Josef Leitz Eins Zwei Dry Riesling, Rheingau, Germany 2013 (£13, Salut Wines; £14.99, Laithwaites) Was 2014 a vintage year for wine? For Europe, the proof will come in the tasting next spring. When it comes to how wine was bought and sold in the UK, 2014 saw consolidation of the trend towards specialist independent merchants – with a flurry of new openings, it’s never been easier to find interesting bottles in a high street near you. Many newcomers double up as bars or restaurants, so you can try wines like the superbly incisive Eins Zwei Dry Riesling by the glass at Manchester newcomer Salut Wines for £4.90 before you commit to taking a whole bottle home.
Vinhos de Altitude Beyra Branco, Beira, Portugal 2012 (from £9.70, Noel Young Wines; Bottle Apostle) Another French region on the up this year was Muscadet – many sommeliers looked to wines such as Vincent Caille Part du Colibri Muscadet 2013 (£11.95, Caviste) and Domaine des Cognettes Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie 2013 (£9.95, Roberson Wine) as tense and saline, wallet- and seafood-friendly alternatives to grand cru Chablis. My choice for best-value wines of the year: Beyra’s fennel-flecked, limey Portuguese white, and the sumptuous, spicy Bodegas Juan Gil Pasico Old Vine Monastrell-Shiraz 2013 from Jumilla in southeast Spain (£6, Sainsbury’s).
Champ Divin Pollux Chardonnay Savagnin Côtes du Jura 2009 (£17.20, Tanners Wine) 2014 will go down as the year when eastern France’s Jura – with its small producers, funky nutty whites and piercing, earthy reds – cemented its position as the hipster’s wine region of choice, a must-list at any would-be fashionable new restaurant. Champ Divin’s Pollux offers a relatively affordable sample of the Jura’s sherry-meets-burgundy sous-voile (aged in barrel under a veil of yeast) style of white. Domaine Tissot’s Arbois Trousseau Singulier 2013 (£27.95, Berry Bros & Rudd), meanwhile, is a haunting, red-cherry and redcurrant-scented example of Jura red.
