These wines are the standouts of the 2008 lunar drinking year.
Why the lunar year? Notwithstanding I reside in Asia, the nucleus of my ideologies revolve around a back to nature approach with wine, food and the environment – sustainable, organic and biodynamic principles that have evolved through Pagan farming to Chinese gardeners over the eons yet pivotal today. So not only do I care about the planet, I have gone lunar!
This digest is the distillation of all the wines The Wandering Palate has assessed at trade tastings around the world, some of them mammoth annual events such as the VDP tasting in Wiesbaden, Germany or the Union des Grand Cru de Bordeaux’s en-primeur in Bordeaux, also their travelling circus through Asia.
There are countless more intimate tastings, retrospective vertical line-ups, professional workshops, new release luncheons and dinners. Throw in the occasional wine judging appearance, regional wine celebrations or symposiums and ceaseless assessing at the resident tasting bench. Most importantly, the continuous vineyard visits, unquestionably the most enlightening, grassroots way of interpreting wine and its regional and cultural nexus.
Whilst these extraordinary wines are benchmarks of genuine artisan vignerons and highly expressive of terroir or ‘sense of place’ encompassing the unique qualities of their region and micro-climate, there is also an underlying message in adjudging beyond the merits of the individual wine – it is a proclamation of the region, style, dedication to environmentally sustainable viticulture and outstanding price/quality rapport - with the view to promoting underappreciated wine styles and to inspire further discovery and adventurism in our wine consumption.
This unashamedly subjective selection motivated by objective goals is by no means definitive; the more you know about wine, the more realize how little you know about wine! All wines have been tried over a meal, as you would normally enjoy them moreover, their intended purpose. There are no scores, a flawed and soulless methodology that I detest. Ultimately the most important wine critic in the world is you, for my part is only to impassion and stimulate a thirst for real wine.
