Clare Tooley MW: My top 10 wines of 2021

Only 10? I feel a little like I do when faced with a hefty restaurant wine list. So many lovely wines, so little time to do them justice. My mind tracks the names, vintages and regions in fleeting time, flipping like a kaleidoscope. The effort is always accompanied by that nagging worry you’re missing the absolute gem. All the while, your dinner date is itching simply to get on and tuck into the evening with a good glass of wine.

The Tooley household has been through a lot in 2021, including some memorable highs and some please-let-us-forget lows. We consumed a lot of wine, tasted and annotated even more. Work life has been a constant amid 12 months of vivid change, and I am fortunate that wine links both. With gratitude, therefore, we are approaching year-end together as a family, scarred yet stronger than ever, our glasses full.

Little wonder the wines that make my top 10 in 2021 are those I have found to be the most alive and the most joyful. They are the pours that have renewed my energy, topped up my hope tank, or celebrated the present moment. They are the wines that have been so beautiful as to remind me there is always a reason to smile.

Scroll down for Clare Tooley MW's top 10 wines of 2021 [subscriber-content] California’s rich diversity While the California brokers’ wine shelves have been emptier than most years, there has been quality. And I’ve been enthralled as usual by California’s rich diversity, enjoying such rarities as a Souzão from Lodi as well as an Arneis and a Roussanne from Paso Robles . I’ve spent more time in Paso than ever before and fallen down the rabbit hole in love again with its wine.

Four of my top 10 of the past year come from this rather special Cali-true region. Thacher’s own-rooted Chenin Blanc from the Paso Highlands District is a balancing act of stone and fruit, stunningly vibrant and appetising. Epoch’s wines are mastercrafted and I’ve chosen its Syrah from the Paderewski vineyard for its sheer gourmandise and energetic charm. Equally joyful and generous is the Adelaida Pinot Noir from the heritage HMR vineyard as well as J Dusi’s powerfully elegant Zinfandel from the Dante Dusi vineyard.

Other unique wines from named vineyards such as Paper Street , Sycamore and Sangiacomo and sub-AVAs such as Coombsville and Stags Leap District have enthralled me, and several from these singular places feature in this year’s top 10. I have yet to travel any real distance, cautious still in this pandemic world, but with Napa and Sonoma on my doorstep I’ve revelled in their class and hedonism and thoroughly drooled over the wines of Favia , Staglin, Freemark Abbey, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars , Chappellet, Trefethen, Schug and Vérité.

Including just three from my stellar backyard in the line-up feels a little uneven perhaps, but I have no qualms in allocating one of the spots to Vérité 1998, a wine I tasted just a few of weeks ago for a Decanter at Home masterclass . It is the estate’s inaugural offering; a rare and true beauty with tannins like cashmere.

White wonders – and a momentous sparkling I greatly enjoy white wine and feel it is often overlooked in favour of red, playing second fiddle even to rosé. Five of my picks have been allocated, therefore, to some seriously good – heartlifting in profile – white wines.

In the case of the Thacher Chenin from Paso Robles and Château Le Coin Sauvignon Gris from my Bordeaux home, it's their vibrating acidity that resonates with me. There is almost a hum as they thrill the palate and refresh the psyche.

The Staglin Chardonnay from Napa Valley elegantly straddles the divide between buttery oak and simple orchard fruit to deliver a satisfying, ripe, toothsome elegance. And finally, Altos R's Pigeage white Rioja is a masterpiece for sure. Utterly moreish, nascent yet complex – a wine to live for.

Seven years a California resident, I am a European still by accent and dining hours. My top 10 for 2021 therefore inevitably includes a French and Spanish offering and – hooray! – an English sparkling. Had I had more room, I would have listed Steven Spurrier’s charming, lightfooted, chalky, perfumed Bride Valley Blanc de Blancs , as it marked an historically celebratory occasion at the Judgment of Napa tasting and lifted my spirits along with its bubbles.

My finest fizz, however, must go to Windsor Great Park Vineyard 2015, the bottle I opened in the early morning of February 2021, following the call from the Institute of Masters of Wine to give me the news I had worked a decade to hear, that I was, at last and forever more, a Master of Wine. It was delicious, at a truly delicious, top 10 life moment.

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