The list of my favorite wines of 2023 begins and ends with my visit to Manuel Valenzuela and Bodega Barranco Oscuro in the mountains of the Sierra de la Contraviesa.

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Wine

Unrecognizable wine expert is meticulously swirling long-stemmed glass filled with red wine, evaluating its characteristics with skill and precision in the ambient setting of a wine cellar surrounded by numerous bottles.

The list of my favorite wines of 2023 begins and ends with my visit to Manuel Valenzuela and Bodega Barranco Oscuro in the mountains of the Sierra de la Contraviesa in the region of Andalusia by the south coast of Spain. At over 1,300 meters, these are the second highest altitude vineyards in all of Europe. It was the middle of January. The nights were cool. The days were warm. The vines were sleeping.

One afternoon, Manuel made us a beautiful lunch, which he served with a bottle of his 2002, Bodega Barranco Oscuro, Cerro Las Monjas, 1368, a blend of grenache, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and merlot. The fantasy name of the wine, 1368, refers to the altitude of Manuel's highest vineyard. With more than 20 years of bottle aging, the wine was complex, juicy, and earthy, with an ineffable energy.

Manuel is a mentor, a guide, and a model to winegrowers across Spain and around the world who dedicate themselves to the same proposition he dedicates himself to. A proposition which stands counter to wines cultivated with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides and vinified with sulfur, commercial yeasts and chemical additives. Which is to say, counter to the kinds of wines which saturate our markets, our society, and our culture. The proposition Manuel dedicates himself to asks us to grow and make and drink an honest beverage called wine.

Here is a list, incomplete, of my favorite wines of 2023.

Cavallotto, Barolo Bricco Boschis, 2019 Estimated retail price: $90

Barolo, the most noble wine of Italy. Barolo, with its structure, its tannins, and its capacity for bottle aging. Barolo, with its perfume, its minerality, its acidity and its longevity. Barolo, an ideal companion for the months of winter, but also lovely for the months of autumn or spring. Cantina Cavallotto is one of my favorite makers of Barolo, and the estate's Bricco Boschis is one of my favorite Barolo bottlings. Bricco Boschis is made from nebbiolo grapes cultivated in the village of Castiglione Falletto, which features the most complex soils of the 11 villages of Barolo. The wines of the village are as complex as its soils, and the 2019 Bricco Boschis is as serious as it is elegant, with an intense perfume, fine structure, and soft tannins.

Chateau Pradeaux, Bandol Rouge Le Lys, 2019 Estimated retail price: $35

Provence is the region of Bandol Rouge, a brooding, occasionally ferocious, and seriously age-worthy wine. Bandol Rouge is grownin small quantities in the limestone hills near the village of Bandol, east of Marseille and west of Toulon in the south of France. The wine is primarily made with a grape called mourvèdre, which yields small quantities of dark, tannic juice from small, sweet, black berries. The best Bandol estates use far more mourvèdre in their wines than the region's regulated minimum of 50 percent tells them to. Mourvèdre is what makes Bandol Rouge ferocious when young. Mourvèdre is also what allows Bandol Rouge to evolve into its cultivated beauty. An estate called Chateau Pradeaux is the standard-bearer for the appellation. Its flagship Bandol Rouge is composed of no less than 95 percent old vines mourvèdre, with grenache adding spice to the bouquet and leavening its structure.

The Chateau ages its Bandol Rouge for over four years in large wood barrels. But classic Bandols like these call for many more years of cellar aging. Chateau Pradeaux also bottles a Bandol Rouge called Le Lys, which is made from 85 percent young vines mourvèdre, along with grenache and cinsault, and aged for two years in large oak casks. Le Lys has the characteristic Bandol Rouge qualities of leather and tar, and the wine is serious and layered, but it's friendlier and juicier than the Chateau's flagship bottling. And its drinking beautifully right now.

A Tribute to Grace, Grenache, Santa Barbara County, 2022: Estimated retail price: $35 A Tribute to Grace, Grenache, Hofer Vineyard, Cucamonga Valley, 2022; Estimated retail price: $34

"A Tribute to Grace is Angela Osborne's love affair with Grenache," explains Bill Gardner, domestic wine portfolio manager of Left Bank Wine and Spirits. "Grenache in all its incarnations -- Grenache Noir, Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc. All of her wines are beautifully textured. They're soft, and they deliquesce beautifully. They aren't rustic, but polished and pretty. I would drink these wines every day if I could."And so would I.

Martha Stoumen, Nero d'Avola Mendocino County, 2021 Estimated retail price: $50

Bill Gardner describes Martha Stouman as "lovely, wildly intelligent, down-to-earth, and incredibly conscientious. And she just exudes all of that in the least pretentious way possible." The beauty, depth, and elegance of Stoumen's wines reveal themselves to you inexorably, bewitchingly. The more you taste them, the more you fall in love with them. None more so than her Mendocino County Nero d'Avola.

Jolie-Laide, Trousseau Gris Fanucchi-Wood Road, Sonoma County, 2023 Estimated retail price: $31.99

Jolie-Laide translates to "Pretty-Ugly," which is how the French fashion world describes somebody or something of unconventional beauty. Scott Schultz is the founder of the winery, and he and his spouse Jenny are its winemakers. The texture and freshness of Jolie-Laide shine through all of their wines, but my favorite is the Fanucchi-Wood Road Trousseau Gris.