In the “Recent Wines” articles I publish each month I always stress that the wines I include are not the most expensive, smartest and poshest wines but the wines I find most interesting, and hopefully thrilling. This means you might get a supermarket Refosco next to an Overnoy Savagnin next to a bottle of Dom Pérignon, all of which really did get drunk at home last year.

Following the same rule my wines of the month are the ones I found the most thrilling. Sometimes, they are the first wine I drank from a new producer, when you get that incomparable feeling of “oh boy, this is good!”.

You just have to remember that I am not afraid to let a degree of subjectivity enter the equation, but then you don’t read me for white coat analysis and points out of 100, do you! If I was going all “wine competition” on you then perhaps I’d be hard pushed to justify every one of my choices, but on the grounds of wines that really made me sit up and take notice, I certainly can.

We do see a few regions cropping up more than once. Czechia and Alsace get a couple of mentions each. England gets three, perhaps a first but why not? Despite my deep love for the Jura, I have perhaps not gone overboard on their inclusion in previous years. I think 2024 blows any such restraint out of the water. I even had more Juras screaming to be included, including a wine from one of my producers to watch in 2025, Maison Maenad/Katie Worobeck (see my Review of the Year, published 30 December). In an attempt at just a bit of variety, there’s a Burgundy, both a Mosel and a Moselle, one wine from Oregon, and a Piemontese to complete the team.

JANUARY:

Cabernet Franc 2022, Mira Nestarcová (Moravia, Czechia)

One of my winemakers to watch for 2025, all of Mira’s wines are at the very least on a level with her famous husband’s. Unpruned vines, dark-fruited concentrated zippiness here. One of four cuvées imported by Basket Press Wines, around £30. They are all wonderful, but I would also recommend the Sauvignon Blanc. You’ll be surprised.

I also want to give a shout to Artefact 2021, Castlewood Wines (Devon, England). Luke Harbor (Pig Hotels) is behind this amphora Bacchus collaboration, and it surely wins best packaging for both the bottle shape and label. The most recent label is even better, but the wine is really good too, which is what counts.

FEBRUARY:

Beaune 1er Cru “Les Grèves” 2015, Le Grappin (Burgundy, France)

Andrew and Emma Nielsen continue to deliver some of the best value wines in Burgundy and this white Chardonnay from one of the often-unloved Premier Crus of Beaune itself is no exception. Forty-five-year-old vines, six barrels made so gently (no lees stirring etc), salinity galore, depth, a bit of texture…this was magnificent. My last bottle of three, purchased direct as a primeur. Now circa £60, I think.

MARCH:

Chien Noir/Chat Blanc 2021, Lambert Spielmann (Domaine in Black)(Alsace, France)

Always get a Lambert in, I say. Rising star Spielmann has a few hectares mostly around Epfig. Pinot Auxerrois off clay, the juice was infused with Pinot Noir skins from the previous vintage for a week before pressing. Think cranberry juice with strawberry and raspberry, refreshing, definitely exciting. Imported by Tutto Wines, this one purchased from the much-missed Noble Fine Liquor.

APRIL:

Promised Land Riesling Brut Nature 2017, Charlie Herring Wines (Hampshire, England)

Whether Tim Phillips’s 2017 Promised Land is better than the 2014 I drank very recently I’m not sure, but traditional method Sparkling Riesling of this quality is hard to find in Germany, let alone England. Four years on lees, minimal sulphur, at this stage it’s for acid hounds like me, but of course the acid backbone is far from all there is to this wine, which is also as delicate as the frost on my drive. Emotionally, my favourite Charlie Herring cuvée. Try Solent Cellar, Les Caves de Pyrene, or one of Tim’s open days.

MAY:

Chardonnay 2021, Jonas Dostert (Mosel, Germany)

Jonas is a star among rising stars of Germany’s wider Mosel region. German Chardonnay can be much underrated but this was just so good. Large used oak, almost zero intervention (minimal sulphur only if needed), this balances poise and charm with just the right amounts of freshness and fat on the bone. €28 from Feral in Bordeaux, Newcomer Wines began importing Dostert this year but I’m yet to see the Chardonnay in the UK.

JUNE :

Elbling “Roches Liquide” 2022, Racines Rebelles (Moselle, Luxembourg)

Kaja Kohv farms the opposite slope over the river (though in Luxembourg) from her friend, Jonas Dostert, which is indirectly how I came across this talented newcomer who worked with Giaconda (Beechworth, Vic) before Abi Duhr, Luxembourg’s best-known vigneron. Elbling is a totally maligned variety, but the key to Kaja’s is low cropping old vines and long lees-ageing (likewise Dostert’s Elbling, which I think may be available in the UK). For lack of traditional complexity, it makes up for with appley freshness and total glou. €24 from Feral Art & Vins, Bordeaux.

June also gives a shout to Morgon “Courcelette” 2010, Jean Foillard (Beaujolais, France), perhaps the most remarkable of the Foillards I glugged and sipped-through in 2024. We drank some genuinely great wines for our anniversary (a significant one) but this was my favourite. Now, for the current vintage, it will probably cost you around £40, still a relative bargain.

JULY: A tie, I’m afraid. I can’t separate these two

Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Blanc 2022, Kelley Fox Wines (Oregon, USA)

Kelley’s Willamette Valley wines are among my favourite in North America. We so often see her Pinot Noir cuvées lauded, but I have a real soft spot for this, one of the finest Pinot Blancs in the world. The soils (marine sediment) play a big part, as does Kelley’s intuitive winemaking. There is also a sensual quality to this wine (maybe the hints of tropical fruits). As it opens, not too cold, it builds a surprising degree of complexity if you let it. Imported by Les Caves de Pyrene.

Dark Horse Brut 2022, Petr Koráb (Moravia, Czechia)

Petr Koráb so often seems to provide the best petnat of the year, and we also have another Czech wine, which only goes to illustrate what most wine buyers are missing when they have none on their shelves. In fact, I’m beginning to think having one or two Moravians is the sign of a wine shop at the cutting edge…and increasing numbers are onto it. This is a red petnat, blending Amber Traminer, Karmazin (aka Blaufränkisch) and Hibernal, showing zesty red fruits and a bit of an edge. Quite intense, a petnat with attitude. Basket Press Wines imports, good luck in finding any.

AUGUST: In holiday mood, I’m going to mention three astonishing wines. The second and third are famous, the first is for me in the same class. All come from a region (Jura) I first visited in the 1980s but which has since become so famous that many of its wines are beyond my pocket, even when offered for sale to mere mortals.

Vin Jaune 2015, Domaine de La Loue (Port-Lesney): Catherine Hannoun is an exceptional winemaker and, from what I have been told, an exceptional person too. This is the first VJ of hers to pass my lips. The most elegant one I had drunk in quite a while, I’d say. Having suffered “significant grape theft” in 2023 (cf Wink Lorch, JWTYO p64), Catherine deserves our support.

Savagnin Arbois-Pupillin 2012, Domaine Houillon-Overnoy (Pupillin): This is beyond world class, a sensational wine on any table, among any lineup, but not for the narrow-minded. A long list of found ingredients would clog the page, the level of complexity immense. Almost certainly the finest wine drunk in 2024.

Vin de Paille 2011, François Mossu (Voiteur): Alexandra is the talented public face of the domaine these days but for the sake of nostalgia it is wonderful to still be able to drink the remarkable straw wines of her father, the “Pope of Vin de Paille”(said to be retiring but still there, behind the scenes). Chardonnay, Savagnin and Poulsard inhabit this half-bottle, turned by the magician’s hand from mere grape must into essence of fig, nutmeg, curry spices and ginger (and more).

All of these wines will be very hard to source in the UK now, in our post-Brexit reality. If you have deep pockets, you may be lucky.

SEPTEMBER:

“Lamilla” [2016], Cascina Borgatta (Piemonte, Italy) 

Emilio Oliveri and Maria Luisa Barizzone have farmed at Tagliolo Monferrato since the 1960s and are now in their 80s. Their now reduced domaine of just 2ha of vines dates from the 1940s to 1960s. Old vines and old-fashioned wines, as with this concrete-aged Dolcetto. Sold as a table wine, this is rich and complex, and also a chunky 14% abv. Only released when deemed ready, quite unique. From Cork & Cask, Edinburgh via importer Modal Wines.

OCTOBER:

Ortega Tradition 2023, Westwell Wines (Kent, England)

This is one of Westwell’s more inexpensive wines, yet it is among the very best value wines made in the UK. Why does this beat off a selection of very good wines from super-obscure regions and countries to take the accolade for this month? Because the essence of this wine is purity and its single purpose is to bring a few moments of joy in a glass, and for less than £20. Adrian Pike has surreptitiously worked wonders here, simplicity at its very best without frills. We even drank another on Christmas Day, among the four bottles I took to a big family lunch. Also from Cork & Cask, this time via Westwell’s agent Uncharted Wines.

NOVEMBER:

Quand Le Chat N’est Pas Là 2021, Domaine Jean-Pierre Rietsch (Alsace, France)

Pinot Gris off the sand and limestone of Mutzig’s Stierkopf, whole berries macerated nineteen days (giving colour) in J-P’s Mittelbergheim cellars, aged in foudre, zero added sulphur. Quite delicate, a lovely ethereal nose of red fruits, and with 12.5% abv, so balanced. Around £30, Cork & Cask smashing it again, imported by Wines Under the Bonnet.

DECEMBER:

Crémant du Jura “Indigène” Extra Brut, Domaine A&M Tissot (Jura, France)

I first met Stéphane Tissot when he had just returned to his parents’ (André and Mireille, hence the domaine name), taking over winemaking in (I think) 1990. He was introduced by a proud mother and father because he’d been working some vintages overseas when few if any Jura folks did. He’s since become one of the region’s most famous sons. His range is big, but this traditional method sparkling wine (50% Ch, 40% PN with 5% each Poulsard and Trousseau) was at the time (disgorged June 2018 after six years on lees) given a prise de mousse from Vin de Paille must instead of a sugar solution, a practice no longer carried out by Stéphane and Bénédicte. Rich, nutty, very complex (some wood ageing). Today the same cuvée will cost around £45. Try Shrine to the Vine/Keeling Andrew occasionally, Gnarly Vines, or The Sampler.

So, rather more than twelve wines of the year. This list gives only a tiny glimpse of the breadth of my drinking. I don’t set out to be obscure but I am a voracious devourer of the unusual and quirky, and by my standards the wines listed for 2024 are quite “normal”. It’s always frankly almost impossible to choose a single wine from each month, as looking back for this article shows me. That said, I’m proud to be able to recommend all of these wines. The classic, posh, wines I drank in 2024 will have plenty of advocates without me.

I avoided naming a single “Wine Book OTY” in my Review of the Year, but here, as I intimated earlier, the WOTY (short drum roll but no interminable pause like you get on opiate television) was the Houillon-Overnoy Savagnin from 2012, drunk and worshiped in August. I’ve no idea if or when another wine from this legendary address will pass my lips, but even “infrequently” may be a touch optimistic. I won’t forget this one in a hurry.

Stay adventurous.