Innholdsfortegnelse for December 31, 2024 i Wine Spectator

Visit WineSpectator.com/123124 to find links to all of the following resources. TOP 100 WINES OF THE YEAR Join Wine Spectator senior editors as they discuss this year’s Top 10 in our annual video series. Plus, find matching recipes and in-depth articles related to this year’s Top 10 and scroll through wine history with our Top 100 lists back to 1988. And be sure to enter our sweepstakes to win the Top 10 Wines of 2024! FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS DAILY WINE PICKS Every day of the week, get a recently reviewed wine handpicked by our editors for its value, collectability or other wow-factor that makes it worthy of the spotlight. Visit WineSpectator.com to see each day’s pick, plus the full archive of these standout wines. HOLIDAY PARTY PLANNING We’ve recruited leading…

Five years after going public, Duckhorn will leave the stock exchange. Executives at the Duckhorn Portfolio announced Oct. 7 that Los Angeles–based private equity firm Butterfly has agreed to buy the Napa-based wine powerhouse for $1.95 billion. According to Impact Databank, a sibling publication of Wine Spectator, Duckhorn produced 2.6 million cases last year. The company (stock symbol NAPA) will become a private firm after the closing of the transaction. The deal was unanimously approved by the Duckhorn board. It includes a customary 45-day “go-shop” period until Nov. 20, during which Duckhorn may solicit and negotiate alternative proposals from third parties. Duckhorn is a leader in the U.S. wine segment’s luxury tier, focusing on brands priced $20 per bottle and higher. In 2023, the company’s top seller, Decoy by Duckhorn,…

American sparkling wine producers boast about their tête de cuvées and late-disgorged bottlings—and rightfully so, since they present the ultimate expression of the house style. But these rarefied offerings, which often fetch $100 or more a bottle, are not the producers’ most important wines. That honor is reserved for their non-vintage cuvées. “Your non-vintage is your bread and butter,” explains Roederer Estate winemaker Arnaud Weyrich. The Anderson Valley winery sometimes skips a vintage of its tête de cuvée, L’Ermitage, for that reason. “Even if it’s a good vintage, you have to hold back some of the best lots to keep your non-vintage to the standard.” That seems consistent with my recent tastings of nearly 100 sparkling wines from the U.S. for this report. In many cases, the non-vintage wines show…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 96 AUBERT Chardonnay Sonoma Coast UV-SL Vineyard 2022 $100 CALIFORNIA Complex, with a rich, aromatic mix of salted caramel, nutmeg and cardamom leading to plump, fleshy flavors of pear pastry and white peach. Mouthwatering acidity keeps everything light on its feet. COLLECTIBLE 96 PRODUTTORI DEL BARBARESCO Barbaresco Asili Riserva 2019 $90 ITALY This firm, fresh version is lean and well-defined, offering aromas and flavors of plum, cherry, earth, mineral and camphor. There’s a feeling of ripeness midpalate, before the tannins put their exclamation mark on the lingering finish. SMART BUY 91 EL ENEMIGO Malbec Mendoza 2021 $26 ARGENTINA Expressive notes of plumeria and orange peel make for an alluring entry to this version, which boasts a polished berry mélange core, with a subtle toasty cocoa bean thread underneath, plus…

Wine Spectator’s annual Top 100 encapsulates the world of wine. In 2024, that includes releases from a stellar 2021 vintage for California Cabernet and Tuscany, challenges for Bordeaux, familial succession and ownership changes. Each year’s Top 100 offers insights on both tradition and innovation in wine regions around the globe, from new trends and emerging players to familiar names achieving higher quality. Our editors blind-tasted nearly 10,500 wines during the past year, of which 5,765 rated 90 points or higher. This was our starting point for selecting the Top 100, evaluated for quality (based on score), value (based on price), availability (based on cases either made or imported into the United States) and, most importantly, the energy and story behind the wine, what we call the X-factor. This year’s list…

2023 1 Argiano Brunello di Montalcino 2018 ($90) | ITALY 95 2 Occidental Pinot Noir West Sonoma Coast Freestone-Occidental 2021 ($65) | CALIFORNIA 94 3 Château Lynch Bages Pauillac 2020 ($137) | FRANCE 96 4 RAEN Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Royal St. Robert Cuvée 2021 ($70) | CALIFORNIA 95 5 Mastroberardino Taurasi Radici Riserva 2016 ($73) | ITALY 95 6 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 2019 ($175) | CALIFORNIA 96 7 Antinori Chianti Classico Tenuta Tignanello Marchese Antinori Riserva 2020 ($50) | ITALY 95 8 Château Pichon Baron Pauillac 2020 ($165) | FRANCE 97 9 Résonance Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2021 ($40) | OREGON 94 10 Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2022 ($23) | NEW ZEALAND 95 2022 1 Schrader Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Double Diamond 2019 ($80) | CALIFORNIA 94…

As they reach their late 60s, many people contemplate their retirement: traveling the world, taking up new hobbies, checking off a bucket list. But for Richard Geoffroy, who retired as Dom Pérignon’s longtime chef de cave in 2018 at the age of 64, it was time to consider a different path—his third career. “I believe in successive lives,” Geoffroy says. “I’d been through a life in medicine, a life in winemaking.” It’s this instinct that led Geoffroy to leave Dom Pérignon with the intent to blend Japan’s signature beverage, sake, bringing his IWA 5 sake project to life with a force of will that attracted ready investors from Japan and abroad. “All life long, I’ve felt that I have to keep on, even if it’s not a quest per se.…

The reviews that follow are the on-release tasting notes for the wines of the 2024 Top 100. Ranking is indicated by the number in the red box to the left of each note. Prices given are release prices. The date in parentheses indicates the issue in which the wine was first reviewed. An overview of this year’s Top 100 and profiles of each of the selected wines begins on page 46. 1 96 Viña Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Puente Alto Vineyard 2021 $175 A remarkable effort that channels the finesse of the vintage with rich, muscular edges, offering a base of graphite and cassis notes that gather around elegant layers of dried rosemary and white pepper. The richly textured core of raspberry and plum flavors show precision and…

Over the past year, our editors blind-tasted and reviewed nearly 10,500 wines, with 5,765 achieving scores of 90 points or higher. From this impressive starting field, we began our search for the Top 100 most exciting wines of 2024, in order to ultimately declare our Wine of the Year. Beyond quality, we look at value (based on price) and availability (based on cases produced or imported). Finally, we consider the story, energy and importance of the wine—something we refer to as X-factor. Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year for 2024 is Viña Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Puente Alto Vineyard 2021, scoring 96 points and costing $175, with 5,000 cases imported to the U.S. It’s an impressive feat to produce a wine of this quality at such scale, with…

David versus Goliath; récoltants-manipulants versus négociants-manipulants; the great debate. Not sure what we’re talking about yet? For the average Champagne shopper, the dividing line between wines produced by récoltants-manipulants (known as grower producers, “small growers,” or RMs) versus the region’s négociants-manipulants (known as grandes marques, “big houses,” or NMs) is not a critical point of distinction. But for serious aficionados and those in the industry, it’s a much-discussed topic. Grower producers source grapes entirely from vineyards that they own, usually located in or around the village where their winery is found. “Grower fizz” is thus touted as more terroir-driven (versus négociant wines, for which fruit is purchased from different villages and subzones). But with fewer resources in terms of reserve wines and aging stocks, RM wines are more greatly at…

This Buying Guide contains ratings of new releases from around the world. Complete tasting notes are provided for new releases scoring 85 or more points (on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale, explained below). Hundreds of additional reviews appear each month on our website, www.winespectator.com. Each review carries the initials of the Wine Spectator editor who blind-tasted and scored the wine and wrote the review, based on the regional specializations indicated below. Bruce Sanderson Burgundy, Piedmont, Tuscany James Molesworth California Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, Bordeaux, Port MaryAnn Worobiec California Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, Australia, New Zealand Alison Napjus Spain, Italy, Champagne, South Africa Tim Fish California Zinfandel and Merlot, Oregon, Washington, U.S. sparkling wines Aaron Romano Argentina, Chile Kristen Bieler Rhône Valley and other France, Germany, Austria How We Do…

A Berry Good Vineyard OK, so James Berry Vineyard may not be one of the 10 greatest vineyards on our planet, but not one of the top 30? (Cover, Oct. 15) Absent the fact that the Wine Spectator editors in 2010 named the 2007 Wine of the Year, that the vineyard consistently produces wine earning Wine Spectator classic scores, and that the wait list for an allocation is approximately five to seven years, what does it take to make this list? Robert Hight Visalia, Calif. Data Dive I was recently reading through the article “Wine Is Healthiest Choice for Drinkers,” by Kenny Martin (Grapevine, Oct. 31), and I am hoping to get some clarification on the stats given in the article. The paragraph comparing drinkers based on the average daily…

It’s been three years since our pairing recommendations of triple cream cheeses with Champagne-style wines graced this page (see “Bubbles & Cream,” Dec. 31, 2021 - Jan. 15, 2022). So it seemed about time to revisit the topic from a similar but more expansive perspective. In general, sparkling wines that stop short of the bone-dry extra brut style of Champagnes work well for the simple reason that their modicum of sweetness deftly parries the salt in addition to whatever tangy or bitter notes shine through in the cheeses. The sweet/tart fruity flavors as well as any toasty, nutty or spicy notes in these types of wines also represent good pairing potential. This plate consists of the standouts from among 25 distinguished U.S. artisan cheeses in a recent tasting. The Schramsberg,…

Aussie Rules A few familiar names highlight this group of Australian wines. John Duval is the former winemaker at Penfolds, who founded his own label in 2003. Leeuwin is well-known for its vibrant whites from Western Australia. JOHN DUVAL Cabernet Sauvignon Barossa Compono 2021 (94, $40) Aromatic, distinctive; amaretto, morello cherry, framboise, red licorice, caraway, cumin, tobacco PENFOLDS Shiraz South Australia Bin 28 2022 (93, $40) Framboise, cherry, pomegranate, vanilla, almond nougat, milk chocolate, cedar, Saigon cinnamon, clove; ripe, fleshy LONGVIEW Shiraz-Barbera Adelaide Hills Vista 2021 (91, $18) Plush, juicy; maraschino cherry, raspberry, kirsch, cedar, black licorice, fennel, star anise, chai tea, milk chocolate, tobacco BURGE FAMILY Cabernet Sauvignon Barossa Corryton Burge 2022 (90, $19) Blackberry, huckleberry, cassis, spearmint, bittersweet chocolate, licorice, toasted herbs; velvety, seamless FIRST DROP Cabernet Sauvignon McLaren Vale…

May you live in interesting times, goes the saying. If 2024 was a crazy year, just imagine what 2025 holds. Like much of the world, the wine industry is facing uncertainties, including a changing climate, political issues and a challenging economic landscape. What can we expect? Here are my predictions for 2025: For the people who make wine, it will be a year of pain and opportunity. The wine industry has been confronting the dilemma of slowing wine sales. My colleagues at Impact Databank found that U.S. wine sales declined 2.8% by volume and 1% by value in 2023—and 2024 has not looked any better. While wine enjoyed boom years in the past few decades, growth had started to slow even before the pandemic and its economic impacts. In 1984,…

2 BEAULIEU VINEYARD Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Georges de Latour Private Reserve 2021 95 | $170 | CALIFORNIA BV’s Georges de Latour has a long history, dating to its inaugural vintage of 1936. De Latour himself hired the legendary André Tchelistcheff as winemaker in 1938; Tchelistcheff would go on to steward the bottling for the next 35 years. Select vintages from his tenure across the 1950s, ’60s and early ’70s are considered benchmark wines for California Cabernet. After a rocky period through the 1980s and ’90s, BV is enjoying a renaissance, with a new winery built in 2008 and additional investment after the winery was acquired by Treasury Wine Estates in 2016. Winemaker Trevor Durling was hired in 2017 and hit a high note with this classic-rated 2021 in a…

Beginning with its 2000 acquisition of Yangarra, Jackson Family Wines has been making deep inroads in Australian wine. With three leading wineries now in its portfolio—including Hickinbotham, acquired in 2012, and Giant Steps, acquired in 2020—the California-based wine giant is turning out a range of high-scoring wines from the 545 acres of vineyards it owns across two Australian regions. JFW chairperson and proprietor Barbara Banke recently spoke with Wine Spectator about her company’s investments in Australia. WINE SPECTATOR: When did Australian wines first come on your radar? BARBARA BANKE: We went down there—I think it was 1995—and we toured Penfolds, Yalumba and a number of the other wineries in the Barossa area. We thought the wines were really good and we were looking forward to doing something down there, but we…

ARGENTINA Malbec & Blends 93 El Enemigo Gran Mendoza 2020 $80 This elegant and well-defined red offers dusty loam and spiceladen aromas, with a fresh raspberry and plum core that shows sneaky concentration and is enlivened by fresh acidity before lingering nicely around firming, minerally tannins. Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2036. 2,900 cases made, 2,400 cases imported.—A.R. 93 Bodega Mendel Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon-Petit Verdot Mendoza Unus 2022 $50 A gorgeous red, showing dried violet, chocolate and cordial notes that meld with polished layers of cassis-accented olallieberry and plum. There’s also a pleasant chalky underpinning, while a twinge of fresh acidity drives the core flavors onto the finish around textured tannins. Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2040. 1,600 cases made, 800 cases…