The world's best wine

 So now we a have it; Mouton Rothschild 2018 Bordeaux Premier Cru Red is the best wine in the world. Rare Champagne 2008 is the best Champagne. Penfold's winery is the best in the world. 20,000 wines were tasted by 130,000 professional tasters and amateurs who voted over a 3 month period. One of the wines voted best in the world was a Merlot. But, wait a minute, Merlot is not a wine it is a grape variety; the Merlot had to be identified by the producer who made it. 

http://bwwcompetition.com/

https://redon.maville.com/actu/actudet_-bordeaux-le-titre-de-meilleur-vin-du-monde-attribue-au-chateau-mouton-rothschild-2018_54135-4472074_actu.Htm

It is fun to read about such competitions but I do not take them too seriously as a guide to the best wines in the world. I am looking for quality versus value for money.

I have never tasted the 2018 Mouton Rothschild, and probably never will unless a rich uncle opens a bottle but I am too old to have any rich uncles that are alive.  I have no doubt that I would find the wine to be excellent along with all the other wines that were voted best in the world. However, other wine producers might feel a little aggrieved;  there is no doubt that Château Petrus believes that it produces the best red wine in the world and who is to say that it doesn't. 

All judgements about wine are in the main subjective; you can learn to identify wines which are distinctive but which also represent the style of their area. However, many Champagne Houses blend wines from many different parcelles of vineyard.  Some Champagne houses, in the more renowned north of the region, blend in wine from the less renowned south of the region into their house brands. It's my opinion that the best Champagnes come from small growers who make their own Champagne. These grower-makers hardly get onto to lists for judgement. However, I would never refuse to drink Pol Roger non-vintage Brut.

It is also possible to be trained or educated to recognise wines that can be kept for many years or decades to improve in the bottle. The 2018 Mouton  Rothschild will do this and also it is renowned as an investment wine, and some of this wine will never be opened, but will rest in a cold, dark cellar.

One thing is certain, the price of any wine that gets on the Best Wine in the World list, will go up.

Today, we will be celebrating my wife's birthday with a bottle of Champagne from a grower-maker whose prize winning Champagne has not been on anyone's list for popularity, but it will be our Best Wine in the World, and no-one else's opinion will affect our judgement.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bww-2021---best-wines-of-world-have-been-selected--chateau-mouton-rothschild-is-the-winner-301212995.html#:~:text=In%20BWW%20Competition%202021%2C%20the,Rothschild%202018%2C%20Bordeaux%2C%20France.&text=The%20Best%20Winery%20of%20the,awarded%20to%20the%20Penfolds%2C%20Australia.&text=BWW%20warmly%20welcomes%20all%20vineyards,wine%20for%20the%202022%20competition.

Domaine Pountet L'Horloge Côte de Bruhlois 2012 AOP Bruhlois red

We discovered Domaine Pountet at the Lille wine show but we knew the Bruhlois appellation from visits to the Lot and Garonne region to meet the family. The Bruhlois  appellation is situated on the banks of the Garonne river south of the city of Agen which is famous for its prune production. The climate and weather is well suited to the growth of wine grapes as it is under the influence of the Mediterranean. The soil is a mixture of gravel and clay so the forested slopes produce the finest wine grapes.  Domaine Pountet use grapes from selected parcelles of vineyard to make  L'Horloge predominantly from black Malbec grapes.

The Domaine is a member of the Vignerons Indépendant which I have written about before; L'Horloge 2012 red is a prize winning wine and it deserves every accolade that it accrues. The 2012 which we tasted over the Christmas period has an intense dark purple colour, the wine is extremely complex and concentrated on the nose and on the palate, it tastes of dark fruits, liquorice, spice and vanilla and dare I say prunes. The taste lingers long on the palate. The wine is of course full bodied and sumptuous and the tannin is now beginning to soften. You can drink the 2012 year now but it will keep longer.

What makes this such a good wine? It is from the quality of the grapes acquired and from the technical ability and passion of  Guillaume and Amanda Combes - the winemakers. The wine has a distinctive taste of its own but it reflects the character of the appellation and only the best growers and winemakers can achieve this.

This is wine to be savoured and not sloshed down at a party or barbeque we drank it with rare rib of beef; it should always be consumed with good food.

Most people in the UK have never heard of this wine so they are missing a treat. It can hold its own with the best wines from anywhere and I highly recommend that you search it out.

Because of travel restrictions, we were unable to travel to France but the Domaine sent us a case which arrived before the problems surrounding importation because of the Covid 19 epidemic. Probably after Brexit there will be increased duty on  wine if you import it to the UK, but this wine is so good it will not detract from its value for money.  

http://www.pountet.com/domaine-wine-brulhois.asp

https://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-brulhois 

Mastroberardino More Maiorum 2015 Fiano di Avellino (Italy) DOCG Fiano Mastroberardino White

 This is one of the best white wines that I have ever tasted. It is made from Fiano white grapes in the Campania region of Italy near Naple. The Mastroberardino domain apparently helped to develop the future of the grape. The grapes are grown in calcareous soils which add a touch of minerality to the smell and taste of the wine.  It hails from a single vineyard in the hills. Our wine was still developing in the bottle. The wine has a complex taste and for me it tasted of green and citrus fruits, honey and of course the mineral flavour. The wine was very concentrated and its flavour lingered long on the palate after  swallowing. It is not quite bone dry but it is of full body and it is slightly unctuous. Everything about this wine is fully balanced and integrated. It will keep for years longer. It was simply a joy to drink with fish, but it would go down with Parma ham. This is not a wine to be treated lightly and slugged back. It needs to be treated with all the respect that a really good wine deserves by drinking it with a good meal and good friends.

More Maiorum 2015 has its own distinct taste which sets it apart from all other white wines that I have tasted. We  have only sampled it twice but it is quite possible that my wife could recognise it again- blind- as the wine is truly memorable. It is up there with the finest Chablis and dare I say it : Montrachet. It shames bulk wine producers.

Before, I was introduced to this wine last year by a friend I had never heard of it. We shared a case of this wine and the price was right. However, I could easily have paid twice as much and still felt that I was getting a high quality wine at a good price. It compares favourably with the best whites from Burgundy, The Loire and Bordeaux and Spain. What more can I say?

https://mastroberardino.com/vino/more-maiorum-fiano-di-avellino-docg-2011/

https://www.vinissimus.com/en/wine/mastroberardino-more-maiorum/

Domaine Alain Mathias Bourgogne Epineuil Tradition red 2018 - Vigneron Independant

It is getting rather tiresome that we cannot travel easily from the UK to France to visit our friends and family and buy wine. Even though we both have French passports and cannot be refused entry, we have to have a Covid 19 test before travelling to France and fill in forms to show where we are going. When we come back we have to go into quarantine and provide a negative test. Travel within England and from England to other countries is now banned. It is pointless to try going away. My wife is pulling her hair out to travel to her original home in Troyes and visit Burgundy where her father came from and where she still has lots of family. 

Luckily, we can still find a taste of France and Burgundy, by ordering our favourite wines directly from the vineyard. We had pre-Brexit worries that our wine ordered in December would not get through. Domaine Alan Mathias delivered a case of Epineuil perfectly packaged in very strong cardboard at a price not much more than visiting the property. They are brilliant and so is their wine.

Epineuil is difficult to find in the UK and most wine drinkers have never heard of it. It is one of our favourite wines from Burgundy. It is produced in the very North of the region where the climate and soil are different from the more famous wines from the Côte de Nuits such as Nuits-Saint-Georges, which every wine lover in the UK has heard of.

Alain Mathias produces Epineuil red wine which reflects the true nature of the area, as the grapes are well matched to the soil, weather and climate. Only the best wines are instantly recognisable by their smell and taste as being from a particular area. Many wines from bulk producers are shipped to the UK and other countries in huge tanks and are bottled locally and marketed with brand names. The wines are usually perfectly acceptable to quaff back in a wine bar, or at a party or barbeque; but at a blind tasting you have no idea which country or even region they hail from. You have got no idea how the grapes were grown; the brand name could be from wines blended from many different vineyards and regions. The varietal brand names are meaningless - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc - because they all taste the same; even different brands of Baked Beans taste different.

There is so much snobbery and myth attached to wine appreciation that sometimes it makes my heart sink.   It is only possible to tell where a wine comes from if you are completely familiar with that wine and other wines from the region.  Luckily, my wife and I are so familiar with the wines from Tonnerre and Chablis and their surroundings that we can recognise them. We would not be able to pick out Domain Alain Mathias wines from other good quality producers of the same area, at a blind tasting, but we are getting close to it.  This  all we can expect from ourselves or profess to others.

What makes Domaine Alain Mathias wine so special in my view. They are small producers and are members of the Vignerons Indépendant. Members must respect the terroir of the region, grow and make wine from their own grapes on their own property, bottle the wine themselves and respect wine traditions. These are quite stringent conditions to ensure the quality and authenticity of the wine. 

We tasted Alain Mathias Bourgogne Epineuil Tradition 2018 during the Christmas period. The wine tasted and smelt exactly as described on the bottle.It tasted of cherry and plums and of grilled bread and roasted coffee or torréfaction. It is also described as charnu or fleshy. To me it was dry and of  medium to full body with tannin which was only beginning to soften. The wine was concentrated, complex and the taste lingered long on the palate. It was well integrated and balanced for tannin and acidity. It had all the hallmarks of an exceptionally good wine. The wine is matured in the vat and in oak barrels.

This wine should be consumed with food.  We drank it with rib eye steaks but it would go well with pheasant and other game birds or guinea fowl. The wine needs to be cellared for a few years more to reach its peak and we shall be saving the bottles for several years. Alain Mathias wines have all the attributes and qualities of good quality wine which reflect the unique character of the terroir. The soil in this region is based on Kimmeridgian geology and this is reflected in the wine which is produced from  the pinot noir grape - there is no need for varietal labelling and brand names. I highly recommend this wine.

If ever you are in Tonnerre it is worth visiting the cellars which are situated on the Route de Troyes on the left as you pull out of the town towards the ancient city of Troyes.

http://www.domainealainmathias.com/

https://www.vigneron-independant.com/

https://dico-du-vin.com/torrefie-vin-arome-de-torrefaction-degustation/

http://www.winereviewonline.com/Wayne_Belding_on_Kimmeridgian.cfm