My Top 15 Wines of 2023
My Top 15 Wines of 2023 are below. But first, here are my highlights of 2023:
2023 was an amazing year for me and Dio, especially when it came to wine, food and travel!
The travel highlight of 2023 for us was definitely our 40-day summer road trip in Europe! In addition to experiencing amazing cities like Paris, Barcelona, Venice, Vienna, Copenhagen and Berlin, visiting tons of wonderful museums, a few private art collections, and meeting many amazing people, the trip featured once in a lifetime wine tasting experiences in Bordeaux and Piemonte as well as surreal restaurant experiences.
Food highlights from this trip included two 3 Michelin Star stops (Amador in Vienna, and Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona). We also had dinner with the Arbos in their home (they produce a number of red and white wines on the right bank of Bordeaux), and the best tasting I’ve ever experienced at Vieux Chateau Certan—also on the right bank of Bordeaux.
We also visited California twice in 2023 (Napa, Sonoma and San Diego) and had dinners at The French Laundry in Yountville, and at Addison in San Diego—both 3 Michelin Star restaurants.
In 2023, I’ve come to the realization that one of life’s great pleasures is to just “do the wine pairing!” at these great restaurants. Although, I’m pretty good at choosing and pairing wines with food, I’m finding that putting myself in the hands of these great Sommeliers to pick the wines for me is such a pleasure—from the interesting pairings I never would have thought to attempt, to discovering new wines and new types of wine I’ve never heard of, to realizing there are just some wines that I will not ever like (I’m looking at you pet nat and orange wine!).
2023 was also the year we joined the Sommelier Guild of Atlanta. The Guild puts on monthly wine dinners and we’ve met several wonderful people and have had the pleasure of discovering many new wines and Atlanta restaurants through the Guild.
We attended the High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction earlier in the year. This was our second year attending the auction, and we attended several events leading up to the auction as well. Highlights were the winemaker’s dinner at the Delta 747 Exhibition. This dinner featured wineries from Paso Robles including the amazing wines from Talley Vineyards. We also attended the Chateau Lagrange dinner With Winemaker Matthieu Bordes at the Cherokee Town & Country Club in Atlanta leading up to the auction. This was my first taste of Lagrange’s second wine, Fiefs, which really raised the bar of what I now expect in second wines!
We also invested in two wineries in 2023—one in Napa (Arrow and Branch Winery) and one in central Tuscany (Borgo Bonelli)! We’re looking forward to a bright future with our partners in these wineries!
I also received my WSET Level 1 Sommelier certification in 2023. I’m scheduled to take my exam for WSET Level 2 in April of 2024. Wish me luck!
Last, but not least, 2023 is the year I kicked off this “HeavyPourWine” food and wine blog. I’ve spent the past few months adding content and refining the blog, so I hope everyone who’s taken the time to read it has enjoyed it!
My Top 15 Wines of 2023
Since I’ve gotten a lot better at remembering to do tasting notes this past year, I’ve decided to start publishing my top 15 wines of the year. These are simply wines that stood out to me in 2023. So here goes!
#15 - 2008 Elio Grasso Barolo Riserva Rüncot - Most of the wines in my top 15 were wines that I was exposed to as a result of a tasting, dinner, experience, etc. Not this one. This is just a bottle of Barolo I’ve had in my cellar for a while. This made the list because it’s simply a wonderful aged Barolo that I opened and shared at my kitchen table with a good friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in a while. Honestly, the best experiences are with friends and family!!
#14 - 2021 Hirsch Vineyards Chardonnay - My first Hirsch Chardonnay and what a wonderful wine! This wine and experience was special because at this group dinner, I had the privilege of sitting next to and getting to know Jasmine Hirsch, Winemaker & General Manager of Hirsch Vineyards.
#13 - 2019 Pahlmeyer Merlot - This was my first time tasting the Pahlmeyer Merlot. Just a great merlot, breathtaking views from the Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa and great company made this a stand out experience in 2023.
#12 - 1982 Château Sociando-Mallet - A fellow Guild member brought this wine to a Guild dinner in 2023. Just a wonderful aged Bordeaux. He passed away a few weeks later. He will be greatly missed by all and this was definitely a reminder to pop those corks on those special bottles!
#11 - 1977 Taylor (Fladgate) Porto Vintage - The same Guild member who brought the ‘82 Bordeaux also brought this port and shared it with the group. I did not like port—until that night. Wow!
#10 - 2021 Fait-Main Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras - Benoit Touquette (Realm, Fait-Main, Teeter Totter, etc.) is my favorite US-based winemaker. During our second trip to Napa in ‘23, my last tasting stop was at Fait-Main. Because of great timing, I believe I was one of (if not) the first people to taste the '21 vintage of my favorite Napa Cab. This was drinking so well at such a young age. It was easy to pull the trigger on his ‘21s! The other wines in the flight were also amazing!
#9 - 2022 Château Léoville Barton - While visiting the Chateaux during our trip to Europe, I was able to try my first samples of the '22 Bordeaux vintage. Wow! This tasting is one of the main reasons I participated in Bordeaux futures for the first time. My wife’s favorite of the flight was the ‘22 Langoa Barton. But all of the wines from this producer we tried were amazing!
#8 - 1990 Tenuta Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino Vigna La Casa - After being introduced to this lovely aged BDM at a Guild event, I was able to find three bottles of this online. I had the pleasure of then sharing one of these bottles with good friends during a lovely dinner on a rooftop deck in Atlanta. I can’t wait to pop the cork on the next bottle of this again very soon!
#7 - 2019 La Caccia di San Giovanni Toscana - My wife and I invested in this winery based in Tuscany. We now have a lot of this in our cellar and that’s a good thing! We’ve been sharing this with our family and friends - and they are raving about it! The 2020 vintage of La Caccia is also very good!
#6 - 2019 Arrow & Branch Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard - Owned by the Contursi family, this was the best wine my wife and I tasted during our most recent trip to Napa. Subsequently, we invested in the forthcoming Arrow & Branch Winery (a new custom crush facility in Napa - coming soon!).
#5 - 2016 Oremus Tokaji Aszú 3 Puttonyos - I had never heard of Tokaji, and I have never really been a fan of dessert wines until I experienced this wine. This wine landed in my top five because this wine was served to us by a Hungarian Sommelier at Restaurant Amador in Vienna. He was very proud and passionate about Hungarian wines, and this wine was by far the wine of the night (WOTN) that evening. I’ve since purchased several vintages from this producer and have begun sharing it with friends and family. This wine will be in my regular rotation from here on out….
#4 - 1983 Château Puyanché Francs Côtes de Bordeaux - At dinner in their home, Joseph Arbo (owner and winemaker at Vignobles Arbo) pulled this from his personal cellar and shared this wonderful aged Bordeaux with us at the end of the meal. Dio wasn’t feeling well that night so she unfortunately wasn’t able to attend the dinner. Joseph, as we were leaving, gifted us another bottle of the ‘83 so that Dio could try it! We opened this later in Barcelona with Dio’s brother and his wife! Both showings were amazing! (Side note: I was able to find some more recent vintages of the Arbo’s wines in the US. Really good wines with amazing QPR if you can find them: White: Château Puyanché Francs Côtes de Bordeaux Blanc Sec; Red: Château Godard Bellevue)
#3 - 2020 MacDonald Cabernet Sauvignon - Dio and I walked the vineyard and tasted this wonderful wine with Alex MacDonald at his kitchen table. I had avoided the ‘20 vintage up until that point because of the fires and potential for smoke taint. Alex explained this wine was not affected by the smoke because they only used old vine grapes that pull from the water table. Therefore, the grapes did not ingest smoke. This wine was off-the-charts good! Looks like we’re getting an allocation starting next year, so can’t wait to add the MacDonald’s wines to our cellar!
#2 - 2019 Charles Heidsieck Coteaux Champenois Ambonnay - This is another wine that I was introduced to at a Guild dinner. I was not aware that still red wine (Pinot Noir in this case) was being made in the Champagne region. This wine blew me away with how balanced and elegant it was. I wasn’t able to find this in the US, so I made it my mission to find some bottles while in Europe. And I did!
#1 - 2015 Vieux Château Certan - I scored this wine a 99pts - the highest I’ve ever scored a wine. The wine and tasting experience was off the charts amazing. Compared to all of the other Chateau visits in Bordeaux, this experience was so different. Most tastings in Bordeaux were with an estate host and each tasting was similar to professional “taste and spit” process. We drank the ‘15 VCC with the owner and winemaker, Alexandre Theinpont, in the barrel room at VCC. He was such an amazing and humble host. He seasoned the glasses (this a first for me at a tasting!), and he insisted we let the wine sit and aerate once opened. We then took our time and drank the whole bottle with him. You could tell how much he enjoyed drinking his wine and that really added to our enjoyment!
