60 Sips, One Slight Hangover, and a Glorious Afternoon at Decanter’s Cellar Collection

There’s something wildly optimistic about telling yourself you’ll “pace it” at a wine tasting with over 130 producers and 21 iconic wines in the Cellar Collection. Add a few mates, a Saturday in London, and the grandeur of The Landmark Hotel, and suddenly… you’ve tasted 60 wines, your spitting technique has collapsed into denial, and you’re lovingly hugging an egg sandwich from M&S.

Welcome to the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2025. Or as I now call it: “Where restraint goes to die, and old vintages go to shine.”

The Venue: The Landmark London – A Five-Star Cathedral of Wine Worship

If heaven had a foyer, it would look like the Landmark’s Winter Garden. Palms in giant pots. Glass ceilings with golden light. And that buzz — a murmur of swirling, sniffing, and seriously opinionated chat. I spotted MWs, sommeliers, buyers, and more than one collector in a three-piece suit that probably costs more than my wine fridge.

But the real treasure was tucked just past the Grand Tasting rooms: the Cellar Collection. Soft lighting. Whispered tasting notes. Bottles from another time, poured by the people who made them. It’s less of a tasting and more of a pilgrimage.

Cellar Collection Highlights: The Wine Nerd’s Playground

This room wasn’t about “what’s new” — it was about what’s aged well. The kind of wines that make you stop mid-sentence and quietly mutter, bloody hell. A few of my top moments:

• Château Musar 1999 – Everything you hope for in mature Lebanese wine. Oxidative notes of dried fig, leather, and a whisper of tomato leaf. Funky in all the best ways.
• Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve 2016 vs 2019 – The 2016 (aged 9 years) was tighter, leaner — a disciplined gymnast. The 2019 (6 years old), More muscle, more flair. If these wines were siblings, one plays cello, the other races motorbikes. Both showed exceptional promise, but I’d lean toward the 2016 for its finesse and quiet confidence.
• Smith Haut Lafitte vertical – A Bordeaux geek’s dream. Magnums spanning 2000 to 2023. Watching the evolution of Pessac-Léognan fruit and oak integration over decades was like watching a time-lapse of someone becoming wise (and expensive).
• Royal Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos – Proof that Hungary knows how to sweet talk. Honey, apricot, marmalade, and just the right jolt of acidity to stop your teeth falling out. Liquid joy.

Personal Favourites – From My Vivino History (Yes, I Checked)

We did the rounds like pros…ish. And by “we,” I mean me my wife and two friends pretending we weren’t just here for the free glasses and tipsy selfies.

Collectively, these wines showed the power of both great winemaking and thoughtful cellaring. They weren’t just high scorers — they had personality, story, and structure.

• Nicolás Catena Zapata 2019 – A Malbec-Cabernet blend from Mendoza that drinks like Left Bank royalty on holiday. Bold, plush, perfumed with cassis and cedar.
• Finca Bella Vista Malbec 2012 – From Achaval-Ferrer. Mature, brooding, and velvet-smooth. Think dark chocolate and dried violets. My pick for the red I’d drink next to a fireplace while cooking steak.
• Macán 2023 – This Rioja collaboration between Vega Sicilia and Rothschild is a modernist’s Rioja: less vanilla oak, more graphite and structure. Youthful but ridiculously composed.
• Château Rauzan-Ségla 2016 – Margaux elegance at its finest. Polished tannins, ripe blackberry, pencil shavings. The kind of wine that makes you consider remortgaging for a case.
• Château Brane-Cantenac 2020 – Young but charming, with that classic Margaux elegance and a lift of herbs that made it hard not to love.
• Domaine de Chevalier 1995 – Still hanging in there with grace. Smoky, savoury, and full of old-school Graves character.
• Château Sirans 2016 & 2017 – Both vintages showed solid structure and balance. Not show-stoppers, but absolutely enjoyable in the moment.
• Ben Ryé 2023 – DONNAFUGATA – The star sweet wine of the day — and the most joyful moment. A lovely guy from the Donnafugata team proudly poured this Passito di Pantelleria like it was nectar from the gods. Sun-dried Zibibbo grapes turned into golden syrup laced with orange peel and saffron. This wine didn’t just sing. It belted out an aria. 4.3 ⭐ on Vivino and my top score of the day.

Tasting 60 Wines: Somewhere Between Study and Stagger

Around wine #40, your palate either enters a state of transcendence or collapse. I’m still not sure which happened to me. By that point, I’d given up on discreet spitting and was instead whispering sweet nothings to a bottle of Barolo.

Still, nothing I tasted was disappointing — just that the benchmark was sky-high. Even the bottles that didn’t quite crack my personal top five were seriously impressive. Rather than outshined, they felt more like brilliant supporting cast in an ensemble where every actor could lead the show. The consistency across producers was genuinely rare to find in a walk-around tasting.

Wines like Château Clinet 2019, Gaja Sperss, Lucente, Monteverro, and Barolo Sarmassa 2014 may not have taken centre stage for me, but they were full of character and quality.

Decanter did a brilliant job curating a line-up where the overall standard was so high that ‘just good’ still meant world-class. I’ve been to tastings that felt like a roulette wheel of hit-and-miss — this one was hit after hit after hit.

Final Thoughts: Why This Event Matters

Let’s be honest — most wine tastings are either trade schmoozes, awkward networking, or borderline chaotic Instagram bait. Decanter’s Cellar Collection is neither. It’s a rare thing: a space where the best wines are allowed to speak for themselves, across time.

You get to compare vintages. Revisit legends. Decide if you really need to shell out for that 2006 Barolo. (You do.)

It’s also a reminder that great wine is about evolution. Not every bottle peaks in its youth. Sometimes you’ve got to let the tannins soften, the acids settle, and the magic unfold.

Would I go again? Absolutely.
Would I maybe use the spittoon next time?
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Old habits — and good wines — die hard.

Cheers to good friends, great bottles, and one perfect day at the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2025.