Cass Anderson / BroBible
The annual Top 100 List is out from Wine Spectator and it’s chock-full of the most sought after and revered wines on planet earth but I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the top 10 wines and re-rank. More specifically, I want to re-rank the top 10 wines based on how much I want to actually drink each of them after reading Wine Spectator’s description of each wine.
The #1 wine on their list this year is the Viña Don Melchor, 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Puente Alto Vineyard which sells for $175 a bottle. Their description says this wine has a “a base of graphite” and for that reason I’m out on this wine at #1. In fact, I’d put it down by #10 on my list and I’m only doing that because I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that everything other than the graphite is good… Get the gist of what we’re doing here? Let’s get to it.
First up, here is Wine Spectator’s Top 20 Wines of the Year (we’ll re-rank the top 10 below):
- Viña Don Melchor, 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Puente Alto Vineyard (96pts)
- Beaulieu Vineyard, 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Georges de Latour Private Reserve (95pts)
- Antinori Toscana Tignanello 2021 (97pts)
- Faust, 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley (94pts)
- Chimney Rock, 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District (94pts)
- Drouhin Oregon Roserock, 2022 Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills (94pts)
- Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe, 2020 Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau (94pts)
- Williams Selyem, 2022 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Eastside Road Neighbors (95pts)
- G.D. Vajra, 2020 Barolo Albe (94pts)
- Ramey, 2022 Chardonnay Russian River Valley (94pts)
- Craggy Range, 2023 Sauvignon Blanc Martinborough Te Muna (94pts)
- Penfolds, 2022 Cabernet-Shiraz South Australia Bin 389 (94pts)
- Fattoria di Fèlsina, 2021 Chianti Classico Berardenga Riserva (95pts)
- Turley, 2022 Zinfandel California Juvenile (93pts)
- Caprili, 2019 Brunello di Montalcino, 96pts
- Merry Edwards, 2022 Sauvignon Blanc Russian River Valley (95pts)
- Bledsoe Family, 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley (94pts)
- Michele Satta, 2021 Bolgheri Superiore Piastraia (95pts)
- La Fiorita, 2019 Brunello di Montalcino (95pts)
- Roederer Estate, NV Brut Anderson Valley (93pts)
Those all sound great! Wine Spectator employs some of the finest wine critics on earth and they have for decades. I trust their selections through and through. But here is the re-ranking of these wines based on how much I actually want to drink them after reading the descriptions and looking at the prices. For this, I’ll use a 1-to-100 scale of how much I actually want to drink each wine based on the description.
Top 10 Wines of the Year Based On How Much I Want To Drink Them
At #1 they have the Viña Don Melchor, 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Puente Alto Vineyard (96pts). At $175/bottle and a ‘base of graphite’ I’m putting my interest in this wine at a lowly 72 out of 100. That’s a lot of $$$ per bottle for a base of graphite.
At #2, the Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Georges de Latour Private Reserve ($170/bottle) is said to have “flavors of black currant and blackberry paste underscored with alder, sweet tobacco, warm paving stone and black licorice notes, while a violet accent fills the background.” I’m all in on that. 95 out of 100. I don’t care that it’s $170/bottle. That sounds like a near-perfect wine to me.
Their #3 is the Antinori (2021) Toscana Tignanello and the description says it has “pure cherry, strawberry, graphite and tobacco aromas and flavors, this red is beautifully supported by a backbone of vibrant acidity and taut, refined tannins.” At $180/bottle, that’s steep but I’ve got some inside info on this one as my cousin was just at the Antinori vineyard on his honeymoon last month and raved about this wine, sent me pictures from the vineyard, and it’s extremely high on my bucket list right now. I’ll put this at 97 out of 100 because I’m actively seeking out some bottles for the holidays and can say that I’m motivated to try this vintage.
Their #4 is Faust’s 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. It only received 94 points but at $65/bottle with “a ganache note draped over black currant, blackberry and steeped cherry” this is my #1 wine on their list. 99 out of 100. I’ve been to the Faust property for tastings, I’ve been drinking their wine for years, I love it at this price point.
#5 is the 2021 Chimney Rock Cab Stags Leap District with “creamy-textured açaí, mulberry and cassis notes gliding through slowly.” At $120/bottle I’m down on this one. It gets an 82 out of 100 from me. I’m still convinced that acai is a marketing scam made up by acai farmers who had an excess of acai. I’m out on this.
Cass Anderson / BroBible
#6 is the Drouhin Oregon Roserock 2020 Pinot Noir at $44/bottle with “detailed raspberry and cherry flavors accented by rose petal, brown baking spices and orange peel.” That sounds delicious give me 14 of them right now. 91 out of 100.
Their #7 wine is the Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe 2020 Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau at $114/bottle and 94 points with “gutsy, grippy style on the palate, with a cast iron spine bringing firm shape and underlying power.” WHAT ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT HERE?! This wine has a ‘cast iron spine’?! If it wasn’t for the name recognition behind this bottle I’d be out on it but given their history I’m very much interested in trying this, 90 out of 100.
At #8 is the 2022 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Eastside Road Neighbors and I’m putting this at a firm 96 out of 100 because my good friends living in the Bay Area receive an allotment of this wine every year, they rave about it, they’re obsessed with it, and I trust their opinions. This sounds pretty divine as well: “juicy and delicious mulberry, blackberry and cherry pâte de fruit notes that ripple with energy, while rose hip, rooibos tea and licorice snap accents fuel the finish.”
Their #9 wine is the 2020 G.D. Vajra Barolo Albe. At $42/bottle and 94 points, send me a case right now with the invoice. I’m in. A top-tier Barolo with “herry, raspberry, rose, iron, juniper and hay flavors, underscored by vibrant acidity.” I’m giving this a solid 92 out of 100 because I will actively seek this wine out to try it.
My final ranking here is their #10 wine, the 2022 Ramey Chardonnay Russian River Valley. I hate to do this but they get a 20 out of 100 simply because I hate Chardonnay, buttery or oaky, I can’t stand it. At $50/bottle many of you will want this wine featuring “fleshy, juicy mix of perfectly ripe peach, mango and lemon bar flavors, with fresh herbal accents of lemon verbena and vetiver” but I’m out. Sorry. I’ve tried so hard to trick my palate into appreciating chardonnay and it is just isn’t in the cards for me.
Honorable Mention (from me): Carini Wines‘ ‘Captain Fantasy.’ Check out the Captain Fantasy if you want a spectacular wine at an appropriate price. If you want to dive deeper, seek out the Howell and Cruz and THANK ME LATER.
Those are my thoughts! And I’m a literal nobody in the wine world so take everything with a grain of salt. But please do head on over to the Wine Spectator website to check out no only the top 10 wines of 2024 but their full ‘Top 100’ list.