Steven Spurrier’s top wines of 2018

Decanter’s long-standing consultant editor's top wines from his columns in 2018...

Each month Decanter’s long-standing consultant editor hand-picks fine wines for drinking now and for the cellar, based on tastings that he has attended during the year. Here are the premium picks from The Spurrier selection throughout 2018.

They are a eclectic mix indeed. The New World is well represented, as are different wine styles from a classic Brunello to a Pantagonian Trousseau, and all scoring over 94 points.

For every wine explorer, this is a wonderful shopping list for 2019.

The Spurrier 2018 selection

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Decanter’s consultant editor Steven Spurrier joined the wine trade in London in 1964 and later moved to Paris where he bought a wine shop in 1971, and then opened L’Academie du Vin, France’s first private wine school in 1973. Spurrier staged the historic 1976 blind tasting between wines from California and France, the Judgment of Paris, and in the 1980s he wrote several wine books and created the Christie’s Wine Course with then senior wine director Michael Broadbent, a veteran Decanter columnist. In 1988 Spurrier returned to the UK to focus on writing and consultancy, with his clients including Singapore Airlines. He has won several awards, including Le Personalité de l’Année (oenology) 1988 for services to French wine and the Maestro Award in honour of California wine legend André Tchelistcheff (2011) and is president of the Circle of Wine Writers as well as founding the Wine Society of India. He also produced his own wine, Bride Valley Brut, from his vines in Dorset.

Steven Spurrier’s top wines of 2018

The Spurrier 2018 selection

Opus One, Napa Valley, Oakville, California, USA, 1980

Altos Las Hormigas, Gualtallary Malbec, Uco Valley, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina, 2014

Tenuta delle Terre Nere, Prephylloxera, Etna, Sicily, Italy, 2015

Il Paradiso di Frassina, Moz Art Wine, Brunello di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy, 2013

The Sadie Family, Palladius, Swartland, South Africa, 2015

Emrich-Schönleber, Halenberg Riesling, Grosses Gewächs, Nahe, Germany, 2017

Chapel Hill, The Vicar Shiraz, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia, 2012

Aniello, Trousseau, Río Negro, Patagonia, Argentina, 2015

Lutum, Sanford & Benedict Vineyard Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County, Sta Rita Hills, California, USA, 2013

R López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia, Rioja, Northern Spain, Spain, 2005