Fine wine and spirits 2025 > USA

 

USA in 2025

Published: 13th December 2024

LONGER READ

 

There’s more to the USA than California, and there’s more to California than the Napa Valley. Our range of American wines is more diverse than ever before and is constantly growing. Get to grips with the latest developments and the names to seek out.

 

Key developments in the USA Piedmont

 

Close working relationships

The direct-to-consumer model used by many top California wineries has historically made it difficult to find many of them outside the state, let alone the country. Most famously, this took the form of mailing lists: big-name, low-volume estates would operate a list of customers who would be offered first refusal on the latest releases. There are stories of it taking years, if not decades, to secure a place on some of these lists. There’s typically not much of these wines to go around at the best of times, but this invariably meant a limited supply beyond long-term collectors and deep-pocketed speculators. More recently, producers have welcomed the idea of working with dedicated wine merchants like us to bring their wines to a wider audience of passionate collectors – the sort of people that will savour drinking these wines one day. Some of California’s most exalted wines, the likes of Harlan Estate, Dunn Vineyards and Heitz Cellar, have traditionally been difficult to find outside the USA. We’re delighted to be working closely with these and other top estates to offer you the chance to buy on release and age these wines yourself.

 

Style shift

In the not-too-distant past, there was a prevailing style for red wines in California (and beyond) – specifically the full-bodied, full-throttle style favoured by the critic Robert Parker. The approach to making wine here has changed, with a much greater emphasis on elegance and freshness rather than extraction and power. But the perception among wine drinkers and collectors hasn’t necessarily kept pace. There are some wonderful wines to be found from California’s cooler climates, for one. Where Napa has become known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, the likes of Sonoma County are producing bright, elegant expressions of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. And even those Napa Cabernets are not quite what you might think; the style today is much more considered, balanced and harmonious than it once was. Some of the best examples, such as those from Heitz Cellar, would make a very suitable alternative to top red Bordeaux.

 

01: Harlan estate wines are widely renowned and highly sought after
02: Heitz Cellar, one of the leading pioneers of the region since its creation in the late 1950s

 

La Place de Bordeaux

Another major development has been the adoption of Bordeaux’s distribution system by a growing number of American wineries. Opus One, the joint venture between Baron Philippe de Rothschild (of Château Mouton) and California pioneer Robert Mondavi, was the first such name. Now, there is a growing number of top-tier Californian and Oregonian wines offered for release in September as part of the La Place de Bordeaux offer. You’ll find the likes of Maya from Dalla Valle Vineyards, Quintessa, Peter Michael Winery, Chappellet and more.

 

USA: what to do in 2025

 

Explore new producers

Our Buyers have built up an enviable portfolio over the years. In California, we’re incredibly proud to work with such leaders as Au Bon Climat, Harlan Estate, Occidental and Promontory, to name just a few. And in Oregon, we’ve been champions of the likes of Nicolas-Jay and Lingua Franca for some time. We’ve recently welcomed some fascinating new names into the fold, too. Heitz Cellar has been a notable player in California since the 1960s, known for its decidedly elegant, almost Bordelais, style. We’ve also added Ink Grade, Heitz’s sibling estate on Howell Mountain; it is early days for Ink Grade as a standalone project, and we’re very excited to watch it all develop. Also on Howell Mountain is the iconic Dunn Vineyard, whose dense, long-lived Cabernet Sauvignon wines are perfect for laying down. If you’ve had enough of Cabernet, though, try the wines of Joey Tensley – a specialist in Syrah and a colourful new addition to our range.

 

03: Promontory, owned by the Harlan family, make high-altitude wines
04: Ink Grade brilliantly represents the Howell Mountain terroir

 

Join our West Coast tasting

It’s not always easy to find opportunities to taste American wines in the UK. We’re delighted to be organising our inaugural West Coast USA tasting next April, where we’ll be showcasing the breadth and depth of our American range. Top producers including [Heitz Cellar, Joey Tensley and Nicolas-Jay] will be there, each demonstrating the unique character of their wines.

Explore back vintages

BBX, our fine wine exchange, is a great place to find hard-to-come-by cases of mature American wines. There are some wonderful cases of Oregon Pinot Noir to be had – a delicious alternative to red Burgundy, and a world apart from the Cabernet Sauvignon-based reds of Napa. The 2016 and 2018 vintages in particular are well worth exploring.