The holiday season is here, and though 2021 continued to be a challenging year for us all we have gathered together some of our favourite wines for gifting and investing in!
Best wines for a holiday gift
Choosing the right gift can be a challenge. For us, there is no better solution than a beautiful bottle of wine! Here I have listed a few tasting notes from quality wines that I am sure will satisfy the wine lover in your life.
Ornellaia 2013
"Dense, vibrant colour, has a nose of splendid aromatic complexity of a limpid fruitiness, refined spicy and balsamic notes. The mouth develops vibrant and complex fruity nuances framed by a dense, slender structure with tannins that attain a rare harmony between firmness and fleshiness, concluding with a long balanced and fresh finish."
Corton Charlemange – Bonneau du Martray 2014
Lively and powerful. The subtle citrus and peach aromas with delicate floral notes evolve beautifully into honeysuckle, hazelnut, and cinnamon. The wines have wonderful persistence on the palate and show all the signs of very long aging potential. They certainly deserve to represent the elite of the Corton Charlemagne appellation and the 2014 vintage is among the best for whites to drink now.
Brut Grand Cru Ambonnay Champagne Egly-Ouriet 2011
a very pretty wine to drink now: Bright floral notes meld into hints of lemon confit, tangerine oil, dried flowers, sage and pastry. There is terrific freshness to the 2011 and right at the peak.
Best wines for investing
This next group of wines are well suited for investing due to their name recognition, vintage quality, and attractive value. All three of our choices come from prestigious vineyards in regions with established, liquid markets and, in our view, hold strong potential to appreciate in value with time. Of course, they’d make pretty good drinking options too!
Rare 2008
Having only been made in 12 vintages since its inception in 1976 and produced in tiny quantities, Rare Champagne lives up to its name. Made by Champagne legend Régis Camus, whose meticulous winemaking has made him IWC Sparkling Winemaker of the Year an unprecedented eight times, the estate is owned and operated by Piper-Heidsieck. Rare, however, stands as its own entity, very much like Dom Perignon does to Moet et Chandon, representing their ‘prestige cuvee’. The recently released 2008 is a Champagne for the special occasions and will reward those patient enough to resits its youthful charm. Rare’s current price indicates strong potential for appreciating in value when compared to prices of many of its peers.
Lafite Rothschild 2017
Chateau Lafite Rothschild needs no introduction. As wine consumers around the world fall back in love with Bordeaux, they should look no further than the 2017 vintage. The 2017s are generally undervalued for their quality and have emerged as the ‘best of the rest’ of the so-called ‘off-prime’ vintage of the last decade. 2017 is a very classic and precise Lafite yet remains cheap especially when you consider its rating of 97+pts. We averaged the PoP (price over points) for Lafite and this worked out a fair value of the 2017 to be ~£4,680 per 6 when it is trading at £3,200 (~46% discount).
Olivier Bernstein Clos de La Roche 2016
Since his first vintage in 2007, Oliver Bernstein has been winning the plaudits of leading Burgundy critics such as Allen Meadows and Jancis Robinson. His wines, nearly exclusively grand cru but with some premier cru sites, are becoming some of the most sought-after in the Cote de Nuits as collectors are now starting to appreciate the extraordinary quality as the wines enter their optimum drinking windows. All but one of the Bernstein vineyard plots are at least 40 years old; most are between 60 and 80 years old. The 2016 Clos de La Roche dances on the palate, its opulent and profound, bringing together power and delicacy. Difficult to resist in its youth but will be better with time.
