Wine of the Year:
Plantagenet, Great Southern (Western Australia) Chardonnay 2007 ($21, Imported by Old Bridge Cellars): I’ve got multiple reasons for choosing to honor this wine, not the least being its indisputable deliciousness and outstanding versatility with food. It hovers near the line 
dividing medium- and full-bodied wines, showing satisfying richness but also a lot of freshness, lift, and linear energy. There’s a core of fruit recalling ripe peaches and baked apples, with a zesty edge of citrus lending definition and cut to the finish, which also shows a subtle mineral undertone. Light enough to flatter a simply prepared fish fillet but sufficiently gutsy to work with scallops or grilled tuna or–for that matter–white meats like pork or veal, this is an exemplary wine at the table as well as a deeply satisfying sipper.
Another reason for spotlighting this wine is the sad fact that Australian wines have suffered unfairly from a down-market shadow cast by the mass-market phenomenon of Yellow Tail. This is an especially cruel fate for Western Australia, which made a heroic effort to raise its profile in the USA to a level commensurate with its excellence about four or five years ago–right before everything went to hell for Aussie wines in this market. The level of quality being attained in the various appellations in Western Australia is truly remarkable, and the wines deserve the close attention of anyone with a fair mind and a keep palate. Just in case you think that the Plantagenet 2007 might be a one-hit wonder, try Cullen Wines, Margaret River (Western Australia) Chardonnay “Kevin John” 2007, which scored 98 points in one of my recent tastings and is one of the five best New World Chardonnays that I’ve ever tasted. It rings up at $75, which will give you pause, but it also out-performs most Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines from Burgundy and Chablis.
Wine Producer of the Year: Paixar (Bodegas y Vinedos Paixar, Bierzo, Spain)
The remote region of Bierzo is tucked up in the mountains in the northeastern corner of Castilla y León, and few places are making genuinely great wine anywhere near this far from the 
beaten path. Bierzo remains nearly as obscure as its top indigenous variety, Mencia, but the best Bierzo renditions of this grape are the most exciting wines now being made in Spain. In my opinion, the best of the best is Paixar, a wine springing from a joint venture between Alejandro Luna and Eduardo and Alberto Garcia (sons of Mariano Garcia, famous for his work at Vega Sicilia and his wines from Bodegas Mauro, Maurodos, and Aalto). Paixar is an expensive wine, but it is also stunningly intricate and harmonious, and early vintages such as the 2001 are still developing, with no sign of getting anything but better for another decade.
The most recent release of Paixar is the 2008 ($100, imported by Grapes of Spain), and even at this young age it is remarkably complex, which is in turn attributable to its outstanding proportionality: No particular element overshadows the others. The wine shows subtle floral 
aromas akin to those one might find in Barbaresco or Côte-Rôtie, followed by fruit notes that run red as well as black, recalling cherries, plums and blackberries. Oak influence is apparent but subtle, with toasty, spicy notes and a bit of grip from wood tannin in the finish, but the fruit easily counterbalances the oak. As if this were not enough, the wine shows an almost palpable minerality recalling wet slate and graphite. Finally, its texture is almost as interesting as its aromas and flavors, seeming soft thanks to the ripeness of the fruit, but also focused on account of ample acidity and very fine-grained tannin. It is in a league with the world’s very best red wines, and in that context it remains very fairly priced–for the moment. The word is getting out on these great wines, and the day will come before long when they fetch prices much higher than those we’re seeing today.
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