Welcome to the end of the year round up where I look at my ten favourite wines of the year. This is what I consider to be the best of the best wines that I tried in 2024. Looking back at the year – at the end of January, Curt Thomas’ infamous ‘Pinot Day’ presented some sensational examples of the 2015 vintage of Pinot Noir, from across the world – a round-up is here > https://winefolio.co.nz/?p=10127. I had six weeks out of the country at the end of winter, travelling to Tuscany, France and the UK, which did mean that I missed the NZIWS judging this time around. Also squeezed in a couple of field trips, visiting Hawke’s Bay and Takapoto Estate in the Waikato (a feature to follow shortly). 2025 will bring a big push for trips, including a couple of locations that will be new to me.
This year I committed to continue the task of running the WineFolio Top 10 Tastings – as benchmarks for varietals in New Zealand. 2024 saw ‘Top 10 Tastings’ of Rosé, Pinot Gris, Bordeaux Varietals and Chardonnay – I have left the winners of those sessions out of this list but have noted them separately at the bottom – they are all well worth seeking out. Ideally I like to do four of the Top 10 Tastings in a year, and I’ll be looking at Syrah, Riesling, Sparkling and ‘Other Reds’ in 2025.
The wines I’m putting in the list this year do not feature the myriad bottles of older vintages from here and there that I had the pleasure of sharing with friends during the year. And there were some treats – 30, 40, even 50-year old wines that still looked good. Christmas Day saw a 1983 Brunello di Montalcino on the table. It’s a place that I made a beeline for on my overseas trip this year, and I have to say, the beautiful hilltop town of Montalcino did not disappoint – just like the 41-year old wine we drank yesterday.
Anyway – onto the wines…
The Best Red Wine of 2024
Puriri Hills ‘Pope’ 2020 (Clevedon, NZ)
A wine that I tasted on release in the middle of 2024. From Clevedon in south east Auckland – considered by some to be the best red wine in the country. Certainly, I thought it as good as many of the country’s greats when I had this bottle. It has an unusual component of Carménère in the varietal mix. The full blend is listed as Merlot (57%), Cabernet Franc (20%), Carménère (17%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (6%). An opaque charcoal-burgundy colour in the glass. Effusively aromatic, with dark berries, redcurrant, plum, cacao nib and cedar. An elegant but powerful wine – the palate brimming with concentration and coiled energy. Clearly youthful, the plush fruitiness is framed with ripe, dense tannin, and an abundance of spicy french oak. Confident and decadent. Quite a busy rush of complex, moving parts. The finish is lingering and intense.
The Best White Wine of 2024
Kumeu River Estate ‘Hunting Hill’ Chardonnay 2010 (Auckland, NZ) It could only be this wine that was at the top of the list. My first ‘perfect wine’ (getting a 100/100 score) since I have been adding scores to my reviews. Tasted at the recent Retrospective Tasting as part of the celebrations for the 80th Anniversary at Kumeu River. A murmur went around the room as the group discovered this wine to taste. A pale lemon-green colour in the glass. The scent is alluring, with lime, nectarine, green apple, lemon zest, baking spice, a nibble of struck-match and a hint of elderflower florals. There is energy and power on the palate, where a crystalline acidity immediately drives through layers of flavours and texture. The poise and finesse show a refinement that belies the 14-year wait in bottle. Not one element seems out of place, yet the complexity and detail is remarkable. A rounded creaminess is not cloying, but adds weight. Oak is just a seasoning, showing a toasty spice note.
Apart from those two Best White and Best Red wines, these are in no particular order…
Ahi Ka Blackmore Sauvignon Blanc 2024 (Marlborough, NZ)
A single vineyard wine from Dillons Point in Marlborough. The Ahi Ka project designed by the collaboration of grower and winemaker to be a showcase of the very best that Marlborough can create. A very pale lemon-green colour in the glass. What it lacks in colour it makes up for in the bouquet, presenting a powerful scent redolent of Marlborough Sauvignon. Gooseberry, lemon zest, whitecurrant, passionfruit, tomato leaf, apple and crushed green herbals. Vibrant and energetic, with a highline of acidity that borders on saline. Some deeper richness comes from more tropical flavours like pineapple, guava and peach. Humming through the mid-palate, with hints of chalky minerality and spicy jalapeno, you’re presented with a finish that brings those myriad elements together with balance and great length.
No.1 Reserve Méthode Traditionnelle NV (Marlborough, NZ)
Each year a small quantity of the No.1 Family Estate ‘Cuvée No.1’ is put to cellar for an extra ageing process. This is then released several years later under a special bottling as ‘Reserve’. A pale straw gold colour with a fine mousse of tiny bubbles carries a bold scent in a wave from the glass. Complex and fine, but with an electric energy. Lemon peel, grapefruit, peach, apricot, mandarin and cherry blossom, with an overlay of bran biscuit and toasted brioche. The palate starts with a richness carried from that voluminous nose, but is quite structured and tight as it goes. Minerality plays a part, with a salinity to the acidity as well, that gives an al dente bite as a contrast to the body and depth. Great drive and length into a mouth-filling finish of superb length.
Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 2020 (Tasmania/Adelaide Hills, AUS)
The style of Bin 144 has been edging ever leaner (as many of Australia’s Chardonnays have) – perhaps due is some regard to the Tasmanian component? A very pale green-gold in the glass. The perfume manages to be both fine and taut, and generously oaky at the same time. That smoky, toasty note is also in a nibble of reductivity on the nose and through into the palate, but the wine is clean and elegant once you get into it. Some lovely citrus and white-fleshed stonefruit, but with a nougat and baking spice element in layers of complexity. Driven by a line of minerally acidity towards a seamless finish of outstanding length.
Eringa Chardonnay 2023 (Wairarapa, NZ)
A Chardonnay from Martinborough – grown on the Ma Maison vineyard. A collaboration between Larry McKenna and Helen Masters (whose own property is next door). A pale green in the glass, with a hint of a golden glow to the edges. A scent of understated elegance kicks things off, with lemon, grapefruit, crisp apple, white peach, ginger, chamomile and a chalky, sea-salt note. The calm, assured and taut entry to the palate reflects the nose, but look for rapid evolution in the glass once this sees some air. Tightly structured with linear acidity that drives the wine. Richness grows with each sip, as does a sense of spice and savoury notes of fennel, tarragon and lime leaf come through. A dry, pithy finish of great persistence.
Church Road TOM Chardonnay 2019 (Hawke’s Bay, NZ)
The top-of-the-line white wine from Church Road in Hawke’s Bay. I tried this on release and it is fascinating to taste again, now with a few years of slumbering in bottle. A medium-pale gold in the glass, with flashes of lime green at the edges. Scented with citrus and stonefruit, with plenty of complexity and personality coming through straightaway. Nougat, cashew, lemon blossom and a waft of flinty reductivity all bloom on the nose. Full-bodied and unashamedly so, there is weight and power in evidence on the first sip. Spice, caramel, herbal and savoury in layers come tumbling through. A distinctive gravel note, that I picked up on release, remains. Seamless, despite the complexity, with an energy and vibrancy that impresses. Texture, zesty acid, toasty oak – it’s all the fun of the fair. Better than on release, maybe.
A Thousand Gods ‘No Devices’ 2023 (Canterbury, AUS)
This is my ‘left-field’ choice of 2024. A wine from the Churton vineyard in Marlborough, made by this excellent producer based in Rolleston. Created from 100% Petit Manseng – which is rare that there’s currently only 1ha of this varietal planted in New Zealand. An amber-bronze colour in the glass. The perfume suggests mulberry, apricot, lemon peel, butterscotch, blood orange, walnut and oolong tea. Smells sweet, but tastes very dry, and quite rich. Acidity is quite saline and fresh. The fruit is plush and quite intense, with plenty of phenolics and tannin to back it up and add complexity. For something so unusual, and potentially unconventional, this has a very easy-going nature and the finish is very long, dry and characterful.
Urlar Gladstone Pinot Noir 2021 (Martinborough, NZ)
A return to taste a wine that, in December 2020, had me scampering for the superlatives – that vintage (a 2018) was of course in my list of ‘Best wines of 2020’. This current vintage is an example of that Wairarapa style of Pinot Noir that hangs more on tannin, and shows a ‘meaty’ savouriness from perfume to palate. An imposing bouquet, filled with cranberry, cherry, mocha, black tea, musk, peat and forest floor. A real presence as you delve into the palate – elegant and lighter than the nose suggests, but with a depth, rather than concentration, of flavour that is glossy and complex. Earthy, with a stony minerality. Acidity, tannin and oak are all in support – supple and integrated. Give yourself a bit of time with this – it unfurls nicely over an hour and has a long, harmonious finish.
Destiny Bay Mystae 2020 (Waiheke Island, NZ)
The 2020 vintage Mystae has Cabernet Sauvignon as the dominant varietal (54%) and then sees a range of additional input from the across their plantings of Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. A dark, almost black-ruby colour in the glass. On the nose, are quintessential Cabernet scents of cassis, elderberry and graphite, underpinned with blueberry, plum and liquorice. Finally, a floral lift of violet and lavender. Still quite tight and young, the body is undoubtedly concentrated and structured. Not to say it is not approachable, with a double decant and some care, the plush fruit blooms above the backbone of supple tannin. There is an oak influence here – sweet and toasty, but not obstructing; as the full spectrum of flavours here plays out around it. Peppery spice and a bite of umami and bitters at the finish just add to the ‘wow factor’. Look for this to continue on an upward trajectory for over a decade.
I’d like to acknowledge the winners of the WineFolio Top 10 Tastings from 2024 here as well:
#1 Chardonnay – Clearview Estate Reserve 2022 (Hawke’s Bay)
#1 Bordeaux Varietals – Te Motu 2020 (Waiheke Island)
#1 Pinot Gris – Greywacke 2023 (Marlborough)
#1 Rosé – Askerne Sérieux 2023 (Hawke’s Bay)
