Wine: The best—no questions asked
By Mark Criden
Dear Wine Guy,
Please settle a dispute. My boyfriend says the world’s greatest wine is Harlan’s Cabernet Sauvignon. My husband, on the other hand, says honors go to Chateau Lafite.
For obvious reasons, I can’t get them together to discuss this. Help!
Name and address withheld by request
Dear Friend,
The Wine Guy does not withhold names and addresses by request.You are Barbara Zapruder of 116 Treeless Lane, Amherst.
The Buddhists say that comparison is the root of unhappiness, but what do they know? Ratings are fun, whether a movie critic’s five-star system or the populist rankings in Buffalo Spree. Best Fish Fry? Best Shoeshine? Best Divorce Lawyer? In this most American of all possible worlds, your opinion is as good as mine.
Not, however, on Planet Wine. Here, wines are ranked with breathtaking precision by the 100-point scoring system established by Robert Parker. You might blanch at grading Nude Descending a Staircase an 89 or 90, giving Die Zauberflote a 92, or even discussing how Othello can rate a 96 when Hamlet’s only a 94, but wine critics can happily give Latour a 97 without embarrassment. Can wine critics be so lacking in shame, so bereft of modesty, so full of themselves as to be able to establish rankings with a certitude that would make Osama bin Laden blush?
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Here’s my list of the greatest wines being produced today. Not the top values, not the hugest blockbusters, not the best with your mac and cheese, not that quaffer that tasted so good on the beach. The best. Period.
And for once, price is definitely not a consideration. All but one of these wines will set you back more than $100, some many times that. But these are not wines to knock back with your burger; these are incomparable pleasures of the highest order. Ask yourself what you would pay for similar, unparalleled delights—that grand vacation, that blowout dinner? What would you pay for perfection?
• The most famous property in Bordeaux, Chateau Lafite Rothschild, is also its best. This was not always the case. Before 1974, Lafite was an also-ran, its wines rarely matching their reputation or price. For thirty years now, though, Lafite has equaled the other Bordeaux firsts and for the past decade has bettered them, making one of the world’s greatest wines almost every year. Lafite is suave, yet rich, full of finesse and power. Its mythical status is now well deserved.
• For the aristocratic to be at its most seductive, you either need Casanova or the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée Conti. The scarcest of all these great wines, this opulent, exquisite bottle of liquid silk is the quintessential example of the complexity, poise, ageability, and refinement that makes Red Burgundy—the apotheosis of Pinot Noir—so compelling.
The estate’s attention to detail is legendary, but of special note are the notoriously low vineyard yields—each year, three grapevines are needed to produce a single bottle, resulting in a miniscule annual production. The Prince of Conti insisted that the wines produced from his eponymous vineyard be “nothing but the most exquisite that France is capable of.” The DRC team is taking him seriously.
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• I’ve already spilled a lot of ink about the greatest Syrah, the J. L. Chave Hermitage from the Northern Rhone. (See Buffalo Spree, Jan.-Feb. 2006.) Suffice it to say that since 1481, the Chave family has been fashioning one bottle after another of rich, velvety powerful splendor.
•Riesling is the world’s greatest white wine grape and the top dog is Germany’s J. J. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese. This middle Mosel estate has been run superbly for years, producing sublime wines of racy, crystalline purity. The Spatlese—a bridge between the delicate Kabinett and the sweet, rich Auselese—is a brilliant dinner companion and worthy of contemplation long after the dishes are put away. Of all the best wines, German Rieslings are hands down the greatest values.
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• The Sangiovese grape reaches its apogee in the tiny Italian home of the magnificent Gianfranco Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino. In almost every vintage, Soldera can be counted on to fashion long-lasting wines of great concentration, harmony, richness, and aromatic complexity. They truly are the elite wines of Brunello and achieve what other Tuscan vintners only dream about.
• The Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco “Santo Stefano” Riserva is a monument to the Nebbiolo grape and the greatest wine from Piedmont. But you’d never know from its winemaker. As Robert Parker has said, “Giacosa is a quiet and dignified winemaking genius in Neive … the least promotion-conscious winemaker in Italy, who prefers to let his wines do the talking for him.” This Barbaresco has a tremendous amount to say, as classic scents of violets and blackberries mesh seamlessly in an intense, soulful wine with an endless finish.
• From good to great is the story of the Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select, which has been California’s best and most prodigious wine since the early 1990s. Made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon grown in rugged hillside vineyards in Napa Valley, this is archetypical California, combining layered richness with a supple, powerful concentration. It’s as good as Cabernet can be.
• Those who believe the first duty of great wine is to be red have never tasted the Domaine Lafon Montrachet, the giant of chardonnay. Here we have the perfect synthesis of vineyard and producer, for in Lafon, we have a perfectionist with an absolute dedication to quality, and in Montrachet, we have the most celebrated white burgundy vineyard. Rich, but full of finesse, this wine will bowl you over with its intense floral aroma and great concentration of fruit.
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• There are those who believe Merlot is synonymous with plonk, that the oceans of insipid red that bear its label are meant for the undiscriminating. And then there are those who have tasted Chateau Petrus.
The Moueix family lovingly produces Bordeaux’s most complex and compelling wine from vineyards in Pomerol, which they tend with a fanaticism that makes d’Yquem look laid back. For instance, Petrus grapes are picked only in the afternoon, when the morning dew has evaporated, so as not to risk even the slightest dilution of quality. The resulting wine is intensely concentrated, and shows incredible power, depth, and richness with a remarkable balance.
• “My wine is too revered, overworshiped,” says Remi Krug. “I like to see people drinking Krug at picnics.” Me too, especially when I’m a guest.
Forget the vintage or fancy Le Mesnil bottlings, and head straight for the Krug Grand Cuvee, the non-vintage blend to end all non-vintage Champagnes. The wine is magnificent, with a je ne sais quoi that spanks other great Champagnes. It’s a wine of legendary richness, a glittering luxury, a no-expense-spared artisanal gem of magnificent complexity. Even the ants will swoon.
Mark Criden (mcriden@yahoo.com) is a non-profit executive and the former chair of the
Buffalo branch of the International Wine & Food Society.
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