Matt Walls: My top 10 Rhône wines of 2020

All these bottles sitting in our cellars and wine fridges, what do we save them for? Well, 2020 revealed the answer to that.

Like many of us, I’ve delved deep into my stash this year to bring some rays of sunshine to those gloomier spells.

Scroll down for Matt Walls’ top 10 Rhône wines of 2020

I spent the first half of the year in France, researching and writing my forthcoming book on the Rhône. Before and after each lockdown period I still managed to visit plenty of producers, and some outlying regions that were new to me, such as the Diois. This was the last remaining piece of the puzzle in fact – I can finally say I’ve visited all 52 appellations of the Rhône Valley.

It’s difficult to know where to start when compiling a list of my favourite wines of the year. What’s surprising is that it’s not always the ‘best’ wines – or at least the highest-scoring ones – that spring to mind first of all when I think back over the past 12 months.

Special bottles

When we write a tasting note, it describes an encounter with a wine – or, more accurately, one particular bottle of that wine. It’s a record of how it appears at that moment. But what we can’t do is predict how that wine will resonate with us over time, how strongly it will make its mark on us, on our memory.

Usually this impact is caused by what’s in the glass, how it smelt, tasted, felt, lingered. But there are other reasons why a wine can take on a greater significance.

A wine can give you hope; it can confirm the renaissance of a once-great property, or display the skills of an exciting new talent. It can evoke the memory of a past winemaker – a more faithful image than any photograph. It can remind of you of the place in which you drank it, the atmosphere, the company, the view, the laughs.

Sometimes a wine can shock, it can open your mind, it can reframe or redefine a whole region in your mental map. Other times it can just satisfy deeply and provide comfort.

The wines that make the strongest mark aren’t just those that ‘taste’ special. They are those that make us ‘feel’ something special. The following wines did both of these things for me this year.

I’ve chosen wines that are ready to drink, some from the Northern Rhône, some from the South, mostly reds but a few whites as well. I can’t guarantee they’ll resonate in the same way for you as they have for me, but I’m confident that, at the very least, Rhône lovers will find them utterly delicious.

See Matt Walls’ top 10 Rhône wines of 2020

See also: Best Champagnes tasted in 2020

Coming soon

Matthew Luczy: My top 10 fine wines of 2020 – Wednesday 16th December

Jane Anson: My top 10 fine wines of 2020 – Thursday 17th December

Michaela Morris: My top 10 fine wines of 2020 – Friday 18th December