The World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection 2024 has officially been unveiled! We have some exciting news about our 2019 La Longa Sangiovese… It’s been announced, our ’19 La Longa is one of the wines in the first World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection, revealed in London, earlier in January (2024). The announcement followed a meticulous tasting process, carried out by an international panel of expert sommeliers.
On 16th January, thirty of the world’s most renowned sommeliers traveled from all corners of the globe to the UK to take part in the world premiere of the World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection, an exclusive tasting from William Reed, the name behind The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and World’s Best Vineyards. Producers were invited to submit their wines into this unique tasting that guarantees their wine is presented to some of the most acclaimed palates in the world. The final selection will serve as a useful tool for on-trade professionals all over the globe to seek out peer-recommended wines.
Representing four continents and 16 countries, the sommeliers invited onto the panel are globally acclaimed, with many featured on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The panel tasted wines submitted by producers from all over the world in order to make their final selection. Sommeliers from restaurants such as Disfrutar (Barcelona), Central and Kjolle (Lima), DiverXO (Madrid), The Jane (Antwerp), Quintonil (Mexico City), Alchemist (Copenhagen), and Gaggan Anand (Bangkok) came together in the UK to take part in the tasting. See the full list of sommeliers involved here.
What they said about our 2019 La Longa Sangiovese
“What a perfume! Uber-clean, precise fruit; black tar, roses, bright red cherries and red plums. So enticing, the grippy tannins so typical of Sangiovese are beautiful integrated though judicious use of small and large format oak barrels. The elegant weight of this would complement lighter courses such as guinea fowl. With a lack of Australian benchmarks for the variety Sangiovese, in 2017 Mark embarked on a plan to do just that. The resulting ‘La Longa’ wine being created from Sangiovese clones sourced from Montalcino and vinified using both new, small format barrels and older large casks where the wine is matured for two years. The wine sees a further two plus years in bottle before release. The 2019 vintage is the third release.
A gorgeous and beautiful perfume. Very clean, precise fruit; black tar, roses, bright red cherries and red plums. Ripe, plush fruit is a touch out of balance with the acidity. Dynamic and vibrant palate, expressive tannins are beautifully integrated and grippy. The elegant weight of this wine could accompany lighter courses such as guinea fowl or duck where it wouldn’t swamp the flavours and textures. Duck bao buns with hoisin sauce would pair nicely with the plum-forward flavours.”
The World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection 2024 is available to view here, accompanied by the sommeliers’ extensive tasting notes and food pairing recommendations.
The worldsbestsommeliersselection.com provides sommeliers from all over the world with a great place to source interesting wines for their wine list in the knowledge that they have been specially selected by their peers. The website also offers the unique functionality of being able to search for wines based on terroir (eg. high altitude, cool climate), seasonality and food pairings opposed to the traditional filter of grape varieties.
Andrew Reed, Managing Director Wine and Exhibitions at William Reed, comments:
“We are delighted to bring this exciting new venture to the William Reed portfolio. The World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection gives exceptional winemakers the opportunity to present their wines exclusively to top sommeliers from across the globe. This tasting is unique on so many levels, but for the producers who submit, one of the biggest attractions is the guaranteed audience. The sommeliers had the opportunity to listen to and enjoy the stories behind each of the wines, meaning they were able to truly appreciate the narrative of each bottle.
I think the World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection website will be an invaluable source of information for all sommeliers all over the world and we are thrilled by the positive feedback that we have had from the sommeliers that took part; we are already looking forward to the tasting in 2025!”
What Mark Walpole says about the wine
The 2019 La Longa Sangiovese is a testament to patience. We have explored a series of names that pay tribute to the 36-month process of aging the wine, inspired by the Italian terms used in music. Settling on ‘La Longa’, as its the Italian word for a long note: “A longa is a musical note that could be either twice of three times as long.”
The wine spends two-to-three times longer in oak than most other Australian-made red wines…36-months to be exact. The wine has great depth structure, and complexity, while retaining an elegant, medium-bodied palate with lingering fine-grained tannins. Brambly dark berries, sour cherry and plum with nuances of dried herb on the nose.
Further information
The World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection is brought to you by William Reed, the company behind The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and World’s Best Vineyards. During the tasting, the sommeliers had access to the backstory and videos for each wine. The panel provided tasting notes and food pairings for every wine.
The sommeliers were then able to discuss the wine and come to a consensus decision on whether the wine would be included in the World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection 2024. Highlights from the event can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/@worldsbestsommeliers