Most of the wine world was happy to wave goodbye to 2017, a year of vine-killing frosts, hail, drought, and destructive wildfires in regions from California, to Chile, to Europe. Looking forward to 2018 is not only a relief; it’s exciting, because the year is full of promise. There will be new experimentation, exploration, and the continuing of trends we enjoyed from last year.
The rosé juggernaut, for example, keeps crushing it. With U.S. sales up 57 percent in dollars, our must-drink-pink obsession continues and is even fueling interest in rosé cider and pink gin. And thanks to adventurous younger drinkers thirsty for novelty and affordability, enthusiasm for obscure native grapes, especially from Italy, is still growing fast.
Here’s what I see in my crystal glass for 2018.
Big bottles will be huge
The popularity of wine in magnums (the equivalent of a double bottle) and other large formats seems to track the stock market; when stocks are up, so is big bottle demand. In the U.K., wine retailer Majestic reported a 378 percent increase in sales of affordable supersize bottles last year, at its 200-plus stores.
The trend started with oversize bottles of rosé poured in Saint Tropez, and in 2017 Aldi supermarkets launched inexpensive jeroboams (4 bottles) of prosecco in the U.K. for Christmas.
For those craving luxury wines, Domaine Clarence Dillon (which includes first growth Château Haut Brion) recently launched an online retail site dedicated to sourcing and selling large formats of everything from Beaujolais to Champagne to whisky. A Balthazar (16 bottles) of the polished, syrah-based 2014 Domaine de Montcalmès from the Languedoc is €479; for €15,600 you can have a Salmanazar (12 bottles) of the truly fabulous 2005 Château Haut Brion.
But don’t think too big: the outlandish Melchizedek of Champagne—the equivalent of 40 bottles of fizz—has been known to spontaneously explode.
The year’s hot spot will be Spain
So many regions are poised for attention, it’s hard to single out only one. The Republic of Georgia has captured the hearts of the natural wine crowd, Madeira is on the verge of a moment, Croatia beckons, England is already there, and I’ve been impressed by new avant-garde wines from cool areas of Australia and Chile.
But I predict we’re about to rediscover Spain. Popular culture evidence? Rachel Lindsay, star of the romance reality TV series The Bachelorette, took her final suitors to “romantic” Rioja last summer for a wine tasting in old caves, grape stomping, and a helicopter tour of vineyards.
Seriously, though, a new generation of vignerons is bringing change to every region there, including classic Rioja, and creating reds and whites from such places as Ribeira Sacra and the Gredos mountains with character and quality at bargain prices.