The Fizz Top Wines of 2023

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

There were some bottles that played a starring role in my life in 2023. This roundup features wines that helped me remember why I love wine so much anyway and what makes it special. Are these the “best” beverages? I don’t think I, or anyone really, can speak to that. The best well-made wines are the ones you love, that take you back to a memory or a place, that bring out feeling with powerful flavors and interesting textures. These are some of the wines that hit home for me this year, that carried a memory or brought sunshine and surprise to my life.

Enlightenment Wines “Memento Mori” Dandelion Wine

The wines and meads Raphael Lyon makes at Brooklyn’s Enlightenment Wines make me think of my family and my culture. When I was growing up, using herbs and teas and flowers, various alcohols and vegetables—that was part of your everyday experience with wellness. Enlightenment Wines include honey, herbs, and flowers to tell a story about tradition, homeopathic medicine, community, imagination, connection to the land. This dandelion wine is made with foraged flowers, wildflower honey, and orange peel. It reminds me of my childhood. These are the kinds of wines I want to be exploring more of in 2024. Read The Fizz interview with Raphael here.

chëpìka Concord Pet-Nat

Concord freakin’ grape. As a New Yorker, this wine hit close to home for me. Concord from New York State, masterfully vinified by Nathan Kendall and Pascaline Lepeltier at chëpìka in the Finger Lakes. This wine was a huge hit at the second Maine Wild Wine Fest, a natural wine festival I put on every year with Devenish Wines. I poured the chëpìka wines for an hour or so at the ‘fest, and this Concord was singing. Almost everyone who tasted it was taken aback, moved to a memory from younger days. The wine is super aromatic, jumping out of the glass with grape flavor—when you think of what a grape tastes like, you may as well think of this exciting sparkling wine, a testament to what’s possible with our own local grapes. Read The Fizz interview with Pascaline Lepeltier here.

Pouring chëpìka at Maine Wild Wine Fest

2020 Matthiasson Ribolla Gialla

This bottle was a huge surprise for me. Ribolla Gialla originates in Friuli, and precious little of it is planted in the United States. I got it from a Matthiasson wine club shipment. This was a holy-moly wine for me, lightly fermented on the skins and bursting with aroma and flavor. Melon, pear, lemon curd, and nuts—this wine is made for a late spring or early summer meal with tons of beautiful acid and a lovely fullness. It’s a wine that made me remember why I love wine so much in the first place—it’s history, culture, nature, imagination and possibility. It puts a sparkle in the eye of a wine lover.

2020 Caroline Morey Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru “Les Champs Gain”

I drank this wine with my fiancee at Cave Madeleine in Beaune, which is somewhere you should absolutely go if you’re visiting Burgundy. The wine list is impeccable and varied, the food is simple but deeply satisfying, and the small and inviting space is perfect and not touristy. This Chardonnay from Caroline Morey is exactly what I crave from white Burgundy. It’s precise, on the lighter side, slightly reductive, lemony, with a lovely amount of new oak that doesn’t overtake the wine. A beautiful, happy wine perfect for day drinking!

2019 Domaine Guiberteau “Epieds Les Chapaudaises”

When in the Loire this year, my fiancee tried to get a reservation at Guiberteau at the last minute and the man on the phone rightly laughed at us. We ended up picking up this bottle of their fantastic Cabernet Franc at the local wine shop and drank it on the patio of our incredible Airbnb in Joué-lès-Tours, with a lentil and chanterelle stew we made from farmer’s market ingredients and a trip to a tiny grocery store where a very sweet older lady gave a thumbs up at every choice. I was just getting over the flu and finally starting to feel like myself again. This excellent and super aromatic Cab Franc, fruity with a lovely tannin structure jumps out of the glass.

2020 Ferme Des Sept Lunes “Chemin Faisant”

We were the first ones there when La Buvette opened. There was no music playing. We ate succulent white beans in olive oil and sourdough bread. We drank this spicy and peppery Saint-Joseph Syrah from Ferme Des Sept Lunes out of small glasses on tiny chairs. We were escaping the Paris crowds and cigarettes and scooter honks. It was perfect.

Syrah at La Buvette

La Garagista B Loup No.1 Rancio Sec

I love oxidative wines, and this La Garagista x La Montañuela collab is exactly the sort of thing I want to be drinking. The wine speaks to longevity. It makes you think about the variable of time and sun in winemaking, and creates connections from Vermont to Spain, Italy, Georgia, and Slovenia. This wine makes you think about what is possible in the United States, what our own traditions can look like, and the incredible freedom winemakers have here to find inspiration and act on it. It’s powerful, sunny, floral, and deep. The wine is a triumph. Read The Fizz interview with Dierdre and Camila here.

La Grange Aux Belles “La Belle Adoree”

We bottled our first real vintage of wine in late March in our kitchen, in a spur of excitement. It was an assembly line set up of bottle sanitizing, filling, corking, and labeling. We were sticky and covered in juice. We somehow scratched the tile on the floor of our kitchen. After a shower, we popped this bottle I’ve long had in my wine fridge—the 500ml Chenin Blanc “La Belle Adoree” from La Grange Aux Belles. Oh man, I love a Chenin Blanc with botrytis. This wine was aged in barrel for two years before release, a gorgeous sunflower yellow, tasted like liquid sunshine. More of this kind of wine in 2024.

The color of this Chenin? Stunning.

2018 Sis and Mae Steelhead Run Applegate Valley Syrah

American Syrah is a huge interest of mine, and I’ve had some fantastic ones this year from folks like Stolpman, Ellsworth Wines, and others. There’s an incredible Syrah movement happening in the United States right now. If you’re an editor reading this, please let me write about it. If you make Syrah in the US and you’re reading this—please reply to this newsletter and let me know! This savory, peppery, earthy yet gentle Syrah from Oregon winery Sis and Mae shows off Oregon’s cooler-climate Syrah prowess. A real treat.

What were some of your favorite wines of 2023? 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.