launch a health and mental wellbeing app, Mentor360.

"Mental health and mental fitness are universal concerns," says Shanyan Fok Koder. "And regardless of your demographic, social status, your job or your age, it’s something everyone has to deal with."

Shanyan Fok Koder & Richard Bassett on Mental Health App Mentor360

The Mentor360 app dropped on World Mental Health Day in October, the cumulation of the last 20 months of work and conversations (usually across continents over Zoom) between former military man Richard Bassett and worldly art advisor Koder. A month later, I’m sitting with both in a North London café talking over slices of pizza.

Their app, they hope, offers everyone a holistic 360 guide and framework to “finding your formula” for mental and physical wellbeing. It uses a hybrid approach, with a core layer of clinicians and professional Mentors and then celebrity Ambassadors (who’ve publicly shared meaningful life stories) critical for building noise and momentum.

"I’d been in the military for a long time. And there were a couple of incidents in my life that made me want to create something," Bassett, the CEO, explains. "Firstly, it was my father committing suicide. Then my son had a bit of misdirection. And several of my friends in the military had PTSD issues or adjustment disorders."

"The biggest issue is why people wouldn’t come forward and say they’ve got a problem?” he asks.

“Unlike some apps, we’re not trying to get people hooked. Come on to it when you need it”

— Richard Bassett

The answer often lay in culture, lack of education or concerns about privacy that prevent many from seeking help. With that came Bassett’s idea of creating an app that functions as a “non-judgmental toolkit” with content validated by experts – who include coaches, performance psychologists, mental health-specialising nurses and a clinical psychologist.

Basset’s link with Koder came when his best friend, ex-special forces colleague and TV star Jason Fox, sat next to a pregnant Koder at a charity fundraiser for Born (which researches to prevent premature birth) in late 2019. As the pair talked about their passions for mental health and children’s wellbeing, the connection to Bassett’s idea became quickly apparent.

"Foxy told me that I have to meet his friend, Richard, who’s building this app," Koder recalls. "I was always wanting to support things that are very meaningful and close to my heart … and now Jason is actually our key mentor. The partnership between Richard and I was almost like two parts of a jigsaw puzzle come together."

Although some might go to the app for help with stress, trauma or even resources to help with suicidal feelings, Mentor360 is designed specifically as a three-dimensional offering that will also encourage fitness, workouts, performance and meditation or more clinical matters.

"We wanted to maintain the human factor as a constant throughout. So it feels like somebody has given you some advice rather than some process-driven machine learning," Bassett adds.

The co-founders might come from two different worlds, but the unlikely partnership speaks to the ubiquity of the issues at hand. Bassett’s 25-year military career saw him being appointed the first ever Command Sergeant Major within the UK Special Forces military group. "It was at that stage where I was asked if I wanted to run defence,” he says. “At that point, I thought, I’ve kind of had my fill of the military now, it’s time to move on."

Koder meanwhile grew up in Hong Kong and the UK as the daughter of Li Ka-shing’s "right-hand man" Canning Fok, carving out a career in the arts and taking over her family’s impressive collection. As a female art entrepreneur and mother, her challenges would be different.

"When I had the misfortune of losing three babies to miscarriage and dealing with that emotional fallout, it led me to want to support this as a cause," Koder divulges. "If there’d been something like this app available to me, I don’t think I’d have suffered as much as I did emotionally. It’s a topic that’s still very taboo, even in this day and age … and while you eventually find your own community, at the very beginning, you do feel very alone."

Both were clearly driven towards the app through deeply personal experiences. Bassett saw first-hand how soldiers who’d done several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered – his best friend, Fox, had left the forces with PTSD. Perhaps machismo or fear of institutional repercussions meant that the issue was often ignored or hidden in the military – but he hopes that Mentor360’s holistic approach can gently lead people to explore mental fitness alongside physical performance too.

The male-female perspectives of the pair offer a well-rounded, powerful tool. And while the wellness space is already crowded, Mentor360 stands out by being so broad, human-focused and non-prescriptive.

There’s been exciting traction too. Since its launch, the app has been downloaded in more than 176 countries, with the UK, the US and Australia leading. British schools have reached out and it’s one governance board away from being trialled within the National Health Service (NHS), which means added clinical risk management in the app. That has been an important validation, says Bassett, "especially when an institution like that has picked it out from a huge spectrum of apps on the market today."

Covid-19 and lockdowns have helped throw light on mental health, taking the conversation more mainstream. The timeliness has hit home; as Bassett says, “there’s a lot of people now struggling with the transition between Covid and normality”.

Koder tells us that the plan is to serve individuals but also institutions such as the NHS and the military. There’s also the option of “white labelling” it, so the app can be packaged and tailored to certain industries or corporate employees. In the future, might they look more global, with different languages and translations? Absolutely, the pair say, but they’re taking it “slow and steady”. There’s been interest from American corporations and Koder says that she’s keen to push into Asia very soon. Although going truly global might mean translating for languages, cultures and tone, as well as working with diverse psychologists, it remains a future ambition.

Mentor360 may be extra helpful in cultures where mental health is still relatively taboo. As Koder says, "I think, coming from our Asian culture, it speaks volumes to me – so much of our culture is about still performance or hiding a lot of what you’re feeling."

"Unlike some apps,” Bassett adds, "what we’re not trying to do is create a hook or get people hooked. Come on to it when you need it, and if you don’t need it for a while because you’re good, you can just put it away … We’re starting to see those patterns in the trend analysis."

To get a little personal, I ask what works for them individually to keep a healthy mind and body. Bassett’s formula revolves around daily exercise, time with the family, dogs and good sleep – even the occasional glass of wine on the sofa in front of a crackling fireplace. Koder’s happiness hacks centre around motherhood, being content and at peace in her skin, and looking at life with a certain romanticism: "I always love to see the poetry in my day,” she says, "and I think it’s important to just pause throughout the day, check-in and acknowledge that I’ve achieved these things and I should be proud of myself, rather than just rushing on to the next thing."

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As 2019 broke the spell of warm, dry vintages, James Suckling finds plenty of top-notch Pinot noirs on the Oregon wine trail, with chardonnays showing increasing diversity of style and character.

We went big in our tastings of Oregon wines this year, uncorking more than 800 bottles in our largest review of the state so far and finding plenty of evidence to substantiate its reputation for making consistently top-notch pinot noir, with a smaller but potentially even more impressive selection of chardonnay.

Antica Terra Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills Antikythera 2018 again tops our ratings, showing an incredible complexity of aromas with a chalky, stony texture and layered, spicy character, and Antica Terra’s 2018 Ceras and 2018 Botanica also makes it into the top five of all the wines we’ve rated this year from Oregon.

“For me, the ’18s were so exciting,” says Maggie Harrison, the owner and winemaker of Antica Terra. She says 2018 was dry and warm, with consistency and a longer harvest, resulting in “much greater diversity of expression on the table” – as can be seen from her array of wines.

For Oregon winemakers, how to deal with warming temperatures has become a common theme. “Each year, I think we’re getting a little bit better at handling the heat,” says Tom Gerrie, owner and winemaker of Cristom. Cristom Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills Jessie Vineyard 2018 is another wine in our top five of the report.

While it’s tempting to draw a parallel with Burgundy’s regional variations, such as Côte de Beaune vs Côte de Nuits, there are fewer general differences among the 10 Willamette Valley AVAs. But as a varietal sensitive to both terroir and winemaking, pinot noir expresses a unique personality based on a combination of differences in soil, elevation and microclimate, as well as clone, rootstock and vine age.

Gerrie says that from his perspective, the unique personalities of pinot noir derive more from the soil than from the other geographical elements of each individual AVA.

“Our deep volcanic soils are extremely bright and red-fruited, very high-toned, very floral,” he explains, with vines planted in the shallow, rocky soils under more stress, resulting in fruit that “can be dark and brooding, almost blue-fruited”. Fewer producers in Oregon focus on chardonnay, but those that do, such as 00 Wines, are making incredible whites. Its Chardonnay Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills Freya Hermann Cuvee 2018, which was among our top five wines, shows impressive texture and structure thanks to a focus on phenolic extraction, alongside an exquisite purity of fruit, with flinty and spicy elements.

"It was really never anyone’s focal point, because, of course, pinot noir has been the big story in Oregon since the very beginning,” Chris Hermann, the co-founder of 00 Wines, says of carving out a niche for chardonnay in the state’s wine scene.

Chardonnay comprised only 17 percent of our tastings, compared with two-thirds pinot noir, but out of our top 30 wines, 11 are chardonnay – more than double the average proportion. They show more diversity in style and character, with all of them expressing a sharp backbone of acidity thanks to the high diurnal temperature range across the state.

We also tasted some fresh whites from pinot gris, once Oregon’s signature white, but these failed to impress at just under 90 points on average. We tasted some zesty rieslings, too, at an average of just under 91 points, but saw more potential and consistency in Oregon’s sparkling wines. With their bright acidity, wines such as Domaine Serene Dundee Hills Evenstad Reserve Brut NV show more freshness, minerality and refinement compared with Californian equivalents.

The region is still young, with producers gradually discovering the land and making more deliberate decisions regarding where best to plant vines, factoring in elevation and soil type. With most vines still in an early stage, there’s room to improve, and we hope that more Oregon producers can eventually unlock the potential for great chardonnay.

The Top 10 Oregon Wine Bottles

JamesSuckling.com ranks 10 top wines from the Pacific Northwest.

ANTICA TERRA PINOT NOIR EOLA-AMITY HILLS ANTIKYTHERA 2018

Score: 99

Wow. Aromas of blackberry, ripe strawberry, spice and smoke follow through to a full body with firm, minerally tannins that have a chalky, stony texture that gives it firmness and complexity. Very long and driven.

DOMAINE DROUHIN PINOT NOIR EOLAAMITY HILLS ROSEROCK ZÉPHIRINE 2019

Score: 97

Redcurrant, sour cherry and smoke on the nose. Layered and balanced, with a long, savoury finish. Very vertical and deep.

00 WINES CHARDONNAY WILLAMETTE VALLEY EOLA-AMITY HILLS FREYA HERMANN CUVÉE 2018

Score: 98

Striking aromas of sliced nectarine and white peach with flinty and spicy elements. Mouthwatering. The palate is impressively rich and pithy with good extract. Drink or hold.

ANTICA TERRA PINOT NOIR WILLAMETTE VALLEY BOTANICA 2018

Score: 98

This pinot proffers detail and textural nuance, as well as aromatic complexity and fresh flavour. Fresh yet ripe with fully resolved tannin maturity and seamless resolve. Drink or hold.

ANTICA TERRA PINOT NOIR WILLAMETTE VALLEY CERAS 2018

Score: 98

The palate is so smooth and so layered with a long arc of deep blue-fruit flavours holding seamlessly long. An exceptional Ceras. So long and seamless. Drink or hold.

00 WINES CHARDONNAY CHEHALEM MOUNTAINS KATHRYN HERMANN CUVÉE 2018

Score: 97

The palate is striking for the concentration and fleshy build, as well as the way it maintains focus and holds the finish. A great chardonnay, every way you look at it. Drink or hold.

DOMAINE SERENE CHARDONNAY DUNDEE HILLS RÉCOLTE GRAND CRU 2017

Score: 97

The pinnacle of chardonnay for this producer, it outguns the rest of the stable for sheer concentration and power. Complex and vibrant all at once.

CRISTOM PINOT NOIR WILLAMETTE VALLEY EOLA-AMITY HILLS JESSIE VINEYARD 2018

Score: 99

This dramatically steep site delivers a wine of real personality and distinctiveness. The star of 2018 at Cristom and, indeed, for Willamette Valley pinot per see.

BERGSTRÖM PINOT NOIR EOLA-AMITY HILLS TEMPERANCE HILL VINEYARD 2019

Score: 97

A very spicy expression of pinot, this has so much to say on the nose. Fascinating pinot.

SOTER PINOT NOIR YAMHILL-CARLTON MINERAL SPRINGS RANCH 2018

Score: 97

This has such ripe redcherry pinot fruit aromas, as well as forest wood and a swathe of deep-set spices. The palate carries such plush red and darkcherry flavours in a long, fresh and energetic mode. Commanding pinot with such impressive poise. Drink or hold.

For more wine reports and ratings, you can visit JamesSuckling.com

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As Chaumet's CEO Jean-Marc Mansvelt tells us, bringing the house's 240-year heritage into the modern era is an immense task that amounts to a "daily obsession". But if the new pieces in the Chaumet Joséphine collection are anything to go by, the Place Vendôme stalwart is heading in the right direction.

What kind of woman today does the Joséphine collection appeal to?

First, it’s about a woman with a certain character. Because when you choose to wear a tiara on your finger, you’re making a choice of distinction, a choice of character. You’re sending a message to say you’re not like everyone else and you have a certain strength and a certain personality. But also a sense of virtuosity, grace and beauty, because it’s not for women who want to be too provocative.

It’s a way to set your personality. And then of course, there are two major reasons to become a client of Joséphine. On one side, it remains one of the favourite pieces chosen for a bridal purpose. It’s connected to the initial history of Chaumet, the history of the power and love between Napoleon and Joséphine. And Napoleon is known everywhere, that’s incredible. There’s another type of client on the other side of the connection with the pearls, the coloured stones, something a bit easier and more accessible.

This year, Chaumet's creations have also incorporated sleeker, more modern takes on the tiara. Can you tell us a bit about the new high jewellery?

After many creations that were a bit more tiara-like, a bit more decorative, more visible, more baroque in a certain way, we wanted to enrich the collection with new ways to mix and match, and to go for designs that were slicker, with a more minimalist approach, because that’s also the style of today. We have a feeling that clients today are a little more understated, and we have the capacity to create beauty through a fine line, rather than an accumulation. So one of our high- jewellery pieces, which is sort of a V with a stone in suspension, doesn’t shout about its design. It’s all about balance.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the Joséphine collection...

But we don’t mark it that way for two reasons. I always feel that if you start doing anniversaries for everything, then at the end, what’s the meaning in it? Last year, when we did the 240 years of Chaumet, that was slightly different. For Chaumet, our heritage is much longer than a decade, it’s about centuries. Instead, this year, we’re celebrating our connection with the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon, which is significant in Europe and in France. We’ve done an exhibition at 12 Place Vendôme that was open to the public which tells the love story of Napoleon and Josephine through 150 different objects, beautiful loans from museums and private owners.

Which piece proved to be the most challenging piece in the collection?

The most discussed and the most debated one was the watch. Because we’re clearly a jeweller, and we’ve focused all our efforts and attention on jewellery. But since a few years ago, we’ve reassessed and repositioned what watches mean for Chaumet. It’s true that with the business of watches within Chaumet, we’ve really tried to be coherent with what the story of watchmaking for Chaumet is as a jeweller. One of our challenges was to look at the market – in the market, 90 percent of watches are round – and nobody’s waiting for Chaumet to create a round watch, because we already have thousands of beautiful options on the market.

We decided on a shaped watch, and it wasn’t very difficult to settle on the pear shape, like an illusion of a diamond. We also faceted the watch’s dial.

How do you balance 240 years of heritage behind a brand and stay relevant at the same time?

That’s really the obsession every single day. How do we continue the narrative, the link to the story? Since the pandemic, we’ve seen clients choose Chaumet because there’s longevity. And so it becomes a daily obsession of ours to convey this message to our clients through different means, including the digital approach, so we can speak to the needs of our audience today. We also go through the traditional channels and have books and exhibitions. I regularly write down on paper in two columns: on one side, how much do we tell the story of Chaumet, and on the other, how do we take a contemporary approach, either through the narrative or through using different tools? I take a step back and ask myself is there a balance? If we’re going too much in one direction, maybe it’s time to rebalance. It’s in everything we do.

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The first Grand Cru in Alsace was the Schlossberg of Kaysersberg, a sort of trial balloon for the category that began back in 1975. Since then, 50 more Grands Crus have come into being. James Suckling takes a closer look at the top 10 Grand Cru wine bottles.

When it comes to French wines, the term Grand Cru has a magical connotation. But just how magical the name of a particular Grand Cru vineyard and the wines named after it really depend enormously on the region. Both in terms of reputation and to your wallet, it makes a huge difference if a Grand Cru white wine is from Burgundy or Alsace.

Let me give a few concrete examples. The world’s most expensive dry white wine is the Montrachet Grand Cru from Domaine Leflaive in Burgundy, which Wine-Searcher prices at US$12,750 for the 2015 vintage (the latest available) and US$19,590 for the 2014. In contrast, even the most expensive Grand Cru wines from Alsace are those from the Rangen Grand Cru site in the commune of Thann, produced by Domaine Zind Humbrecht, and they lie at just under $100 for the 2019 vintage. That’s a more than a hundred-fold price difference.

The question is whether that price difference is reflected in the wine quality. For us, the answer is… not necessarily. Sure, the best Grand Cru dry whites from Burgundy are amazing wines, and for sommeliers and collectors around Planet Wine, they remain the benchmark for the chardonnay grape. The Montrachet Grand Cru is an example of how enormous global demand for a very limited production combined with high-quality results in stratospheric prices for certain Burgundian Grand Cru wine.

For Alsace, demand is almost never as great, but what about quality? Recently, we tasted the 2018 and 2019 vintages of the Rangen Grand Cru wines from Zind Humbrecht and rated them every bit as high as the best Grand Cru whites of Burgundy. This situation creates a golden opportunity for savvy consumers, and our Top 10 is designed to help you make the most of it.

There’s another important reason to take these wines seriously. Many consumers wonder what the “mineral character” that sommeliers and wine critics often talk about tastes like. Alsace Grand Cru is an ideal way to find out.

The hashtag #alsacerocks is a marketing tool for the region’s wines, but it fits, because the best Alsace Grand Cru have intense notes of flint, chalk, wet stones and dry earth. This, together with the combination of generosity and freshness typical for Alsace whites, makes them a special category.

“A true Grand Cru is a singularity of character with consistently high quality,” says Marie Zusslin, from Domaine Valentin Zusslin. “That’s why my idea is to show the uniqueness of each site.” Her Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Pfingstberg 2017 is a magnificent expression of this idea.

“Alsace has enormous geological diversity within a small area, and each Grand Cru has its own identity,” Eric Kientzler of the Kientzler estate in Ribeauville told me. “For example, the wines from our three riesling Grand Crus are very different, though the Osterberg, Kirchberg de Ribeauville and Geisberg sites are neighbours.” With its combination of elegance and minerality, his Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Kirchberg de Ribeauville 2018 is an ideal introduction to the Alsace Grand Cru category.

Alsace Grands Crus are nearly always varietal whites, with the variety named on the label: gewurztraminer, muscat, pinot gris or riesling. Riesling is the most successful grape for Alsace Grand Cru in the market because these wines are always dry and their bright acidity accentuates this.

For us the Domaine Weinbach Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée Ste Catherine is a near-perfect example of an Alsace Grand Cru, combining mineral subtlety with great concentration and length.

Top 10 Alsace Grand Cru Wines

These wines that exemplify the greatness of Alsace Grand Cru are all either currently in the market or about to appear.

DOMAINE WEINBACH RIESLING ALSACE GRAND CRU SCHLOSSBERG CUVÉE STE CATHERINE 2019

Score: 99

Enveloping, sensual bouquet of a thousand yellow fruits and some wild berries that’s just beginning to reveal its profundity. Gigantic concentration, but this remains as light on its feet as a prima ballerina.

FAMILLE HUGEL RIESLING ALSACE SCHOELHAMMER 2010

Score: 99

One of the world’s unique dry whites. This is so deep and spicy with a ton of candied citrus. Stunning concentration, power and structure on the palate.

DOMAINE ZIND HUMBRECHT PINOT GRIS ALSACE GRAND CRU RANGEN DE THANN CLOS SAINT URBAIN 2019

Score: 98

So spicy and smoky with a hint of mushroom, this is an enormously deep and concentrated dry pinot gris that’s just beginning to open up.

TRIMBACH RIESLING ALSACE GRAND CRU GEISBERG 2014

Score: 98

Aromas of limestone and hints of earth. Wet-morning forest floor. From the vineyards of the convent of Ribeauville, it’s been made separately since 2009. All organically farmed.

DOMAINE VALENTIN ZUSSLIN RIESLING GRAND CRU PFINGSTBERG 2017

Score: 98

Hang your nose into a glass of this astonishing dry white wine and let yourself be swept away in a cloud of smoke. Then, when you’re inside it, the wine’s subtle, citrusy beauty will unfurl and you’ll realise that it can only be riesling.

DOMAINE MARCEL DEISS GRAND CRU SCHOENENBOURG 2017

Score: 98

Super fresh for three years of age — the floral, honey and beeswax aromas are especially enticing. 

DOMAINE PFISTER RIESLING ALSACE GRAND CRU ENGELBERG 2018

Score: 97

A masterpiece of cool elegance, in spite of this being the warmest vintage in living memory! Pristine with crystalline purity and a totally mineral personality.

MURÉ PINOT NOIR CLOS SAINT LANDELIN 2018

Score: 96

The stunning balance of very fine tannins and delicate “sweetness“ that pervades the long, super-silky finish reminds me of Grand Cru Musigny from Burgundy. 

KIENTZLER RIESLING ALSACE GRAND CRU KIRCHBERG DE RIBEAUVILLÉ 2018

Score: 95

A complex and elegant Grand Cru dry riesling with tons of wet-stone character, married to nice lemon and fresh herb aromas.

DIRLER-CADÉ GEWURZTRAMINER ALSACE GRAND CRU SAERING 2018

Score: 94

Tons of spice and Turkish delight here, yet this is anything but opulent. Powerful and rich, but also minerally and properly dry.

The post Best of Wine: The Top 10 Grand Cru Wine Bottles appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The famous French wine-producing region produced sterling vintages in 2018 and 2019. Is the latest one equally as good? James Suckling takes a closer look at what the year brought and picks his top bottles.

We all know that the pandemic will make the 2020 vintage particularly memorable, but the vintage in Bordeaux will also be remembered because it produced so many outstanding wines under such challenging circumstances – from logistical shortages to severe drought conditions.

In fact, 2020 is the third outstanding vintage in a row for Bordeaux and marks perhaps the first time the region has experienced such a high-quality trilogy of superlative years.

JamesSuckling.com rated 1,302 barrel samples from the 2020 vintage and conducted almost 40 Zoom calls from Hong Kong with chateau owners and winemakers, and the story behind the 2020 vintage is a fantastic one.

It was not only our biggest en primeur tasting ever but perhaps even the biggest for any wine critic. The outstanding quality of so many of the wines highlights the genius of Bordeaux viticulture and winemaking, as well as the incredible human effort and collective energy it takes to make so many terrific-quality wines.

“You had a new challenge every day, and it could be climatic or it could be sanitary,” says Veronique Sanders, general manager of Château Haut-Bailly, who made one of the best wines of the vintage. “We had to keep our team working and that could be a challenge. Imagine what it was like when France was in lockdown in May and April!”

I think that we’re all going to be excited with what’s eventually bottled in Bordeaux from 2020. The reds show complex and intense aromas as well as bright fruit character, but also floral and earth undertones. This is something you don’t see in such young wine resting in barrels or other vessels in cellars. They also have intense yet fine tannins and relatively fresh acidity. They’re wines that can be consumed relatively young but will age very well after bottling.

Some wines are of really exceptional quality. In fact, I rated 10 wines with possible perfect scores of 99 to 100. That’s the third-highest number of top wines in the last 10 years for my en primeur tastings for Bordeaux and one of the highest in my career of tasting Bordeaux from barrel. By comparison, 2019 had eight wines with 99-to-100 ratings, and 2018 just four.

“We think that the 2020 is the best of the trilogy,” says Florence Cathiard, owner of Château Smith Haut-Lafitte, who made one of her best wines ever. “It has the structure and the typicity of the 2018 and the aromatics of the 2019. So it takes the best of both.”

The best wines of 2020 also have a ripeness but slightly less alcohol than 2019 and 2018, because many wineries picked earlier and extracted less during fermentation and macerations, using lower temperatures and fewer pump-overs.

“It was crazy, crazy,” says Saskia Rothschild, head of the famous first-growth Château Lafite-Rothschild, as well as Château Duhart-Milon and Château L’Évangile. The Lafite only has about 12.8 percent alcohol, a good degree less than most recent high-quality vintages.

“Everyone told us 2020 was hot and we measured the vats and they were like what we knew in the 1990s and 1980s. It’s very surprising. It’s about that paradox [of the vintage] that we talked about.”

The paradox is that Bordeaux experienced one of its most severe droughts ever during the summer, with almost 50 days of no rain – or only a few drops from about mid-June to mid-August. Most winemakers worried that they would have a high-alcohol harvest with shrivelled and sugar-rich grapes.

Yet the wet weather during most of the first half of the year enabled the best vineyards with great soils to maintain moisture. Large amounts of rain came in mid-August, but not enough negatively to affect the quality of the grape crop. The most important precipitation arrived in late September, but many of the top names on the Right Bank had finished their harvest or were very close to ending. This early and dry harvest delivered some impeccable merlot in many estates.

But don’t write off wines with a predominance of cabernet sauvignon in their blends. The cabernets were much smaller than normal, with thick skins, so the rains at the end of September didn’t negatively affect them in many areas or properties.

Moreover, the cabernets in Pessac-Léognan were super in 2020, which is why three out of my top 10 wines were from the appellation.

The question now is whether 2020 is better than 2019 or 2018. My impression after tasting so many barrel samples is that it’s certainly better than 2018 and at least at the same level as 2019 in quality. I’ll have to wait and see the wines in bottle to finally decide how they compare with 2019.

Tasting Notes: Top 10 Bordeaux 2020 Wines

These 10 Bordeaux 2020 wines were rated 99-100 by James Suckling and his tasting team.

CHÂTEAU HAUT-BRION PESSAC-LÉOGNAN 2020

This is a superb Haut-Brion with incredible tannins that are wonderfully fine-grained. It’s really powerful. This is very primary, with so much grape-generated tannin structure.

CHÂTEAU MARGAUX MARGAUX 2020

So floral and perfumed with blackcurrants, blackberries and some asphalt. Full-bodied with super, fine tannins.

CHÂTEAU HOSANNA POMEROL 2020

This shows very intense, old-vine character with bark, black mushroom and dark fruit. Full-bodied and creamy with unique flavours of earth and fruit.

CHÂTEAU LA FLEUR-PÉTRUS POMEROL 2020

Purple berry and blackberry aromas with cracked black pepper, violets and lavender. It’s full-bodied and layered, and broadens in the mouth.

CHÂTEAU LAFITE ROTHSCHILD PAUILLAC 2020

Rather ethereal and so refined, with finesse, focus and brightness that provide incredible energy and pedigree.

CHÂTEAU HAUT-BAILLY PESSAC-LÉOGNAN 2020

This has incredible power and drive, with blackberry, black olive and graphite. It’s full-bodied, yet dynamic and agile, with so much polished and muscular tannin.

CHÂTEAU MOUTON ROTHSCHILD PAUILLAC 2020

This is a great and impressive Mouton with plushness and precision. A million layers of tannins. It’s full and very friendly, even seductive, in a rich and opulent way.

CHÂTEAU TROTANOY POMEROL 2020

A very concentrated Trot with density and depth, the tannins spreading across the palate.

CHÂTEAU SMITH-HAUT-LAFITTE PESSAC-LÉOGNAN 2020

So much blackcurrant, graphite and iodine character. Full-bodied. Incredible quality to the tannins. They’re polished yet powerful.

CHÂTEAU PAVIE ST-ÉMILION 2020

The aromas are already exceptional, showing crushed stone, limestone and salt character to the dark fruit and bark. Floats on the palate.

James Suckling honoured by French Government

In June, James Suckling, noted international wine critic and Prestige's wine correspondent, was honoured by the French Government for his services to the country and its wine industry with the title and rank of Chevalier de l’Ordre Nationale du Mérite. Suckling received the honour — the only time such an award has been bestowed on an Asia-based wine critic — during a ceremony held at the residence of the French consul general in Hong Kong, Alexandre Giorgini.

For more wine reports and ratings, you can visit JamesSuckling.com

The post Best of Wine: The Top 10 Bordeaux Bottles of 2020 appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

There’s no doubt Alex Lam inherited his musical talent from his parents, his father being Cantopop legend George Lam Chi-Cheung, and his mother, Sally Yeh. Still, the singer-songwriter and actor hasn’t let privilege get to his head — he’s not afraid to explore other paths, from a stint in Los Angeles to discover yoga and becoming a yoga teacher, to dipping his toes in fashion.

Lam met Hiro Yoshikawa, founder and designer of Washi Jeans, a Japanese denim brand, a couple years back and was intrigued by the designer’s backstory. Now based in Hong Kong, Yoshikawa is the 18^th generation of a revered sake maker in Okayama, Japan, and the first to leave the family business to pursue his own passion in denim-making. By chance, Yoshikawa had found an old document that charted out his family’s history, written on washi paper. Inspired by this, he developed and patented the Washi No. 6 paper yarn, which he utilizes in his first solo collection launching this month.

Lam, who has always had an eye for detail, quickly became an ambassador and muse for Yoshikawa, and took it upon himself to bring the recognition Yoshikawa deserves by helping him stage his upcoming solo debut.

We sit down with Alex Lam and Hiro Yoshikawa at Washi Jean's studio to talk about style and the upcoming debut of Yoshikawa's solo collection Life on Earth.

Can you describe your style? What are your wardrobe essentials?

AL: My style has always been inspired by musicians. I grew up watching some of my favourite bands like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and today, I'm inspired by singers like Drake. For me, my summer essentials include a sleeveless vest, a good multi-functional blazer and a pair of high-quality designer jeans.

Have you always been passionate about fashion and did you want to work in fashion?

AL: I have always cared about how I look and my outfits since I was a kid. I remember there was one time when the collar of my t-shirt wasn't right and I wouldn’t wear it out until my parents fixed it for me. Having friends who are in the fashion industry allows me to execute and experiment my ideas during workshops, like the ‘marshmallow’ colourway of the t-shirt I’m wearing right now. 

How did the both of you meet?

AL: I met Hiro-san thought some of our mutual friends.

HY: have been making jeans for other brands for the past 30 years and it has always been my dream to have my own denim brand. I have always hung out with people from the fashion industry, and meeting Alex from the music and acting world has made my life more fun and exciting.

Can you tell us a bit about your project with Hiro-san?

AL: I was hanging out with a group of producers and we often talk about fashion shows, designer brands’ videos, installation art and music. Once we found out Hiro-san wanted to launch his own denim brand this year, we decided to catch this opportunity and put our ideas together. We are organising a VIP launch event with a fashion show on June 11, 2021.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome with this project?

AL: I think the rules of the game changed after Covid started last year. We looked at online fashion shows last year, without the tradition styles, and we knew our team needed to do it in a cleverer way. The restriction for event gathering is 30 persons at the moment, so we were not able to invite too many friends and make the event as big as before. Plus the campaign and fashion show video shoot all in one day, that’s the biggest challenge in this project.

HY:  We have been staying in our studio almost every day is the past few months, meeting different parties like our PR team, models, videographers and producers.

What else are you up to this year that you can share with us?

AL: I have released a new song and I just finished a music video for another song. I have also been working on my YouTube channel and created a few series, but it’s been slightly slowed down because I was focusing in this project.

Has the pandemic affected the way you work or changed your priorities?

AL: Before Covid, I was busy working with clients, who often prepared everything. With changes and restrictions during this period, I am able to organise and create more content by myself.

What are you currently inspired by?

AL: There are many indie musicians and young kids out there who are doing their music in their unique styles. I admire them a lot as they can release songs as long as they think it sounds good. I used think good music requires the best studio and recording equipment, but turned out a lot of indie musicians are producing high quality songs just by working at home.

You have a YouTube channel, you're into fashion, music as well as classic cars. How did you get into each of those passions and how do you balance it all?

AL: Project by project. I’m now focusing more on quantity over quality and I'll keep learning from the progress and mistakes.

Do you have a motto you live by?

Stay healthy. As I was a yoga teacher, I still practice yoga for two to three hours each day. It’s a good way to reflect on myself and find peace.

The post Is 2018 Bordeaux the Superlative Vintage? appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The elusive quality that makes us want to drink a glass of wine right away is often encapsulated by critics and connoisseurs in a single word: Wine drinkability. But what does it mean? James Suckling and Zekun Shuai explain.

Many years ago, when talking about drinkability we were probably discussing whether the wine in question was within the suitable drinking window to pull out the cork. Today however, drinkability means much more than simply “suitability for drinking”.

At JamesSuckling.com, drinkability is one of the measures we use for quality, and often it’s one of the basic yet essential indicators for a wine scoring 90 points or above – a threshold for high quality. A 90-point wine is a wine that you want to drink the whole glass right away; 95 points or more, you want to finish the bottle yourself!

A “drinkable cabernet” in a tasting note needs to be interpreted within the context. Is the wine suitable for now? Are we euphemistically suggesting the wine has minimally worthy concentration? Or increasingly, are we saying the wine is an approachable, easy-to-drink bottle that arouses the desire to drink effortlessly? The latter is a way of showing how much the drinker likes the wine in a simple way.

[caption id="attachment_212394" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Wine drinkability means much more than simply “suitability for drinking”. (Image: Kelsey Knight/ Unsplash)[/caption]

Evaluating drinkability comes when we consider the essential function of a wine. If we were to make a comparison with two different piles of apples on a balance, when a taster highlights a wine’s drinkability, today that probably suggests that the pointer is tilting away from the riper, softer and sweeter red apples towards the fresher, crunchier green ones – the kind that make you salivate.

As many critics and journalists advocate for the drinkability of wine, top producers are also scrupulously assessing the sugar-acid balance of the grapes before harvest, as they simultaneously try to maintain ripeness and freshness, while staying away from overripe, jammy fruit or over-extraction in the cellar. Thus, the drinkability of wine is very much associated with descriptors such as “fresh and pure fruit”, “bright acidity”, “bone-dry palate”, “nuance or finesse”, “precision”, “harmony”, “elegance” and a “linear, mineral texture”, and most often is associated with wines that express character and a sense of place.

[caption id="attachment_212386" align="aligncenter" width="821"] Wine drinkability most often is associated with wines that express character and a sense of place.[/caption]

So, a wine’s drinkability today reflects a new and still-evolving trend of wine styles that underline the wisdom of “less could be more”. Whether driven by the trend or driving it, wine journalism is also adjusting, marking an aesthetic return to classicism. It turns the wheel to precision and balance again, even though “balance” itself is now a cliché that’s much too vague and inclusive.

For simple wines, drinkability is almost a given. But for the more complex, ambitious bottles with a substantial concentration of flavours that aim to please and can age, we can say it’s a gift.

Definitely Drinkable

The JamesSuckling.com team selects six sought-after wines that hit the spot in a range of prices and categories.

William Fèvre Chablis Gran Cru Les Clos 2017

[caption id="attachment_212389" align="aligncenter" width="452"] William Fèvre Chablis Gran Cru Les Clos 2017[/caption]

Score: 98
Chablis is probably one of the most underrated yet intellectually challenging and drinkable white wines. The best are known for their full but linear, minerally texture with the nuanced and complex limy, chalky mixture of yellow and green fruit. This William Fèvre Grand Cru Les Clos is a must-buy for quality and great value.

Jean Foillard Morgon Côte du Py 2018

[caption id="attachment_212391" align="aligncenter" width="354"] Jean Foillard Morgon Côte du Py 2018[/caption]

Score: 96
You don’t need to pay a high price for drinkability. Beaujolais has a name for making lighter, cheerful and drinkable wines, and this Jean Foillard Morgon Cote du Py gives “Bojo” a serious, structured dimension at a great-value price point. And, of course, drinkability is at its core.

Schäfer- Fröhlich Riesling Nahe Felseneck GG 2018

[caption id="attachment_212390" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Schäfer- Fröhlich Riesling Nahe Felseneck GG 2018[/caption]

Score: 99
The top GG German Rieslings have impeccable drinkability, with zesty, lightly fragrant but subtle aromas. And there are great-value bottles almost everywhere. This 99-point Schäfer- Fröhlich Riesling is a textbook example of a dry Riesling with succulence, mineral purity and power.

Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Fortuna Terrae Malbec 2012

[caption id="attachment_212388" align="aligncenter" width="263"] Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Fortuna Terrae Malbec 2012[/caption]

Score: 100
A deeply coloured, rich Argentine Malbec from Catena Zapata, many of whose wines have a supple, ethereal character that unwinds evenly on the palate.

Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2008

[caption id="attachment_212392" align="aligncenter" width="387"] Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2008[/caption]

Score: 99
It’s almost unnecessary to mention the drinkability of a fine bubbly, especially Blanc de Blancs and the fine zero dosage. This nervy and composed Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2008 was released recently and is perfect for drinking now, yet could also be cellared for a decade or two.

Gonzalez Byass Jerez Tio Pepe Fino Dos Palmas NV

[caption id="attachment_212387" align="aligncenter" width="333"] Gonzalez Byass Jerez Tio Pepe Fino Dos Palmas NV[/caption]

Score: 95
Still think that fortified sherries are old-fashioned? Try this rich but fabulously creamy, briny and well-aged fino, probably one of the top and best-value sherries made by Gonzalez Byass. The austere yet complex flavours, along with unique floral characters, deconstruct the common perception of drinkability — you don’t need high acidity to deliver that in a wine, or at least not with sherries.

The post What Exactly Does Wine Drinkability Mean? appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Wine critic James Suckling reports from a blind tasting of 12 wines, and makes a surprising discovery.

Is China capable of producing world-class wines?

Last month, I – along with a small group of luminaries, from the head of a major property company to an Oscar-winning movie director – attended a blind tasting event here in Hong Kong to find out.

The tasting, organised by Canadian businessman Adam Janikowski, pitted six Chinese wines against six from Bordeaux, including great names such as Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Pichon Longueville Lalande and Château Pichon-Longueville Baron. The wines were served in six pairs: One red from France and another from China. The 16 tasters voted for their favourite wine in each pair, and China won four out of the six pairs and tied the other two. Bordeaux failed to win a single pairing.

“I had no idea that China made such outstanding wines,” said a Chinese-Canadian woman, who admitted that she’d preferred the Chinese red in every flight.

The overall winner was LVMH’s 2015 Ao Yun Shangri-La, the cabernet sauvignon blend from northern Yunnan province in southwestern China. The red was open, complex and loaded with currant, sweet berry, tobacco and hints of cedar in the nose and on the palate. By comparison, the Lafite, which was Ao Yun’s companion bottle in the pairing, was tight yet incredibly long and powerful at the finish. I was one of the few who preferred the first growth, because it showed such incredible power and length and potential for ageing.

In fact, all the Bordeaux wines, except for the Lafon-Rochet, which seemed to be a slightly bad bottle, were much tighter, more polished and tannic than the Chinese reds, which showed more ripeness and had even a slightly stewed character to them. The latter were much more attractive to taste and drink now.

I believe most of the people in the tasting were rating the wines for their current drinking pleasure and not for the future – or on a professional level. But the fact is that in almost every pair of reds the Chinese wines were preferred by a consensus for their quality – proof, if you needed it, that the best Chinese wines of today can easily be placed on the table next to bottles of comparable wines from France.

JamesSuckling.com has been following the development of super- premium Chinese wines for some time now. Late last year, our Beijing-based associate editor Zekun Shuai reviewed about 150 wines. A number of other top reds are being produced in the country and they aren’t simply emulating Bordeaux. Marsellan and Syrah are two grape types to watch for the future, as are some small hands-on winemakers.

Most of the people I spoke to at the tasting agreed that China can make world-class wines. Their biggest problem now is to find the bottles they liked, because most are hard to buy at retail just about anywhere outside of the People’s Republic. Maybe that will change soon with the continued improvement in quality.

My notes and scores, shown below, for the full set of 12 wines don’t include ratings or opinions from other tasters at the event.

Château Lafite Rothschild Pauillac 2015
Score: 99
Firm and powerful with blackberries, blueberries, currants and wet earth. Full-bodied, yet tight and angular with very pretty fruit and brightness. Really racy and super, and set for a long, long life. Better after 2025.

Ao Yun Shangri-La 2015
Score: 96
Currants and sweet berries. Tobacco and hints of cedar. Full-bodied with fine, creamy tannins and chocolate, tobacco and cedar at the end. The quality of the tannins is absolutely excellent. Long and driven. Give this time, but so beautiful already. Drink or hold.

Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac 2015
Score: 95
Blackberries, sweet tobacco, incense and currants. Aromatic. Medium to full body and firm, sleek tannins. Racy and refined. Shows lovely balance and finesse. Pretty now, but needs another three or four years of bottle age. Try from 2023.

Château Cantenac Brown Margaux 2015
Score: 94
The blueberries, blackberries and fresh violets come through nicely on the nose. Full body with round, juicy tannins. Hints of vanilla. Lots of ripe fruit. A little tight now. Try after 2022.

Château Phélan Ségur St.-Estèphe 2015
Score: 94
A beautifully perfumed young red with blackcurrants, blackberries and dark chocolate. Some sweet tobacco. It is medium-to full-bodied with a very balanced and refined palate, showing focus and tightness. This needs time to open. Try after 2023.

Kanaan Winery Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothills Crazy Fang 2013
Score: 94
Aromas of currants and berries with fresh herbs and tobacco. Perfumed. A pretty red with currant, sweet-tobacco and spice flavours. It’s long and racy. Beautiful focus and persistence. Excellent wine. Drink or hold.

[caption id="attachment_210855" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The best Chinese wines can easily be placed on the table next to comparable wines from France (Image: James Suckling)[/caption]

Château Pichon Longueville Lalande Pauillac 2013
Score: 93
Ripe berries and prunes with some tobacco and vanilla character. Medium to full body, round tannins and a savoury finish. Very drinkable now. Drink or hold.

Jade Vineyard Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothills Aria Reserve 2015
Score: 93
Beautiful tobacco with sweet berries and cherries. Hints of spice and chocolate. Full-bodied with ripe, velvety fruit and a long, balanced finish. Some stewed fruit. Shows ripeness with balanced, polished tannins. Impressive length. Drink after 2022.

Silver Heights Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothills Emma’s Reserve 2015
Score: 93
Aromas of tobacco, cedar and currants with a medium body, soft and silky tannins and beautiful fruit at the finish. Needs time to open, but very attractive already. Drink or hold.

Grace Vineyard Shanxi Chairman’s Reserve 2013
Score: 92
Lots of chocolate, stone, sweet tobacco, walnuts and ripe berries. Slightly stewed. Full-bodied, round tannins and a juicy finish. Extremely long and flavourful. So drinkable now.

Château Lafon-Rochet St.-Estèphe 2013
Score: 89
Blackberries, fresh wood, violets and sandalwood. Floral and aromatic. Some chocolate and hazelnut undertones. Medium to full body and dry tannins. This is drying out a bit. Slightly too much wood. Needs drinking.

Helan Qingxue Vineyard Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothills Jiabeilan Reserve 2015
Score: 87
Stewed fruit on the palate with prunes and green wood. It’s full-bodied with chewy tannins and a savoury finish. Funky. This is disappointing. Bad bottle? Drink now.

This story first appeared on Prestige Singapore

(Main and featured image: James Suckling)

The post Chinese Wines Emerge Tops in a Blind Tasting by James Suckling and Wine Critics appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The Bordeaux 2019 en primeur samples are outstanding – but will oenophiles still pay top prices in hard times?

If Bordeaux offered its 2019 vintage right now for 30 to 40 percent less than last year’s offer of en primeur, or futures, would you buy? I’m sure you haven’t thought much about the 2019 vintage in Bordeaux. Buying futures is the last thing on the minds of most wine lovers as the world deals with Covid-19 and the global economic crisis. And most people would rather spend money on wine that’s in the bottle and ready to drink than one that’s ageing in a barrel in a winery. Bordeaux only releases wines on to the market two years after the grapes are harvested. So, the 2019 wines will be available in 2021.

[caption id="attachment_208712" align="alignnone" width="1389"] Winemaker and Oenologist Hubert De Bouard (centre) at his Château Angelus Winery[/caption]

However, I’ve tasted about 1,000 barrel samples of 2019 Bordeaux in my Hong Kong wine bar, James Suckling Wine Central, and I was happily surprised with the quality of the samples – the wines are of outstanding quality. Plus, it looks like prices for the 2019 wines will much less than for those of 2018. Château Pontet-Canet recently announced its high-quality wine at more than one-third less than its 2018. Wine merchants in Bordeaux reported that their email inboxes were filling with orders. One London wine merchant was already offering six bottles of the Pontet-Canet 2019 for US$462, compared with US$816 for the 2018.

The 2019 vintage is not an exceptional year like last year’s 2018 from barrel, when Bordeaux winemakers pulled off a near miracle in their vineyards, picking ripe and opulent grapes in a late, dry and warm harvest following months of problems, including hail and mildew. But so many of the 2019 wines are at the same level of quality as 2018, albeit with less exuberance and plushness in fruit and tannins. The wines seem more typical for Bordeaux – which is a good thing – with a balance of alcohol, cool and blue fruits and fine linear tannins that are refined and driven.

“I prefer 2019 to 2018, as the wines have this depth and density of the 2018 or 2010 (maybe a little less power) with the sensuality and sexiness that you really liked in 2015,” said Thomas Duclos, one of the most popular consulting oenologists in Bordeaux, who makes refined and polished wines. “The great evolution of Bordeaux in recent years seems to me to be this ability to make great wines more accessible in their young years. And I think 2019 is a very good example of this.”

[caption id="attachment_208714" align="alignnone" width="1388"] Hubert De Bouard (left) at Château Angelus in Bordeaux[/caption]

It’s the consensus on the quality of the vintage and the general nature of the wines that’s interesting to me as a longtime wine critic and journalist. It doesn’t happen very often. And the consistency in the quality of the wines from straightforward wine-merchant blends to complex grand chateaux samples highlights this agreement. It means that the wines will be excellent in bottle, regardless of when they sell.

“The wines in 2019 are perfect for greedy wine lovers,” said Hubert de Bouard, whose family owns one of the top growths of the Right Bank, Château Angelus, and who is also a leading consulting enologist in Bordeaux. “The wines are already really tasty – and they’re sexy wines. In 60 percent of the wines I made I prefer the 2019, and in 40 percent I prefer 2018.”

The question now is whether people will buy 2019 Bordeaux as futures or en primeur under the current societal and economic conditions. Most of the winemakers and wine merchants in Bordeaux I spoke to agreed that prices have to come down.

“If we want to have success with en primeur in 2019 then the price must be down,” said de Bouard. “I don’t know [if it should be] 20 percent. I don’t know 15 percent. I don’t know 30 percent. It depends on the brands.”

Some wine merchants who specialise in en primeur in London and Hong Kong apparently sent a written appeal to Bordeaux vintners, urging them to not sell en primeur this year. It’s certainly understandable. But some merchants I spoke to say their customers are interested in buying 2019 futures.

“I have customers now who are asking me for 2019 Bordeaux,” said Eric Desgouttes, general manager of Hong Kong’s Kerry Wines. “Why shouldn’t we offer the wines for sale? Let the market decide.”

It might seem surreal to think about selling 2019 Bordeaux as futures now, against the grim backdrop of Covid-19 and the damaged global economy, particularly in the United States and Europe. But the wines I’ve tasted so far from 2019 seem good to excellent and comparable in quality to 2018, 2016 and 2015 – all excellent vintages.

And if you love wine, you should find it reassuring to remember that wine has always been made, sold and drunk even during terrible moments in history, from wars to pandemics. So, the market will indeed decide whether now is the time to buy 2019 en primeur, when the wines begin selling in a few weeks.

The post Why Bordeaux 2019 Vintages Are a Potentially Difficult Debut appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Syrah, also known as Shiraz, is one of the few grape varieties called a different name depending on the style of wine it produces.

On the one hand Shiraz, whose name is widely used in South Australia, implies a plush style with a fruit-forward nose that underscores ripeness and opulence on the palate. It suggests a New World style in a traditional sense.

Syrah, on the other hand, tends to suggest the opposite. This original French term indicates a cooler style with spicy fruit, structure and austerity, similar to what you find in Old World Northern Rhône wines.

Amazing Syrah/Shiraz is produced in both Northern Rhône in France and in South Australia, representing the two classic styles of this variety. But the dual personalities of this grape and the differences in these two distinctive styles have somewhat overshadowed the diversity of Syrah worldwide. This versatile grape produces both robust, powerful bottles as well as sleek and elegant ones. It has two contrasting faces, both of which are beautiful.

Aside from the fruity, lush and unctuous Shiraz from warm regions such as Barossa and McLaren Vale, Australia now boasts more peppery, sleek and elegant bottles from cooler areas within Victoria and New South Wales. Terroirs that show great potential – places such as Heathcote, Grampians, Yarra Valley, Hunter Valley and Canberra District – are no longer under the radar. The traditional Australian style has been dissolved.

While some producers have kept their Shiraz labelling, some turned to Syrah to imply a cool, fresh European style. As much as producers enjoy juggling with names, the varietal spelling is far less important than the terroir when it comes to the wine’s features.

New Zealand has a more pronounced presence of Syrah. The Gimblett Gravels terroir within North Island’s Hawke’s Bay is perfect for the spicy, brooding style reminiscent of fine northern Rhône. It also shows its signature purity and focus, rendering the deep peppery fruit and plushness that a fine Hawke’s Bay Syrah offers.

[caption id="attachment_207306" align="alignnone" width="1280"] One of most important wineries that produces Syrah in Chile, Apalta Montes.[/caption]

In Chile, the diversity of Syrah is getting mapped out. Wines from the Central Valley, especially Colchagua and Maipo, are fleshier and more voluptuous. Syrah from Limari shows savouriness and blue fruit. We’re also very pleased with the Syrah from Casablanca and San Antonio Valley, both of which are acclaimed sources for cool- climate expressions of the grape, some reminiscent of an outstanding Côte Rôtie or Hermitage.

“Syrah is indeed very promising here in the valley,” says Meinerd Bloem, chief winemaker of Casas del Bosque in Casablanca. “The subtlety and spicy fruit render an intellectual expression of the grape.”

Back in the Northern Hemisphere, California is now an aspiring contender for great Syrah/Shiraz. Along with Santa Barbara, wineries in Napa and Sonoma are attempting great wines with this spicy variety. And Washington State is producing some rock ’n’ roll Syrahs that some of the New World fruit drive, but with an underlying Old World reserve and green notes. This may be the best place to make Syrah in the entire United States.

Italy also has its regions for Syrah, with Tuscany taking more of the spotlight. Most of the best are made on the Tuscan coast, but areas between Florence and Tuscany – as well as near Cortona – make spicy and complex reds. I’ve even had a number of noteworthy Syrahs from Sicily.

Today, to be Syrah or Shiraz is no longer a question. As producers focus more on expressing their own terroir with this grape, the future of Syrah will be more diverse than ever. Nor do I believe what some sommeliers and wine merchants in America say about Syrah being hard to sell. Open a glorious bottle of Syrah from any of the best regions in the world and enjoy – and marvel at their unique character and greatness. More and more people in the world, especially in Asia, are enjoying excellent Syrah.

James Suckling's Top 8 Sensational Syrahs

Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne 2015

This is a profound wine, offering really striking depth of aromas and flavours with a resonance that really stops you still. Dark stones, ripe dark plums and blackberries, liquorice, sarsaparilla, orange peel and cloves with still more spices floating in the midst.

Score: 100

guigal.com

Tyrell's Shiraz Hunter Valley Old Patch 1867 2014

These are tricky wines to taste. The purity and finesse are at work here, alongside perfectly shaped structure and pitched ripeness; it's deceptively silky and seductive. The nose has the sort of bottomless depth of ripe red and dark plum fruit aromas that you only find in the very best wines. So profound and so alluring, a weapon of mass seduction in a glass.

Score: 100

tyrells.com.au

Colgin Cellars Syrah Napa Valley IX Estate 2015

Smelling this takes my breath away. Cloves, flora, metal shavings, blackberries and smoked meat. Mandarin zest, too. Full body with a perfect balance of ultra-fine tannins and great complexity. Goes on for minutes. Sets a new standard of Syrah for California.

Score: 100

colgincellars.com

Le Macchiole Bolgheri Scrio 2015

The depth of aroma takes your breath away with bark. tea leaves, peppermint, dried rosemary, thyme, sage, pressed violets, cedar, crème de cassis, blackcurrants and lavender. Full body, layer upon layer of fruit of every colour on the spectrum, pinpoint acidity and a finish that seems endless.

Score: 100

lemacchiole.it/

Clonakilla Shiraz Canberra District Shiraz Viognier 2015

This is a rare beauty: a Syrah-based wine that delivers power in an elegant way. The aromatic spectrum is vast, from fine musky florals to white pepper and almost every imaginable spice. Then an incredibly exuberant explosion of boysenberries, raspberries and cherries of every shade takes centre stage as well as red to blue to purple plums. It is full of life.

Score: 99

clonakilla.com.au

Trinity Hill Syrah Hawke's Bay Homage 2014

A beautifully articulated edition of this Hawke's Bay Syrah that's loaded with potential. It's a strong vintage that's been cleverly crafted into a thoroughbred wine, packed with spicy and complex interest on the nose: blackberries, cloves, anise, pepper, some dark stony notes and crushed purple flowers. Still frisky and full of youthful, snappy appeal.

Score: 98

trinity hill.com

Matetic Syrah Valle de San Antonio 2012

This is an unbelievable red with sublime tannin texture and mind- bending depth and finesse. The nose shows granite, slate, blackberry, blueberry, and lavender aromas. Full body yet agile and harmonious. Only 350 cases made. Drink or hold. Made from biodynamic grapes. Spectacular. Could this be the La Turque of Chile?

Score: 97

matetic.com

Montes Syrah Valle de Apalta Folly 2016

Incredibly complex with sweet- tobacco, iron, blackberry, black-olive and dried- strawberry aromas. Full body, ultra-refined tannins and a rich finish. Harvested before the rains. Juicy tannins. Very structured and big style but shows balance. Drink or hold.

Score: 96

monteswine.com

The post James Suckling’s Top 8 Wines of the Syrah Variety appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

This year I’m celebrating 10 years as an independent wine critic – and nearly 40 years evaluating wine professionally. In the last decade, I’ve tasted more than 100,000 wines with my team at JamesSuckling.com, and visited hundreds of wineries and winemakers across the world.

Given the improvements in viticulture, technology and winemaking knowledge across so many wine regions, identifying those individuals that represent the best of wine during that time is inevitably difficult. However, it’s not an impossible task. In my view, since 2010 there’s one wine, one winery and one winemaker that stand apart from all others and represent pinnacle achievements in the wine industry.

Wine of The Decade: Almaviva Puente Alto 2017

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Vintage after vintage over the last 10 years, Almaviva has been quietly and consistently establishing a track record as one of the greatest wine producers in Chile if not the world.

The estate, a joint venture between Château Mouton Rothschild and Concha y Toro, has been striving for perfection since its launch in 1998. And, with the Almaviva Puente Alto 2017, it’s achieved it.

With such supreme quality and an astronomic growth in reputation, this Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend scored a rare 100 points – Almaviva’s second perfect score, following the 2015 vintage – and I described it as “full-bodied, tight and chewy” with “wild and exotic” aromas of blackberry leaves, iodine, mussel shells and earth. “It’s structured and powerful. Dense and very, very deep.”

The wine has been a labour of love by chief winemaker Michel Friou, a Chilean-industry veteran and native Frenchman who joined the single-wine estate in 2007.

The intensity and structure of Almaviva 2017 come as a particularly pleasant surprise given the hot and dry conditions during the growing season. Yet the winemakers overcame the dramatically lower yields and an early harvest that took place three weeks ahead of schedule. Even with the odds against them, Friou and his team produced yet another superb vintage that embodies the estate’s first-growth expertise from Bordeaux and exceptional New World terroir – the best of both worlds.

“We have the luxury of wonderful terroir in Puente Alto [the wine region in which Maipo Valley is located]. It’s very close to the Andes, which means we’re always a few degrees cooler than the rest of the valley,” says Friou. “This makes a difference in terms of the ripening process – we can get ripeness and freshness as well as very elegant, fine-quality tannins.”

Winery of The Decade: Masseto

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If there’s one winery in Tuscany that contends with the chateaux in Bordeaux and Burgundy, it has to be Masseto. It even sells a large proportion of its production through Bordeaux wine merchants. Set in the sunny Bolgheri region, Masseto’s vineyard stretches across a gently sloping valley, where greyish-blue clay lies underfoot and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west ricochets light across the vines.

It wasn’t until last year that Masseto – owned by the Frescobaldi Group since 2005 – finally opened its own winery. Before that, the wine was produced from its vineyards in the cellars of Bolgheri’s famous estate of Ornellaia, which also shares the same owners.

Opening prices for new vintages reach as much as US$800 a bottle, which sell out within weeks. This unbelievable demand and superb quality make it one of the cult wines of a generation.

The winery produces superb, pure Merlot vintages that consistently taste fresh, structured, soft yet powerful. I was one of the first American wine critics to recognise the winery’s magical Merlot, having awarded three Masseto vintages – 2001, 2011, and 2016 – perfect 100-point scores. When I tasted a vat of pure Merlot in the 1980s with then owner Lodovico Antinori, I told him the wine could be “the Petrus of Tuscany” if he bottled it separately.

The best vintage is the monumental 2001, a perfect 100-point wine and arguably one of the greatest wines ever made in Tuscany. It’s balanced with fascinating rosemary and dark-fruit character that turns to plums and light chocolate. The undertones on the nose remind me of walking through the Masseto vineyard during a cool summer’s morning.

“Nothing is missing, and there’s no more than necessary,” says Axel Heinz, winemaker and estate director of Masseto. “Our winemaking is about reducing the process, reducing intervention, with a ‘less is more’ philosophy.”

Winemaker of The Decade: Philippe Dhalluin

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Winemaker Philippe Dhalluin has probably made more perfect wines than any other person of his generation, from the 2010 Château Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux and 2013 Opus in Napa Valley to Almaviva 2015 and 2017 in Chile.

When asked about these incredible wines, the 62-year-old simply shrugs his shoulders and says, “I make the best wines possible as a winemaker.”

Born in 1957 in Valenciennes, in northern France, Dhalluin moved with his family to Bordeaux at the age of 16. A bottle of Châteauneuf du Pape 1970, given to his parents from a family friend, was the pivot in his career.

“At the time, I was most familiar with Bordeaux wines, along with a few Burgundies,” Dhalluin says. “When I drank Châteauneuf du Pape, I had a revelation, an epiphany. It was an exceptional wine, so different from anything I’d tasted until then and, above all, so extraordinarily explosive that even now it seems like I can remember each mouthful!”

With this talent for precision, passion and dynamism, he was recruited in 2003 by the late Baroness Philippine de Rothschild as managing director across the Rothschilds’ various chateaux, where he introduced ever more precise vinification techniques. The result in 2006 was what many critics called the “wine of the vintage” from Château Mouton Rothschild.

From there he took his precise style to Napa Valley in California, working as wine director at Opus One, and later to Chile, where he regularly works with head winemaker Michel Friou at Almaviva (and helped create our Wine of the Decade, above).

“My work is a constant quest for balance between richness, freshness, density and charm,” Dhalluin says.

The post James Suckling on The Decade’s Best Wines, Winery and Winemaker appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.