Stories of the year in 12 wines

What a meaty Syrah, a coolclimate Merlot and others tell us about 2020.

It has been an earthshattering year for the American wine world. And it would have been even without the coronavirus. Major fires plowed through some of California’s most prestigious terroir, destroying wineries and threatening an unprecedented volume of wine grapes with the insidious malady of smoke taint. The nationwide reckoning with racial injustice forced the wine world to confront its inequities in a new, stark way — and then allegations of sexual assault within the country’s most elite sommelier organization forced a similar reexamination of its deeply ingrained sexism. And yet between the headlines there have been glimmers of good news: creative winemaking endeavors that attempt to stake out new wine paradigms; proactive thinking about how to adapt viticulture to a changing climate. Many of the jolts that 2020 has handed California wine may prove to be generative, catalyzing some changes that have been a long time coming — whether that has to do with the renewed importance of virtual business or a woefully overdue consideration of how wine education can foster a more diverse workforce and audience.

The best way to tell the story of 2020, however, is by letting the wines do the talking themselves. We’ve assembled a case that illuminates the year’s major themes and tastes a whole lot better than a news article. Yes, each of these 12 wines is delicious. Each of them, in its own way, is also important, telling us something about where California wine, and maybe even California, stands today.

Illustration by Steven Boyle / The Chronicle