CHINA ENGLAND FRANCE AO YUN AO YUN 2019 Motivated by climate change and the search for the next great wine, winemakers have planted high-altitude vineyards across South America and Europe in recent years. But what if the next highaltitude grand cru wine was in Asia? Ao Yun, the first wine estate of the Himalayas, was created by the French luxury group LVMH after four years of combing China for a cool microclimate fit for growing Bordeaux grape varietals. Vineyard sites were finally chosen in four villages of Yunnan province, between 2,200 and 2,600 metres, near the city of Shangri-La. The vineyards were planted with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, syrah and petit verdot, and the first vintage was released in 2013. Today, the 2019 Ao Yun, released in 2023, has become a watershed vintage for the young estate, thrilling the international press. Critic James Suckling, awarding it 98 points, seemed in awe: “It has a finish that lasts almost two minutes.” Robert Parker gave it 96 points, his highest score ever for a Chinese wine, and declared 2019 “the completest statement to date of everything Ao Yun has aspired to be …” GUSBOURNE ESTATE FIFTY ONE DEGREES NORTH, 2016 No emerging winemaking country has stunned the world like England, where once sun-starved growers could hardly ripen cold-hardy hybrid grapes. The rise in summer temperatures in the UK since the 1990s changed that. In 2010, Sussex wine estate Ridgeview rocked the Decanter World Wine Awards when its Blanc de Blancs won best sparkling wine on the planet – over five champagnes. In 2023 it happened again, with Gusbourne Estate in Kent awarded Decanter’s best in show for its Blanc de Blancs. Master Sommelier Laura Rhys recalls the first time she tasted Gusbourne’s wines: “I sensed they really represented a gear shift.” Weight, complexity and generosity in the palate, with lovely, friendly acidity ... Today, they’ve done it again, with their new prestige cuvée, 51º North. “It marks a new era,” says Rhys, now a Gusbourne ambassador. “Andrew Weeber founded Gusbourne with this vision of creating world-class, worldbeating traditional method sparkling wines in the UK.” This sublime single vintage cuvée, from the best chardonnay and pinot noir at Gusbourne’s Kent and Sussex vineyards, aged on its lees for more than six years, is precisely that. CHAMPAGNE LOUIS ROEDERER HOMMAGE À CAMILLE, CHARMONT 2020 Historically, Champagne was a wine region so cool it could barely sustain viticulture, in a bitter rivalry with its southern neighbours and trade competitors in Burgundy. Champagne struggled to produce red wines of richness and colour like burgundy (early champagne was a pale, pinkish, still pinot noir), and the innovations of the famous monk Dom Pérignon were essentially adaptations to make the best of their climate – pruning vines to improve grape flavour, blending grapes from multiple vineyards, and perfecting pressing techniques to create a quality white wine from red grapes. Today, climate change has flipped the script, with producers struggling to retain enough grape acidity in their sparkling white wines. Meanwhile, the dream of making a red wine to rival Burgundy’s has become a reality, with numerous producers now ripening pinot noir fully to sell it as bubble-free “Coteaux Champenois” red wine. Exemplifying the trend is the cuvée Hommage à Camille, released in 2021 by Louis Roederer. “The finesse of champagne with the richness of a red – 96 points,” marvelled Falstaff magazine. Has the producer of Cristal just created Champagne’s first grand cru red? 64
FRANCE GERMANY ITALY CHÂTEAU D’YQUEM CHÂTEAU D’YQUEM, 2020 After years making wine on three continents, Italian-born Lorenzo Pasquini thought he’d seen the lengths estates will go to to encapsulate a terroir – then he became the estate director of Château d’Yquem, producer of the world’s most legendary sweet wine. “It’s the most complex expression of terroir that I have encountered in all my years,” he says. “Once you’ve faced all the challenges of making perfectly ripe grapes then you must face the challenges of having the botrytis (noble rot) at the right time, and harvesting it at the right moment.” Now climate change has further raised the stakes, with chaotic growing conditions hindering botrytis development for some years. Château d’Yquem’s latest release, the 2020 vintage, is the smallest production since 2000, created thanks to meticulous berry selection during harvest, carried out swiftly over five days to beat the arrival of late October rains. “The magic is still there,” says Pasquini, “but to capture it we must be even more precise, organised and reactive.” Decanter magazine’s Georgie Hindle called the 2020 Yquem, “a masterclass in purity and delicacy.” I would add: an object lesson in resilience. VAN VOLXEM SCHARZHOFBERGER “P” RIESLING 2016 Roman Niewodniczanski was born into a German brewing dynasty, but his passion is for wine. In the 1990s, he considered starting a winery abroad, South Africa perhaps, but a growing concern about global warming’s effect on wine led him to explore Germany’s Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region, a riesling-growing area historically considered at the northern limit for viticulture. For Niewodniczanski, investing in some of Europe’s coolest vineyards seemed a sound investment. “The time of big alcoholic wines is over,” he says. “I think there will be a strong movement towards light and elegant white wines.” So, since 1999, Niewodniczanski has invested millions into building his estate, Van Volxem, by buying up cool Saar vineyard sites (including a piece of the famous Scharzhofberger slope) with the goal of earning a region best known for sweet rieslings an international reputation for light, dry ones. He’s done well. In 2018, Vinum magazine chose (for the first time ever) a dry riesling as the best wine in Germany: Van Volxem’s 2016 Scharzhofberger “P” Riesling. A wine Robert Parker called “mind-blowing … one of the finest dry German rieslings I have tasted.” DOMAINE PASSOPISCIARO PASSOPISCIARO 2018 CONTRADA R In 2021, the highest temperature ever in Europe (48.8C°) was recorded in Sicily. Yet where can you find Europe’s southernmost perennial glacier? In Sicily – on Mount Etna. There, on the volcano’s cool northern slopes, winemaker Andrea Franchetti founded his estate Passopisciaro in 2000, after discovering several abandoned vineyards on high-elevation terraces of black, lava soils. What could be worth the risk of working on an active volcano? The wine you get from the meeting of the indigenous nerello mascalese grape and Etna’s high-altitude volcanic terroirs. In the words of 2004 Best Sommelier in the World Enrico Bernardo: “I am convinced that Etna will become for volcanic wine what Vosne Romanée is for Pinot Noir.” Passopisciaro’s Contrada R bottling is from his highest vineyard, situated more than 1,000 metres above sea level. As Bernardo puts it: “We expect Sicily to produce only very rich, powerful, concentrated wines. These are the opposite. They’re very perfumed, very fresh and floral, not compact or dense but delicate, yet with very seductive aromas … Etna’s great wines, like Passopisciaro’s, have an identity so precise, they’re incomparable to other wines.” 65
