The Wine Year in Review

The world of news is, by definition, about strange and unusual happenings, and this year was no exception.

Fiercely fought elections, royal weddings, Brett Kavanaugh mentioning that he likes a beer and devastating hurricanes dominated the US news headlines this year, while fresh political upheavals and migrant issues dogged Europe.

It was more a case of the old faithfuls in the wine world, with one spectacular exception, which was the curious case of the Sommelier Scandal (and that became so big it came to be written with capital letters). That issue dominated proceedings here at Wine-Searcher for the past three months, since news broke in October that 23 candidates – who had passed the final tasting exam and qualified for the coveted Master Sommelier pin, a record number for a single year – had had their wins expunged and would have to resit the exam.

The reason? One of the MS mentors had apparently emailed the supposedly "blind" list of wines appearing in the final to at least one of the candidates. All hell broke loose in the sommelier world – well, at least that part of it beyond the purview of the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas (who were in charge of the whole debacle). The Court remained far too aloof and dignified to actually condescend to answer any questions about the scandal. Nothing to see here folks, please move along. 

In the rest of the big stories to emerge this year, it was a case of trotting out the old favorites – literally in some cases. Three old stories (from as long ago as 2013) kept cropping up this year, as external forces impacted on Wine-Searcher's readership. A 2015 feature about the famed Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was among the top 10 most-read stories of 2018, a testament to the venerated domaine's rarefied wines.

The other two old stories to re-emerge were a feature on the Super Tuscan Tignanello from 2016, which was revived after increased interest in the wine surrounding the royal wedding of Prince Harry to the Tignanello evangelist Meghan Markle, while the third story was possibly more interesting. Our story about Kim Crawford and his endeavors after selling the brand bearing his name to Constellation has been popular since it first appeared in 2013. And every time Constellation runs an advertising campaign for Kim Crawford wines in the US, readership of our story also rises dramatically. It would be the perfect "advertising works" yarn, but for the fact that the actual story everyone clicks on after seeing the ads is all about Crawford's Loveblock range of wines rather than Constellation's Kim Crawford wines.

But in our more current stories, there was also a vein of familiarity. Interstate shipping of wine was a major issue for our readers, with the story developing over the year from one where carriers were refusing to accept wine for shipment and were actually destroying consignments of wine shipped by retailers, to a situation where a series of court cases against restrictive practices have blossomed across the country. It's still very much a live issue and one we confidently expect to see more of in 2019, especially with a major Supreme Court hearing due in January.

Fraud raised its ugly head again this year, with a massive scam uncovered in France that saw some 50 million liters of cheap bulk wine labelled as Côtes du Rhône and a further 10,000 liters labeled as Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Also Hardy Rodenstock, the man behind so many – ahem – questionable bottles of wine over the past few decades went to meet his maker in June, thus reducing the workload for fraud investigators across the globe.

Probably the saddest fraud story of the year, though, was the sorry tale of some of those who unknowingly bought wine from Premier Cru's ponzi scheme. The lucky ones who managed to get refunds for wines ordered but never delivered suddenly found themselves subject to an action brought by a bankruptcy trustee, who sued to recover some of the refund moneys.

Fires were again in our thoughts this year, as California ignited again. While the wine country escaped this time, the human cost was devastating. But it continued a major trend among Wine-Searcher readers: an obsession with California wine. Stories about the state's Cabernet glut, development in Napa, and the possibility of smoke taint in some wines this year were magnets for readers, who don't seem to be able to get enough news about the US wine industry's engine room.

And possibly our favorite story of the year here at Wine-Searcher was also a tale often told – the relationship between critics and the wine industry generally. Instead of critics outraging producers with their views on their wines, this time it was a producer giving an opinion on the critics.

The tale of the disgruntled Bordeaux winemaker emerged when, in a moment of wine-inspired clarity, the producer listed the critics who frequently attend Bordeaux tastings in a manner more associated with the wines themselves. He was certainly frank, describing various critics as lacking humility, integrity and even basic wine-tasting abilities. The biter bit, indeed.

And for all the fun we have had this year, there was, as always, a more sombre side to proceedings. Once again we lost some giant names in the wine industry. The names of some of them are listed below.

January:  Rudy Buratti, winemaker at Castello Banfi, Tuscany, aged 56. Bruno Giacosa, Barolo and Barbaresco legend, 88.

March: Nicolaus (Nicky) Hahn, founder of Hahn Family Wines, Santa Lucia Highlands, 81. Robert Haas, influential wine importer and co-founder of Tablas Creek Winery, 90.

April:  Leonildo Pieropan, owner of Pieropan winery in Soave, 71.

May: Leslie Rudd, founder of the Rudd Group of wineries, 76. Koerner Rombauer, founder of Rombauer Vineyards, California, 83.

June: Eric Albada Jelgersma, Dutch owner of châteaux Giscours and du Terre in Margaux, and Caiarossa in Tuscany, 79.

July: Pierre-August Clape, leading light of the Cornas appellation in the northern Rhône, 93.

August: William Patrick Foley III (Pat), winemaker, Foley Johnson Winery, California, 31.

September: Guiseppe Rinaldi, Barolo winemaker, 70. Kent Rosenblum, founder of Rosenblum Cellars, winemaker in Alameda, California. Ulises Valdez, renowned vineyard manager and winery owner in California who started as a vineyard laborer, 49.

October: Bill Coors, former chairman Adolphe Coors Company, 102.

November: Al Frediani, grapegrower, Frediani Vineyard, Napa Valley, 96.

December: Albert Frère, Belgian billionaire, co-owner of Cheval Blanc in Saint-Émilion, 92.