Clare Tooley MW: My top 10 wines of 2021
As this tumultuous year draws to a close, Decanter’s California correspondent reflects on the wines ‘that have been so beautiful as to remind me there is always a reason to smile’.
Only 10? I feel a little like I do when faced with a hefty restaurant wine list. So many lovely wines, so little time to do them justice. My mind tracks the names, vintages and regions in fleeting time, flipping like a kaleidoscope. The effort is always accompanied by that nagging worry you’re missing the absolute gem. All the while, your dinner date is itching simply to get on and tuck into the evening with a good glass of wine.
The Tooley household has been through a lot in 2021, including some memorable highs and some please-let-us-forget lows. We consumed a lot of wine, tasted and annotated even more. Work life has been a constant amid 12 months of vivid change, and I am fortunate that wine links both. With gratitude, therefore, we are approaching year-end together as a family, scarred yet stronger than ever, our glasses full.
Scroll down for Clare Tooley MW’s top 10 wines of 2021
California’s rich diversity
While the California brokers’ wine shelves have been emptier than most years, there has been quality. And I’ve been enthralled as usual by California’s rich diversity, enjoying such rarities as a Souzão from Lodi as well as an Arneis and a Roussanne from Paso Robles. I’ve spent more time in Paso than ever before and fallen down the rabbit hole in love again with its wine.
Four of my top 10 of the past year come from this rather special Cali-true region. Thacher’s own-rooted Chenin Blanc from the Paso Highlands District is a balancing act of stone and fruit, stunningly vibrant and appetising. Epoch’s wines are mastercrafted and I’ve chosen its Syrah from the Paderewski vineyard for its sheer gourmandise and energetic charm. Equally joyful and generous is the Adelaida Pinot Noir from the heritage HMR vineyard as well as J Dusi’s powerfully elegant Zinfandel from the Dante Dusi vineyard.
Other unique wines from named vineyards such as Paper Street, Sycamore and Sangiacomo and sub-AVAs such as Coombsville and Stags Leap District have enthralled me, and several from these singular places feature in this year’s top 10. I have yet to travel any real distance, cautious still in this pandemic world, but with Napa and Sonoma on my doorstep I’ve revelled in their class and hedonism and thoroughly drooled over the wines of Favia, Staglin, Freemark Abbey, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Chappellet, Trefethen, Schug and Vérité.
Including just three from my stellar backyard in the line-up feels a little uneven perhaps, but I have no qualms in allocating one of the spots to Vérité 1998, a wine I tasted just a few of weeks ago for a Decanter at Home masterclass. It is the estate’s inaugural offering; a rare and true beauty with tannins like cashmere.
White wonders – and a momentous sparkling
I greatly enjoy white wine and feel it is often overlooked in favour of red, playing second fiddle even to rosé. Five of my picks have been allocated, therefore, to some seriously good – heartlifting in profile – white wines.
In the case of the Thacher Chenin from Paso Robles and Château Le Coin Sauvignon Gris from my Bordeaux home, it’s their vibrating acidity that resonates with me. There is almost a hum as they thrill the palate and refresh the psyche.
The Staglin Chardonnay from Napa Valley elegantly straddles the divide between buttery oak and simple orchard fruit to deliver a satisfying, ripe, toothsome elegance. And finally, Altos R’s Pigeage white Rioja is a masterpiece for sure. Utterly moreish, nascent yet complex – a wine to live for.
Seven years a California resident, I am a European still by accent and dining hours. My top 10 for 2021 therefore inevitably includes a French and Spanish offering and – hooray! – an English sparkling. Had I had more room, I would have listed Steven Spurrier’s charming, lightfooted, chalky, perfumed Bride Valley Blanc de Blancs, as it marked an historically celebratory occasion at the Judgment of Napa tasting and lifted my spirits along with its bubbles.
My finest fizz, however, must go to Windsor Great Park Vineyard 2015, the bottle I opened in the early morning of February 2021, following the call from the Institute of Masters of Wine to give me the news I had worked a decade to hear, that I was, at last and forever more, a Master of Wine. It was delicious, at a truly delicious, top 10 life moment.
Clare Tooley MW’s top 10 wines of 2021
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Windsor Great Park Vineyard, Sparkling Brut, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom, 2015
Lovely verve! The acidity sits vertically on the palate rather than horizontally, giving an impression of an upright, tall, elegant wine. The bubbles are fine, well integrated and supportive rather than dominant, allowing the honeyed flavours of autolysis to come to the fore. There is nothing heavy; it refreshes instantly yet lingers awhile on the finish. Deliciously elegant.
2015
Windsor Great Park VineyardBerkshire
Altos R, Pigeage Blanco, Rioja, Rioja, Spain, 2017
Lemon gold colour. Intensely creamy, barrel-aged nose of yeast and marzipan. The impression on the palate is of a nascent wine – superbly 'alive' – with textured, complex, concentrated flavours of grilled almonds, apricot blossom and acacia honey. Really very elegant and superbly delicious; no hard edges to this one. Extremely persistent and subtly flavoured, with a nuanced finish you simply don't want to let go of.
2017
Altos RRioja
Thacher, Shell Creek Vineyards Chenin Blanc, Paso Robles, California, USA, 2019
Full-on Chenin Blanc nose of gently bruised Russet apples, apple Charlotte and wet fern. In the mouth the intensity of flavours gather and grow. Fills the palate to absolute capacity and spills over to a rush of wonderful Chenin acidity through the finish and long after the wine has gone. Wet stone, starched linen, more apple but more golden in the mouth. Truly savoury, appetising and enormous but remains elegant. Nothing Loire-steely about this Chenin – this is still ripe fruit-based rather than set in stone.
2019
ThacherPaso Robles
Staglin Family Vineyards, Estate Chardonnay, Napa Valley, Rutherford, California, USA, 2019
<p>Pale gold with a beautiful nose of candied frosted pineapple, citrus peel and orange blossom. The layer of buttery oak underpins rather than overpowers the sweet fruit. The creaminess however reveals itself on the palate which is broad, soft-textured, pulpy, viscous and immensely soothing. The exotic and citrus fruits on the nose are found in the mouth too, ripe and sun-warmed. This is a languorous and appealing wine that lingers for a very long time after the finish. A few minutes later you are still tasting mango and melon. Drinking now, enjoy this fine wine in its youthful and fruit-soaked prime. It does have just enough acidity to age gracefully over the next five to seven years but why wait to enjoy its cornucopia!</p>
2019
Staglin Family VineyardsNapa Valley
Château Le Coin, Sauvignon Gris, Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, 2020
Pale lemon colour. Immediate zestiness on the nose, tempered with jasmine. The palate is textured, softer and more exotic than its Sauvignon Blanc cousin. Less ordinary and much more enticing and refreshing at the same time. While lightfooted and not overly long on the finish, it is immensely satisfying and rejuvenating.
2020
Château Le CoinBordeaux
Vérité, California, USA, 1998
<p>This is a supremely glamorous wine – the winery's inaugural and eponymous Merlot, before it was renamed La Muse. Beautiful maturity on the nose of old rose petals, incense and something sweet. The palate becomes a lesson in textural purity – all cashmere. There are roses, violets and a whole flower garden in the mouth, hedonistic in its plushness and abundance but remaining elegant, charming and lightfooted. Enjoying it over a number of hours was a particularly delicious experience. It still has an innate power amid all that cashmere texture and fruit finesse.</p>
1998
Vérité
Favia, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Coombsville, California, USA, 2014
This was the second vintage produced and a real joy to taste. There’s a lavender lift on the nose, redolent also of fresh currants, bursting figs and mocha chocolate. The wine envelopes the palate with dark fruit cut through with seams of cool vineyard and cooler vintage acidity, woven with fine, silty tannins that act like a silken mesh. They are subtle but only just beginning to loosen as they resolve into the mass of dark cherry and bramble fruit. The flavours evolve throughout the palate with cocoa, nutmeg and tobacco joining the clamour. But it is the tannins that bring real focus and presence to this wine and bring it to a close, prolonging the finish and ensuring the wine will continue to age, harmonise and resonate for decades. Impressive, graceful despite its density, ethereal despite its weight and body mass, complex and characterful, this is a wine to ponder.
2014
FaviaNapa Valley
Epoch Estate, Paderewski Vineyard Block B, Paso Robles, Willow Creek, California, USA, 2017
Tar, rosemary, dark berry, fig, liquorice and violets all hit the nose at the same time. Deeply aromatic and compelling. The palate is rich, concentrated and textured, with layers of gorgeously ripe, plush dark berry fruits. Cream and baking spices too. A really charming, gourmand Syrah showing no hint of animal or vegetable, just all Syrah grape: flowers, herbs, sunshine and warm stones. Youthful, primary and vibrant with years to go, this wine has real energy and drive. It forms a perfect globe shape on the palate and rolls through to a generous, warming finish.
2017
Epoch EstatePaso Robles
Adelaida, HMR Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir, Paso Robles, Adelaida District, California, USA, 2019
Gorgeously scented Pinot Noir! All roses, rosehip, raspberry and candied cherry. In the mouth the wine is succulent and densely packed with soft, gummy fruit flavours. Headily scented with roses and thyme, the flavours and aromas pursue the finish which is long and silky. This is lovely New World Pinot Noir: exotic, expressive, luscious and mellow. It shows no restraint, just full-blown flavour and character without losing any of Pinot’s intrinsically seductive personality.
2019
AdelaidaPaso Robles
J Dusi, Zinfandel, Dante Dusi Vineyard, Paso Robles, California, USA, 2019
Deep ruby hue. Concentrated sweet ripe black fruit aromas, reminiscent of bramble-picking from hedgerows, with an undercurrent of leaf and briar. The palate is equally brimming with freshly picked fruit: blue, red and dark berry flavours but also an impressive concentration of mineral earth – almost a ferrous quality that elevates the wine to a much more profound liquid. Tannins are densely woven but supple, the alcohol brings sucrosity rather than heat, and is held in check by a fresh seam of acidity. Very complete wine. The finish is long and highly flavoured, and when the flavours finally fade, you’re still left with a sensation of elegant power. A wine that will age beautifully for a decade or more.
2019
J DusiPaso Robles
