2020: looking back
Celebrity wines, counterfeit SuperTuscans and paper bottles. We look back at Decanter news coverage from a year to remember – and not just for Covid-19. Compiled by
Chris Mercer recaps the wine events that made the headlines in a dramatic and difficult year
France’s first ‘dry January’ campaign divided the nation, criticised by several leading writers and chefs as an ‘Anglo-Saxon and puritan obsession’. Australia’s bushfires dominated headlines. Wine Australia said less than 1% of vineyard land lay in fire zones, but Henschke reported 1,100ha of vines in the northern Adelaide Hills damaged in late December, including 90% of its own 25ha Lenswood estate. Most of the vineyard would be back in production by 2022, it added in an April update. Meanwhile, Bordeaux’s Surtep cooperage launched oak barrels toasted with hot jade stones. Diamonds would also work in theory, said CEO Thomas Moussié.
Plans were revealed for a £60m wine cultural centre in Beijing, designed in partnership with Bordeaux’s Cité du Vin. Despite tension, US officials continued 25% import tariffs on some European wines, from Rioja to Burgundy. Figures showed the tariffs had already curtailed shipments. Italian wines, unaffected by the EU-US trade dispute, only became more popular among fine wine buyers. Separately, there was excitement for the new-release Barolo 2016s. Elsewhere, burglars stole £170,000 of Domaine Leroy and DRC wines from one-star Michelin restaurant Formel B in Copenhagen.
Restaurants and bars were shuttered across Europe, while Napa Valley Vintners endorsed advice to close tasting rooms, as the Covid-19 crisis deepened. Wineries in the southern hemisphere made plans to manage harvest and 2020 wines amid restrictions. An early vintage helped some winemakers in Chile and Argentina. Beyond Covid, French bureaucrats agreed a definition for natural wines, Roederer bought Napa’s Diamond Creek Vineyards, and Germany’s eiswein harvest largely failed after a mild winter.
Virtual wine tastings multiplied as Zoom became a household name. UK wine retailers reported an influx of online orders, but the EU still needed to allow ‘crisis distillation’ to drain wineries’ surplus stocks. Things were especially tough for workers in the hospitality industry, and several top US restaurants sold their collections of rare wines to help pay staff. Admittedly, silver linings were thin, but Port lovers saw several declarations for 2018. Taylor’s declared a classic vintage for a highly unusual third
consecutive year. In Western Australia, Margaret River wineries also reported outstanding quality in the 2020 vintage.
Italy’s government approved the production of Prosecco rosé, with 10%-15% Pinot Noir allowed alongside signature grape Glera under DOC rules. In fine wine, Pauillac first growth Château Latour released its 2012 for the first time. Auctions had been forced online, but Sotheby’s said Scotch whisky and mature Bordeaux and Burgundy still attracted strong bidding. One Asia-based buyer paid £118,580 for a bottle of 1762 Gautier Cognac. As limited dining out returned in some countries, Denmark’s two-star Michelin restaurant Noma said it would temporarily reopen as a wine and burger bar.
Price cuts of more than 20% on some Bordeaux 2019 en primeur releases prompted excitement among buyers, as Decanter’s Jane Anson praised quality. Pauillac châteaux Mouton Rothschild and Pontet-Canet 2019 were down by about 30% on their 2018 release price, ex-Bordeaux, in the delayed campaign. In the US, reopened winery tasting rooms displayed a ‘new normal’, from face masks to extra outdoor seating and personal spittoons. In other news, Ipswich-based company Frugalpac launched a novel wine bottle made mostly from recycled paperboard.
UK restaurants, pubs and wineries reopened to visitors. The government announced its ‘eat out to help out’ discount scheme, though it excluded wine from the offer. Michel Reybier, owner of Château Cos d’Estournel in St-Estèphe, became the latest high-profile buyer of a Provence winery after acquiring Château La Mascaronne. Premium Provence rosé was in vogue, and pop star Kylie Minogue would announce a new brand in August. Meanwhile, Dutch shoe company Mercer Amsterdam said it had created veganfriendly trainers made with ‘wine leather’.
Champagne suffered an ‘historic drop in shipments’ due to Covid-19, according to the Comité Champagne, which announced a strict limit on this year’s harvest size – but several producers said 2020 may form a rare ‘trilogy’ of top vintages with 2019 and 2018. Winemakers across Europe noted a particularly early start to harvest, although hail hit parts of lower-lying Valpolicella in north Italy. In South Africa, wineries and restaurants launched a gift voucher scheme amid a ban on domestic alcohol sales. Back in Italy, bars in Florence served socially distanced customers via medieval ‘wine windows’ once used during plague outbreaks.
France’s national appellation body INAO approved 22 premier cru sites in PouillyFuissé, a first for Burgundy’s Mâconnais area: look out for the wines from the 2020 vintage. In the US, Royal Slope became Washington state’s newest American Viticultural Area. Elsewhere, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and the Perrin family – co-owners of Château Miraval in Provence – announced a new rosé Champagne, Fleur de Miraval, with grower Pierre Péters. September also saw many international releases via the Place de Bordeaux, including 2017s from Masseto in Tuscany and Opus One in Napa Valley.
Wildfires on the west coast of the US had already cost lives, damaged property and raised smoke taint concerns when the Glass Fire ignited on 27 September. Active until 20 October, it damaged many Napa Valley wineries and homes. Burgess Cellars, newly acquired by the Lawrence family and Carlton McCoy Jr MS, lost its winery, but the vineyards largely survived. Owners of damaged properties, including Meadowood luxury resort, vowed to rebuild; Napa Valley Vintners said the 2020 vintage ‘is not lost’. Elsewhere, Italian police uncovered a crime ring making counterfeit Sassicaia wines.
At the time of writing, new Covid lockdowns and their repercussions dominated the agenda. Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, said the trade group supported necessary public health measures, but warned ‘the costs to hospitality businesses of a second lockdown will be even heavier than the first’.
Potential flashpoints around wine and trade – from US tariffs to last-ditch Brexit talks – were also set to continue. In the US, the outcome of the presidential election will likely have policy implications for wine producers, retailers and drinkers. In terms of releases, the upcoming Bordeaux 2018 wines in-bottle will be interesting for collectors to follow.