Wine with Meg + Mel

Our Top Wines of 2024

• Season 4 • Episode 31

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Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to Wine with Meg and Mel. I am our girl, christian, my master of wine, meg Brotman. And welcome to our final episode of the year. Can you believe? I can't believe.

Speaker 2:

I know it's been a fractured year. Oh my god. I mean I can't believe that we actually got the number of episodes done that we have done Oops, microphone's falling apart. So I think hats off to you for managing to do it around breastfeeding and crying babies and pooey nappies and walking babies, and we've done it Well done you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and well done you. You've been doing courses and exams.

Speaker 2:

Well, no, but we've done it well done you, yeah, and well done you.

Speaker 1:

You've been doing courses and exams, well no, but you know I don't have anyone else distracting my time. I just ignore my children. Now they're at a good age. You can ignore them. They're grownups now, uh. So, um, I tell you what. Though I was listening to the early episodes, I can't believe she was just a little newborn and now she's like.

Speaker 2:

Now she's sitting up looking at us providing a laugh track, as Mel just said, to what we say.

Speaker 1:

She learns how to. When other people laugh, she does this funny like oh, I meant to laugh too. So she's our laugh track. She's a people pleaser. She is Well, as always. Our last episode is our top wines, our top picks of the year. Yep, we will get there, but first, meg, what have you been drinking?

Speaker 2:

So I had a 2010 Vina Tordonia Rioja Reserva. Wow Lots of words. Yes, lots of words. So Rioja, spain, 2010,. So, 14 years old, I had bought a few and they'd been hit or miss. It had been a 50-50 split on what was good and what was drinkable just drinkable. But this was actually really lovely. It showed what Rioja could do.

Speaker 1:

They're all on the same case. Yeah, how was that a hit or miss? It's the cork. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:

Had a couple of cork ones, but just a couple of dried out ones. You could see the cork had failed a little bit. Yeah, it was really lovely. I mean I don't know what I paid for it, but I was actually really impressed and I'd forgotten how. It's kind of like Russian roulette with these old wines, so you just don't know what you're going to get so it's a little bit exciting.

Speaker 1:

That is kind of fun, except that you have to pay for every bottle.

Speaker 2:

No, I know, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Yeah, life's like that. Love drugs, see. Thanks, billie. All right, what's your fun fact? Okay, so we talked about this a few weeks ago about safe level of drinking. So the World Health Organisation has come out and said that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption and they've said in this article the science is complex and well covered elsewhere. But even if you accept there is a tiny risk, it is laughably small. Professor David Spiegelhalter, emeritus Professor of Statistics at Cambridge, has said of the widely quoted study on which no safe level is based, the Lancet study means 25,000 light drinkers need the annual equivalent of 400,000 bottles of gin for one serious health problem among them each year. And it just goes to show that you can skew statistics any way you want. I'm not saying that you should all go out and get drunk every night, but moderate consumption of something like wine alcohol, which has shown to have particularly red wine health benefits, is fine, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I, in my head, think that we should stop even just saying that red wine has health benefits, because you can get that other places. Like I feel like it's a stretch. Don't you think you can buy resveratrol? But the thing is, you know, I just think we accept, don't we accept it in the same way we accept chocolate. Yeah, and it's you know, know, it's like we mcdonald's yes has no health benefit whatsoever.

Speaker 2:

Yes, exactly, and we well, true, we, we know that. Look, I just think the scaremongering is enough that we, as a wine industry, wine industry, should just stand up and say drink in moderation, drink really drink, really well, enjoy, relax. You know it's part of your cultural life, just drink in moderation.

Speaker 1:

People are Like culturally I actually I guess I don't really represent, I don't hang out with people that abuse alcohol really but like it just feels like at least culturally people don't really go out and get super pissed and stuff anymore, like no, even statistically, not just in my circles, and they sure as shit don't do it on wine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't know if my, if my, teens, 20 year olds, are pre-drinking, which is a thing now. Um, oh, it's always been a thing. You mean, it's a thing now in your house? Well, no, it wasn't a thing when we oh, I did pre's. Yeah, booze wasn't that expensive in the pub. Oh, really, like you could get a jug of beer for $15. So we didn't need to pre-drink. Oh, I did pre's in my day.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we didn't need to pre-drink. I know it is a thing on spirits, man, they are not doing it on wine. Yeah, I guess that's an age thing as well. All right, top ones of the year. Um, so I think I go first, okay, so that the drum roll can be for your top one. So I'll do number 10. My number 10 is the mdi.

Speaker 2:

Pick a lit I had that on my short list.

Speaker 1:

Oh, did you. Yeah, it was so good.

Speaker 2:

It was good. It was good.

Speaker 1:

It was almost like a natural winey textural orange.

Speaker 2:

It was cool. Yeah, it was lovely wine and I just love the texture. I like the packaging. If I remember, it was in a clear bottle, which you know now in hindsight. Hey, if the taste worked then, and also as long as it's fast moving and you know it's not been sitting on a shelf forever, yeah, I thought that was a great wine yeah, 29 bucks.

Speaker 2:

It was like a natural wine type vibe, but it's not a total natural wine and if it pleased meg broughtman, it must be good and when I was scrolling through, looking at all the wines that we did and that caught my attention and I wrote it down on my short list, I was just thinking, god, I'd love a glass of that now with some sausages, or just a sausage in a bun, like proper sausages, sausage, that's so random.

Speaker 1:

I want a bowl of chippies. I know, okay, that was number 10. What is your, what's yours? So this will be number nine.

Speaker 2:

So the Horton White Classic that we did a few weeks ago, the what a few weeks ago makes their blended whites, oh yeah, I just thought, was it $10? It was cheap. I just thought, good on you, it was something that I would happily go out and buy a dozen of and I'd serve it to my mates. And you know, it was balanced, it was refreshing, it was light bodied. It's perfect summer drinking. Yeah, I just thought it was really really yummyied. It's perfect summer drinking.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I just thought it was really really yummy that was really yummy okay all right, yeah, just something that's an australian classic, um, and not too expensive yeah, no, I can't love it because they can't all be expensive.

Speaker 1:

No, well, all right. My next one is 10 minutesutes by Tractor 2022, chardonnay Bang. How good was that?

Speaker 2:

All those wines were amazing and all those maps and everything they sent.

Speaker 1:

So I was re-listening to the episode this morning. You're like this collateral is so nice. I love this flyer. Look at this map.

Speaker 2:

So cute.

Speaker 1:

And then I go and then I'm like Meg, it's an audio platform.

Speaker 2:

You can't just keep talking about it, and I actually think the people from 10 Minutes by Tractor contacted you or me saying we've got more of that information.

Speaker 1:

The funniest thing you said you go oh, mel's going to put them on the Instagram. I'm like I'm not going to put pictures of their flyers.

Speaker 2:

They're collateral on the Instagram. The Mel's were fantastic. Those wines are great. I mean, he can do nothing wrong honestly. Oh my God, it was amazing. The wines are beautiful and that's you know. A few weeks ago we were talking about Sense of Place with Chardonnay and, I would argue, pinot, and that is just a beautiful wine, so much anchored from where it's from.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and.

Speaker 2:

I mean it's not cheap. No, which one did you go?

Speaker 1:

for Was it the older one? No, the newer one, the 2022. Oh, so I preferred remember, I preferred the older one, you preferred the older one, I preferred the newer one, and that was like 89.

Speaker 2:

And it's really good when that happens, because we get to take them home.

Speaker 1:

We take home our preferred one. Yep, yep, all right, what's yours? Oh, so my next.

Speaker 2:

You just sat back with your wine like ah, you've got a hundred jobs to do.

Speaker 2:

The next one was that Moum 14. So the four years on Shit, that was good, that was so good. So thank you to husband, he doesn't listen, it's one of his wines and I do have to replace it. I just thought I've never really been a huge fan of Moum and I think that I've underrated them, and I think we said it was just over a hundred and something dollars at Dan's. I think it was available at Dan's. Four years on yeast leaves just beautiful, like if you want to do a splurge on champagne and you want something with lots of character, I would recommend going out and getting that you and I often recommend them.

Speaker 2:

more growers, more crisp styles, a Chardonnay-based style, but I thought well done. You can see why it's a global behemoth, really why it's such a big brand. Yeah yeah, so very, very delicious.

Speaker 1:

And I actually think for what it is like it's. It's what I mean. They haven't put too much of a price premium on the age, so that's cool, okay, my next one is and going off. Remember how we said that we liked different ones. You liked the older one and I liked the younger one of the Chardonnay when drumroll. 2021. Etna Bianco, villa de Baroni. Oh yes, oh no. Ico, villa de Baroni oh yes, oh no. I've put the 2021 here. I actually the older one was the one that I was fighting. I didn't know which one to put down because the younger one was $60, and I thought that was amazing value and if you're going to buy one, I think you're going to buy one. The other one was $100. The other one was $100, the older, older one. And that was where we differed you liked the younger one and I liked the older one yeah, and I just think for the price difference.

Speaker 2:

Um, yeah, I'd rather drink, yeah, fresh, and that's what I like about those etna whites. Is that crispness, um, but it was interesting. I liked the older one. It was interesting to try an older one, but I would still. It's a wine for me that should be enjoyed in its youth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, fair enough it was just a philosophical difference. I think With wines we struggled to put words, to which I think is always a good sign.

Speaker 2:

Yes, if Mel's lost for words and there's something really good going on in the glass. And, to be fair, me too.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it's not like we're short on opinions here.

Speaker 2:

You're so shy. Okay, what's next? My next one was the Yarra Yearing 2021 Pinot. I was hoping you'd do a Yarra Yearing, so I'm not going for the big reds, mainly because it's $130 and I just think Yarra Valley Pinot can be a little bit sort of bunchy and trendy at times and I just think that Sarah's making a style. That is from where it is from. Yeah, okay, and not the best Pinot site in the world. Yeah, but really, really solid, beautiful pinot. $130, that is a lot. It's a lot. I'd love to see how it ages and I just think hats off for making you know a pinot from what people associate with a dry red site.

Speaker 2:

So that's part of the viticulture team. I think the amount of work that they do there and I just, yeah, I thought that and the Chardonnay were both really good, but I went the Pinot.

Speaker 1:

If I was spending my money, I would be getting the Chardonnay yeah.

Speaker 2:

I've got the Chardonnay at home.

Speaker 1:

Actually, I've got a Chardonnay here too. I'm going to stay there soon next week. To stay there soon next week. Why the homestead? Oh, did you for fun with some friends? Yeah, okay, um, I'm next. So I'm actually I'm down to my last two and I'm like which one do I make my top? I think I've decided, um, okay, my top, my second top top. So this is technically. Number four Is Valsch Welsh Riesling. It is that on your listing.

Speaker 2:

That was my number one.

Speaker 1:

Oh, no, okay, well we can pick the same wine, can't we? I mean, that makes it pretty good, to be honest.

Speaker 2:

You go, you tell me about why you liked it.

Speaker 1:

Because when we went back through it once again, we really struggled to put words to it. When I first smelt it, I was like it smells like a curry and you were like it is, it's curry leaf. And we ended up saying lime, honey and curry and we were like it's weird. And I just love wines that aren't what you expect.

Speaker 2:

Yep, and it was $40 from. I mean that's like an LUC price, so maybe $60. I was the same with you. There were two wines in that tasting. There was the Welsh Riesling, but also the Muscat Autonel, yeah, which I thought was.

Speaker 1:

The Muscat Autonel was really good too. Yeah, that was a really good wine.

Speaker 2:

So can we do that as a dual second, even though that was my number one. Okay, okay, that can be a dual one. Dual second yes, so now my number two. I thought you would have picked a pit. Now a perfect day. You remember the orangey natty one?

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, no, that was fun, but I already did my one, the Vellic.

Speaker 2:

Velsch Riesling 2021. Yeah, it was awesome $. Yeah, it was awesome, $40. All right, so I'll do my number one now. This is your number one. So it was the 2022 Sabi Wabi Semi from Hunter Valley. No way, really. No-transcript. That was good. Dull regions, not dull regions. What was it called? Dull hot regions? No, it was a cool wines hot regions? No, it was. Anyway, it was about, you know, a lot of the Riverland and some of the cool stuff that they were doing up there, and I'd previously had the Sabi Wabi Semillon at Young Guns of Wine Tasting and I was blown away by it. It's not like super out there Semillon, but it was just a really nice iteration of what Semillon should be and I, just having tasted some recently this week Hunter Semillon, it just is such a great wine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh, I want to have it again now Do you remember how much it was? No, I didn't write down the price.

Speaker 1:

I'll look it up because I really want to try it again now. I think it's $34.

Speaker 2:

$30 to $40. Okay, I mean it differs quite a lot.

Speaker 1:

What did we have? The $22?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we had the $22.

Speaker 1:

I want to try it again now. I've kind of forgotten it, yep.

Speaker 2:

Okay, it's a female woman winemaker too.

Speaker 1:

That's cool, okay, so now it's just up to me to finish it off. So what are you? The Mel Gilchrist is oh, I'm reading, okay, I've got your quote here. This is what you said about it A stunning beauty without makeup is what you said about it a stunning beauty without makeup is what you said about this wine. Can you guess, can you?

Speaker 2:

guess the variety? Um well, it can't.

Speaker 1:

It can't be chardonnay, because makeup on, so be riesling it's a riesling, it's the howard park riesling, but it's the one from 2018. That was amazing. It was southern, so good, so it wasn't expensive 45 dollars, meg, and I just like I know that I hang shit on you when you talk about riesling, and now I've done this, um, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite, but the like I just think about riesling, it's like, oh yeah, oh what, you're a dwan, you like riesling?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I know, but see um. But it is the thing about riesling is. It comes in so many iterations you could never get. It's like Paris. If you're bored of life, what's it say? If you're bored of Paris, you're bored of life. If you're bored of Riesling, you're bored of life. There's so many versions of it in the world. It never ceases to amaze and impress me.

Speaker 1:

Just the aged styles. They make me melt. They could make me cry. I listened back to this episode and I was speechless and you were having to speak for me because I was having like a moment.

Speaker 2:

God Mel speechless.

Speaker 1:

That is amazing I know, so that's my top one of the year. Thank you, Howard Park sent us that one as well. So thank you, Howard Park, for that one. All of the ones I mean. We have such a diverse list here, so I think that's awesome. We will be putting up this list on our Instagram. Definitely go revisit them, because we tasted some brilliant wines this year. Look, that's all for us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I just want to say we introduced Wine News this year for the first time and my people, the feedback that I've got from people is that they love it. Yeah, and I was a bit worried that well, they just want to hear us talk about wine. But I think even people who aren't in the wine industry like to hear not only what's going on in the news but an opinion on it. And we are opinionated and we have got ourselves into trouble a few times, but that's all good because we, just as I said, keep questioning. Never take everything as fact. You're allowed to have your opinion. You're allowed to question what the gurus of the wine industry say. Yeah, and don't be afraid to do it.

Speaker 1:

I think it's great we're making people chat and if someone came in here today and said you were wrong when you said about that, you'd say cool, I'm interested to know what you think. Yeah, so I think that we should all just be talking more and just not accepting, because you necessarily You've got balls telling me I'm wrong, okay.

Speaker 2:

No, I yeah, I might sound like an arrogant wanker, but I can be wrong and I but I also have my opinion. No, but you accept it. I think it's good.

Speaker 1:

So, okay, the last thing I wanted to say is that when we first started, it was like we're going to do an episode on pin and one I'm going to do an episode. It was like explaining things. It was really simple. But you know, as time goes along, it just stuff gets harder and so, um, we're kind of stretching for topics all the time. So, definitely, let us know what you want to hear from us. Do you want to hear more one news? Do you want to hear more international? Do you want to hear more I don't know cheaper stuff, more expensive stuff.

Speaker 2:

It will really help guide the direction of the podcast for next year yeah, and I think that we don't want to be in our own bubble, so yes exactly important to hear what people want us to talk about. I'm just laughing because billy's been eating milo out of a cup, kind of and she's now developed a whole heap of freckles around her face that are my life.

Speaker 1:

She does too. She's found an old spoon.

Speaker 2:

That had Milo on it and she's gorgeous. And Billy Milo will be back at work. Are you saying goodbye? Merry Christmas? Oh, it's her first Christmas. Oh, my God, all the firsts when you're having a baby. I know she's Slytherin, if people want to know what house she's in, but we'll just leave that for another day.

Speaker 1:

She's ambitious, yeah, so next year it's going to be a shake-up again. We'll have to figure out how we record next year. I know We'll sort it out. Anyway, we'll be back in New Year's one way or another. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We will see you then. Enjoy your next glass of wine and drink well.

People on this episode

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Meg Brodtmann MW

Co-host
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Mel Gilcrist

Co-host