What will 2016 bring in the wine world? After gazing into my crystal decanter, I’ve come up with a list that stretches from your local Aldi to Australia’s Yarra Valley.
Canadian breakout
I’ve been making predictions about Greek wine making a major breakthrough in the UK for several years – and every time I do a Greek wine seems to disappear from the shelves. So I won’t make the prediction again, even if the wines I tasted from Chrisohoou, Dalamara, Hatzidakis, Gerovassiliou, Lyrarakis, Sigalas and Thymiopoulos, were once again among the most deliciously different I tried in 2015, and even though I’m still baffled that they’re not more widely known. Instead, I’m hoping for better luck for the likes of Norman Hardie, Meyer Family Vineyards and Thomas Bachelder, among others, when I say that the Canadian wine scene, with its fast-rising reputation for Burgundian pinot noir and chardonnay added to an already-established facility for sweet ice wines, could be a breakout star of 2016.
An end to supermarket austerity?
Two supermarkets continued to exert an influence in 2015 that, even taking into account their rapid growth, far outstripped their size. Aldi and Lidl now have 10% of the UK grocery market between them, and wine has become an increasingly important part of their business, with both making significant improvements to their ranges in 2015, and with more promised this year.
That’s the good news. The bad news is the effect they’re having on their rivals, most of which have eyed up the relatively small and more cost-effective and manageable ranges in Aldi and Lidl, and cut their ranges significantly, adding fewer new wines and taking fewer risks on lesser known regions and styles.
The result, in 2015, was that UK supermarket wine, with the exception of M&S and Waitrose, and with occasional signs of life from Asda and the Co-op, had arguably never been duller. My hope for 2016 is that the Big Four start to realise they’re better off trying to do something different to the discounters; that they’re more likely to bring back customers with diversity and quality than by competing in a race to the bottom.
Bordeaux make or break
In the rarefied air of fine wine, 2016 could be a make-or-break year for Bordeaux. After a run of less-than-exciting vintages since the “vintages of the century” in 2009 and 2010, the longstanding leader of investment-grade wine has found itself unloved and eclipsed in the world’s auction rooms and broking houses, including in the now all-important East Asian market, by Burgundy, Champagne and the top Italians of Piedmont and Tuscany. Much hope in Bordeaux now rests on the 2015 vintage, which has already, somewhat prematurely, been described as “outstanding”. Will that, combined with the historically weak euro, be enough to rekindle interest in Bordeaux’s top wines? Or has the grasping approach to prices employed by its merchants and producers of Bordeaux even in the recent lean years alienated a generation of fine-wine buyers for good? We’ll find out in the spring, when Bordeaux’s producers show off the unfinished wines to the trade, although, personally I’m more excited about the 2015s from the less hype-prone Northern Rhône.
The “New” Australia
It’s remarkable how effective the simple marketing trick of adding the word “new” or, better yet, “new wave” to a brand name can be in shaping a change of attitude. Groups of winemakers and merchants from South Africa and California have applied this Mandelsonian formula in the past couple of years. But one country hasn’t had the “new” marketing treatment in a while: Australia. Could this be the year when such small producers as Jamsheed, Vinteloper and BK Wine refocus attention back on the fine wine being made Down Under?
Six wines to watch out for
BK Wines Syrah Nouveau, Lobethal, Adelaide Hills, Australia 2014 (£19.95, Swig)
As the name suggests, this shining example of Australia’s creative small producer scene has looked to France for inspiration for this syrah (as opposed to shiraz), in a fluent, floral, red-fruited red with a shake of black pepper and low (12%) alcohol.
The Exquisite Collection Hawkes Bay Red, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand 2014 (£5.99, Aldi)
Aldi’s range may still be small and for the most part conservative, but it’s hard to be too gloomy when it does the bargain end so well: this is one of many sub-£6 successes, a juicy Bordeaux-style red with a dark cassis-and-cocoa character.
Meyer Pinot Noir, Okanagan, Canada 2014 (£18, Marks & Spencer)
No surprises that the only UK supermarket that has not had an existential crisis at the rise of Aldi-Lidl is also the first to take the plunge with Canadian pinot. It’s a lovely example, too, supple, silky and bright with red fruit and subtle oak spice.
Gaia Notios Red, Nemea, Greece 2014 (£12.50, Oddbins)
Oddbins was an early British advocate of modern Greek wine, and it remains a reliable source: this is a plump, polished red blend of the local agiorgitiko with a little syrah that tastes like macerated cherries and violets.
Château Bauduc Bordeaux Blanc, France 2014 (£9.95, fromvineyardsdirect.com)
While we’re waiting to see if prices for Bordeaux’s top 2015 wines return to 2010-levels of crazy pricing, here’s a wine to remind us that the region can do the more everyday well, too: a pure-and-racy, citrus-and-nettles dry sauvignon blanc.
Majestic Definition Côtes du Rhône Villages, France 2014 (£11.99, or £8.99 as part of a mixed case of six bottles, majestic.co.uk)
Another wine to drink in anticipation of the 2015 vintage, this time in the Rhône valley, this is one of the highlights Majestic’s generally rather impressive own-label “Definition” range: lustrous, inky blackberry with pepper spice and herbs
