New Zealand’s Greatest Vintage? Kiwi Wines Hit a Peak in 2024

The JamesSuckling.com tasting team rated 418 wines from six countries over the past week, led by none other than James himself, who is in New Zealand at his vineyard with tasters Kevin Davy and Andrii Stetsiuk working through about 700 samples from across both islands. They are deeply impressed by the beauty of the 2024 vintage – whites and reds alike. The wines show striking intensity and precision, the gift of a dry yet fresh season. Some producers reported slightly lower yields, but the quality in the bottle is outstanding.

“The 2024 vintage is one of the best I have made,” said Hiroshi Kusuda, the meticulous winemaker known for pristine pinot noir and syrah in Martinborough, near James’ vineyard. He added that 2025 looks very close in quality.

James is now traveling to Hawke’s Bay and Central Otago to meet key producers and discuss what made the 2024 growing season so exceptional.

At his small vineyard in Martinborough, the season was hot and dry, and the grapes ripened to near perfect. Yields were down about 20 percent, yet he hardly needed to sort any fruit. Indigenous fermentations were smooth, and both macerations and malolactic fermentations progressed naturally. “The wines made themselves,” James said.

Such across-the-board success is rare in New Zealand, yet that’s what James is hearing from top producers throughout both the North and South Islands. This will be a year to buy Kiwi wines – don’t miss out. Among the standouts in this report are Bell Hill, Felton Road, Bilancia, Kumeu River, Two Paddocks, Ata Rangi, Corofin, Bilancia and Blank Canvas.

One small producer that caught James’ attention this week was Chateau Garage, a micro-winery based in a garage in Napier City that is run by former Villa Maria chief viticulturist Ollie Powrie. After living for a year in Florence, Powrie fell in love with Italian wines and now crafts amphora-aged “Super Tuscan”-style blends of sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon.

There’s a lot happening in New Zealand right now – and it’s not just about millions of bottles of inexpensive sauvignon blanc. This island nation continues to deliver wines with character and freshness that only a cool-climate region can produce. And its producers are delivering perhaps the greatest vintage ever. Stay tuned.

Dreaming Big in Napa

Napa Valley winemaker Luc Morlet is a man with big dreams, and he has made many of them come true. Born and raised in France, Morlet worked his way into making great wines in Bordeaux and then in California for Peter Michael Winery and others. Morlet and his wife, Jodie Hauser Morlet, then steadily built their own substantial vineyard holdings and winemaking achievements over several decades.

Morlet’s 2021 cabernet sauvignons and cabernet francs especially impressed Executive Editor Jim Gordon. Jim tasted with Morlet and kicked the dirt in his estate vineyards in the Oakville and St. Helena American Viticultural Areas. These are among the last new-release 2021 cabernets you’ll see from Napa Valley, as most wineries have now also released their 2022s and have started 2023 vintage offerings.

The Morlet 2021s are among the highest-rated California wines in this report, and two of these are cabernet francs. The Morlet Family Vineyards Cabernet Franc Napa Valley Force de la Nature 2021 is a huge, powerful, full-bodied wine, and also the most expensive red on this list. This big beauty goes long on oak spices like espresso and dark chocolate but fills in beautifully with luscious blueberry and creme de cassis flavors. It is 100 percent cabernet franc.

The Morlet Family Vineyards Cabernet Franc Napa Valley Force Tranquille 2021 adds in 15 percent cabernet sauvignon, and the payoff is perhaps more complexity yet power that matches the Force de la Nature. Fascinating flavors of dried blueberries, coffee, Earl Grey tea and spearmint are carried on a suave texture.

Equally compelling is the Morlet Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Coeur de Vallée 2021. Complex, complete and creamy, it’s a single-vineyard, estate-grown wine from the Morlet property along Highway 29 in Oakville. Morlet pointed across the highway to To Kalon Vineyard, and just south to Jackson Family’s Cardinale estate. This gently sloping, meticulously manicured, vineyard with porous bale loam soil is in a great neighborhood!

Then at the Morlet winery northwest of the town of St. Helena, Morlet showed Jim the steep hillside vines, and together they tasted the Morlet Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley St. Helena Estate 2021 – a very high-quality wine that offers chewier, firmer tannins than the Oakville wines.

The tasting wrapped up with a mini-vertical of Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Coeur de Vallée. Jim called a tie between the structured 2020 and slightly mellowing 2018. In 2019, Morlet made 1,300 cases of Coeur de Vallée so it should be possible still to find some. The year is known for its lusciousness and drinkability in general and this wine is no exception.

Distinctively Spanish

In his tastings of Spanish wines, Senior Editor Jacobo García Andrade uncovered the depth of Spain’s diversity in its terroir, grape varieties and vineyards. From the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa to Bierzo in the north to Cebreros in the heart of the country near Madrid, these wines reflect distinct origins and traditions. Though many share a sense of approachability, their identities could not be more different. 

The Suertes del Marqués Listán Negro Valle de la Orotava Edición 2 2023 is made from the estate’s own vineyards in Valle de la Orotava, in Tenerife on the Canary Islands. It comes from the Chiribique parcel, which consistently yields particularly refined wines, and is a pure listan negro planted at an altitude of 380 to 400 meters, where the the northeasterly trade winds create a cool but not quite tropical microclimate. The vines grow on clay-loamy soils and are trained following the traditional and unique cordon trenzado (“braided cord”) system – where vines are woven together to form long, coiled arms from which the shoots emerge.

The wine is fermented with whole clusters and aged in a new 500-liter French oak barrel. It shows a nervy and floral profile, with bright red berries and a vibrant penetrating finish. 

Another wine that stood out for Jacobo was the Michelini i Mufatto Mencía Bierzo Post Crucifixión 2021, from what was a fresh and therefore excellent vintage in Bierzo. The wine comes from an exceptionally old vineyard in the village of Santalla, featuring a fascinating varietal composition – roughly half mencia with the remainder a blend of brancellao, merenzao, palomino and godello – that is more Galician than Bierzo in character.

The wine is made by Argentine winemakers Andrea Muffatto and Gerardo Michelini, together with their son, Manu, and it’s a truly distinctive expression of Bierzo: ethereal, immediate, mysterious and very approachable.

Finally, moving toward the center of the country, the Pegaso Sierra de Gredos Arrebatacapas 2022 comes from a 2.1-hectare vineyard in Cebreros (about an hour and a half west of Madrid). Planted in 1953 on schist soils and head-trained, the vines endured an extremely dry and warm vintage in 2022, yet this garnacha achieves a rare sense of harmony and balance.

– James Suckling, Jim Gordon and Jacobo García Andrade contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

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