Wow. It is the end of the second decade of this century and the beginning of the 20s decade. Will the coming 20s rival the roaring 20s of the past century and the 1929 crash or will it be something completely different?

My crystal ball is a bit cloudy on this subject but let’s hope that we will have some of the positives of the 1920s without the negatives!

In the world of wine what might we expect? At the top of my list is Burgundy (and here I have inside knowledge!). The great 2018s will start to arrive next year and as I said in my earlier article  (to read more about the vintage click here ) the 2018 Red Burgundies are the best wines I have ever tasted from barrel in the nearly 40 years that I have tasted Burgundies from barrel. But, without question, we will have more really lovely traditional wines from California that will also continue to be accompanied by many of the over extracted big numbers wines. This offers a dramatic choice for wine consumers and, for me, the choice is easy. They include wines from great traditional producers such as Ridge, Tablas Creek, Au Bon Climat, Mount Eden, and Bonny Doon as well as others and also a lot of lovely wines from newer producers such as Chanin and Tyler. And, by the way you can find articles on all of these producers on The UndergroundWineletter  website (simply use the search function to find the articles). Also there should be many other lovely wines primarily from France, Spain and Italy, but also from other areas of the world as well. One distinction might be the cost which may be exaggerated by European wines subject to US tariffs.  However, if there is a silver lining, it will be the increased value of wines in collector’s cellars which, admittedly, is small consolation for the higher cost of new wines. I would also like to think that there might be some insight into the subject of wine ingredient labeling and what is in wine. But, while I am sure it will happen one day, that event may be further down the line (to read more about why this is so  important and why The Underground Wineletter is different click here ).

So for 2020 I wish you a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. And, ring in the New Year with lots of Champagne which also just happens to continue as one of the great wine values in the world!