The Fizz Top Wines of 2024

A roundup of the wines I treasured this year and what they meant to me.

Looking back on the wines that meant a great deal to me in 2024, and reading through my 2023 roundup, it’s interesting to see how much has changed with my own drinking habits over the course of a year. I used to be a daily drinker. I’d have a glass of wine with dinner every day, head to the bar for something interesting or comforting, and pop something when friends came over. In the last year, I’ve pared it down to around three drinks per week, not because of any Dry January-type effort or murky Surgeon General warning, but mostly because more and more often, I find myself less interested in trying wines that I’m not super excited about—and I have less opportunity as I no longer work behind the bar. These days, if I’m going to pop a bottle, it has to be one that I can’t wait to open, one that has piqued my curiosity with an interesting grape, region, or way of creation, one for whom I’m willing to risk a bit of a headache in the morning.

I’m not sure what this says about where I am in my wine-loving life. Maybe I’m in a rut. Maybe I need to get out there more and surround myself with more folks who are making magic. Maybe I should go to more trade shows. Maybe I just need to drink more water. Either way, there were fewer wines to choose from this year, but happily, a strong selection still meant a lot to me. These may not be the “best wines” I’ve had this year, whatever that means, but they are the wines that help me look back on 2024 and remember it fondly. I’m happy to share those wines with you:

2017 Domaine Du Pelican Arbois

We drank this soft, nutty, and absolutely sensual wine on our very fancy honeymoon dinner in Scotland at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie. I put on a slinky dress with heels and did my hair, which as many close to me know is quite the rare occasion. We had the first reservation and were just one of two tables in the restaurant, slinking into the soft couch seating. The wine couldn’t have been a better fit for the evening. Jura wines have an oxidative quality that I can’t get enough of. This Chardonnay had a little age and was full and luscious, almondy, floral, and a little salty. It felt luxurious and homey at the same time. I still think about it.

La Garagista ‘Vinu Jancu’, Vermont

I have a soft spot in my heart for La Garagista wines. Not only is Deirdre Heekin is a dedicated mentor to many New England winemakers, a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture, a celebrated winemaker, but she’s a tastemaker. Deirdre has been working with hybrids in Vermont for almost twenty years. She has painstakingly created her own vision for these grapes, and the way she wants to tell their story. This wine is made from skin contact La Crescent, a grape I also grow and am just starting to get to know. It’s textured, mineral, honeyed. Drinking a wine from a winemaker I look up to, from a grape that I exist with in my own winemaking—there’s inspiration in that. It feels like my world is opening up.

Eve’s Cidery ‘Essence’, New York

A wonderful ice cider from the Finger Lakes, I love how the apple does not take a backseat to the sugar content. It’s rich, sweet, with lots of baking spice and apple-pie flavor, but still zippy and wonderfully crisp. I indulge in sweet wines often. They call out to me with joy! Sweet wines are fun, delightful, and absolutely heartwarming. Beautiful ice ciders are doubly that. The best of them feel mischievous, like I’m in on a little secret. This wine is wonderful after dinner, paired with a rich snack, or just on its own, especially when the weather is starting to cool.

2021 Frenchtown Farms ‘Cotillion’

Maine Wild Wine Fest was in May! I tasted what seemed like hundreds of wines during the fest weekend, but this 50/50 Grenache/Syrah blend really had some shine. Cara and Aaron Mockrish of Frenchtown Farms make wines that always stand out. There’s love, dedication, hard work in these bottles. Cara and Aaron work with own-rooted vines in North Yuba, California in the Sierra Foothills. They’re surrounded by mountains and an incredible diversity of soils. This wine is bold, textured, spicy, with deep dark fruit. It’s a wine that makes you stop and think. I drank it with joy, at an event that I co-organized, with the winemakers beaming, surrounded by their biggest fans.

2018 Domaine Luneau-Papin ‘Clos Des Allees’

This silky Muscadet was one I’d been keeping in my long-storage wine fridge for a couple of years. I don’t remember what we drank it with, but I do remember opening it. Every once in a while, if I feel that I haven’t tasted a wine that blew my hair back in a bit, I go to the wine fridge and pull out something that’s sure to do one of two things—either comfort me or inspire me. This wine did both. Melon de Bourgogne is one of those grapes that feels like, in a perfect world, would thrive in Maine. Our climate is cool, our abundance of shellfish is begging for a salty zippy beverage, our summers by the coast would delight in such a local grape. The Clos Des Allees instantly transports me into a what-could-be-if frame of mind. It’s a wonderful vehicle for daydreaming.

2019 Marcel Lapierre Morgon

This is a wine I’ve had many times in many vintages over the years, but I’ve never had it quite like this. After we said our “I do”s and had dinner with our friends and families at Tops’l Farm, I changed out of my wedding dress and into fleece overalls. We bade our families good night and took our friends down through the field to the campfire. Wrapped in blankets, we sat under the stars and I poured this double magnum of Lapierre into ball jars, tipsy from the earlier Cremant du Jura poured with the meal. We laughed and laughed. I’ll never forget it.

2014 Domaine De La Borde, Vin Jaune

Dare I put two Jura wines on this list? So I dare! This Savagnin leans salty with a wonderful richness and nuttiness that makes me immediately reach for a Ritz cracker and a cornichon. The fresh salinity and minerality in these wines is eye-opening to me. There’s a “I didn’t know wine can taste like this!” sense of wonder that comes over me every time. When a wine is steeped in culture and tradition, in sense of place—terroir—there’s a magical quality to it that dilates your pupils. It has its own language, it’s telling you something about the people who make it, their passion and their art.

2018 Flowers Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast

I ordered this wine for the table on someone else’s corporate card at a steakhouse for a tech company dinner. The only non-meat option on the menu was a beet salad. I ordered it. This was one of those restaurants that had only a couple of American wines on the list, and I was thrilled to see this Flowers Chardonnay. The conversation meandered from recent metrics to revenue goals to why super wealthy people no longer send their kids to college but prefer to hire world-class tutors on every subject. I felt my head start to spin. I pored over my own hypocrisy in being a part of the corporate world, contributing very little substance to humanity for a secure means of paying my bills. I savored this Chardonnay and spoke to its cultivation on the Sonoma Coast, to its passionate winemaker Chantal Forthun, to the curious microclimate of this region, and how much the whole thing means to me. After the bottle was finished, I excused myself back to the hotel. I left that job a couple of months later.

2018 Ferraton Pere & Fils ‘Les Miaux’

Ah, Marsanne! Lush, rich Hermitage begging to be drunk on a biting cold evening. This was one of the last wines I opened in December, and thoroughly enjoyed with friends over dinner. It was a wine that stopped conversation, one I had to snap out of to force myself to focus on company. Stewed pear and apple with rich honey and almond, this wine is luscious and wonderful. Looking back at the list above, it’s fairly clear the kinds of wines I tend to gravitate to and get excited about. These wines feel both comforting and sexy. They’re full and abundant. They’re mysterious, hiding something I long to find out. This Marsanne epitomizes how I want to feel when drinking wine. I hope to encounter it again.

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What were some of your favorite wines of 2024? Why did you love them? Let me know by leaving a comment below or replying to this email. I hope everyone has an incredible start to the new year! Thank you so much for following along with me.