Our own wine awards

[jrufusj]

I don't normally cross-post things on multiple boards (other than tasting notes), but I thought this might start an interesting discussion. On another board, the usual WOTY lists have started. As noted below, my non-scoring, context-driven approach to wine just doesn't fit a wine of the year model.

So I've started my own annual awards list. The winners range from cheap to trés cher, but all deserve awards in my wine universe.

What categories would you add? What wines did it for you this year?

I’m not sure I can do a WOTY listing. I find them fun to read (and even to debate), but my mind just refuses to work in ordinal fashion and without a healthy dose of context. What that means is that I am much better equipped to do a sort of Academy Awards of wine.

Many of the wines listed below would not rank among the best wines I had this year on any absolute scale, but each of them stood out within its category.

Best Precision, Transparency and Focus

’93 Montille Pommard Le Pez

’90 Salon

Best QPR/Underdog Performance Among the Big Boys

’90 Carpineto CCR

Best House Wine

Red – ’01 Mas de Boislauzon CdR Villages

White – ’02 André Bonhomme Viré Clessé

Sparkling – NV Veuve Fourny Brut 1er Cru Rosé

Best Argument for Context in Wine Evaluation (i.e., the slightly hot, gobby wine I normally wouldn’t like but that was perfect for the moment)

’01 Plantagenet Shiraz

Best Way to Keep Me From Complaining About Wine Pricing in Restaurants

’96 Clos Ste. Hune (a glass of which I was given out of the blue by the sommelier at a restaurant)

Best Wine to Make a Non-Wine Drinker Say “Please take me wine shopping with you”

NV Aimery Sieur d’Arques Blanquette Méthode Ancestrale

Best Introduction to a New Appellation That Made Me Sit Up and Take Notice

’90 Ferrando Black Label Carema

Best Argument Against Vintage Chart Mentality

’83 Rousseau Beze

Best New Insight to a Known Appellation

’99 Roumier Corton Charley

Best Slap in the Face Encouragement to Revisit a Producer I Unfairly Wrote Off Too Long Ago

’85 Faiveley Clos des Cortons

Everything here from Grand Cru Burg to cheap sweet bubbles, but these are the wines that stood out enough to make me create an award category. Plenty of better wines on some absolute ordinal scale, but these deserve note.