Highlights from a year of great wine

By By Stan Torgerson / wine columnist
Dec. 24, 2003
Newspapers and TV guys love to look back at the end of the year in an attempt to recapture its highlights and "lowlights." Why should a wine columnist be any different? Let's raise our glasses and toast 2003.
Highlights: There were many. We start by saluting the best wines we enjoyed during the past 12 months. This is tricky because some of them are may no longer be available, or were never available, in Mississippi. If you understand that, we'll give it a try.
Perhaps the best wine we drank in 2003 was the Turley zinfandel. It is easily the best zin I've ever tasted, but it is available only through the winery and is highly allocated.
You put yourself on their list and, if you're lucky, three years later they may notify you they will allow you to purchase three bottles. Stay on the list long enough and you may work up to six in another three or four years. I have a friend who has been on the list for perhaps eight years. He has some and has been kind enough to share several bottles with me. I have never tasted such richness, such depth, such concentrated flavor in a zinfandel.
Also on the list of the top wines enjoyed in 2003 was a 1977 Fonseca vintage port.
We have a habit, make that a tradition, in our family that when a grandchild is born, I buy a case of the best wine I can find from that vintage and put it away in my cellar until their 21st birthday.
My first grandchild was born in 1977 and that happened to be a magnificent year for vintage port. I bought him six bottles of Fonseca and six bottles of Taylor and laid them away. At the time, I believe the price was about $19 a bottle. Now this wine is available only at auction where it sells for up to $150 per bottle.
He opens about one bottle a year and trusts me to look after the rest. Talk about temptation. Recently, we opened one of the Fonsecas, together of course. At 26 years of age, it was in mint condition. A stunning wine.
My favorite white wine of 2003 was the Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. The state warehouse does get an allotment but it is always snapped up, literally, in a few days by the better wine stores and restaurants. It is not that expensive, somewhere around $25 depending on the store, but if you're a good customer of a local wine store, tell them to keep a sharp eye out for it on the state list.
There were other memorable wines from last year, Ridge Lytton Springs zinfandel, the Far Niente chardonnay, the BV Private Reserve cabernet, Karly's Warrior Fires, many others. But if I could order just three to retaste they would be the Turley, the Fonseca and the Cloudy Bay.
Other highlights from last year were distinct upgrades in the quality of California wines, particularly the cabernets, zinfandels and syrahs.
Syrah is going to be the next big winner from that state, pushing aside the merlots. The overplanting of merlot has lowered the quality of this wine and the syrahs with their big, bold flavors and outstanding depth will challenge the cabs and zins in the year ahead.
Australia and Spain continue to send us tasty wines that are great values. That will continue, I'm certain.
The most disappointing aspect of 2003 was the continued escalation in prices by some California and foreign vintners.
We in Mississippi have suffered more than our neighboring state of Louisiana because all wines sold here have to come through the state warehouse with its inflexible pricing. In Louisiana, competition and overproduction have driven prices down on many wines, but not here.
Price is one of the reasons French wines are sitting on shelves unsold and therefore unopened and the same applies to the majority of Italian wines.
Yes, you can still buy an Italian wine in a basket for very little but that's what you get for your money, very little. I'm looking at a list of Italian wines available in Mississippi and some are priced in the $60 to $70 range. That's a bit too pricey for good, but not great, wines.
The true highlight in 2003, however has been the attendance and the reaction to our wine tastings. People sharing and enjoying a common experience and learning at the same time. They have become the largest and most successful in the state and for that I am grateful.
See you at the next one on Jan. 29.