After the trials of the ‘terrible twos’ for last year’s selection, at first I thought that the anniversary wines for 2023 might leave another glass half empty, but the more I looked into past anniversary vintages, the more I found my glass overflowing, on occasion literally, with some gorgeous wines and fantastic buys for anyone looking out for a great wine gift for a partner or friend.
I was also pleasantly surprised, on fossicking about in the recesses of my own cellar, to find a handful of deliciously mature wines that were far from over the hill, and I can only apologise in advance for the many wines I name here that are too rare to be found easily or at all – though it’s worth a rummage to see what you may have left in a dusty corner of your own collection.
(Where shown, stockists in the following pages are a representative selection…)
18th (2005)
The year when Angela Merkel becomes Germany’s first female Chancellor and the Kyoto Protocol comes into force, committing nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Ian Edwards creates Furleigh Estate’s Dorset sparkling wine facility, Jonas Newman and Vicki Samaras set up Hinterland in Prince Edward County, Canada, and Pierre Taittinger’s 45 descendants vote to sell their shares to Starwood Capital Group for €2.1 billion (bought back a year later for €660 million).
A dream vintage in both Bordeaux and Burgundy, so 18-year-olds are spoilt for choice. My bottle of Fourrier, Vieilles Vignes Gevrey-Chambertin (£186-£195 Hatton & Edwards, Hand Picked Burgundy), drunk last autumn, was fragrant and sumptuous but almost too young still, and a bottle of Château Calon-Ségur, (£125-£152 Bentley’s of Ludlow, Frazier’s, Latimer Vintners, Nemo) from a case bought en primeur was a very fine swan indeed.
