WineInk: Wine Spectator Top 100

It’s that time of year again. You know, when it snows, and a young man’s, or an old man’s, as it were, thoughts turn to skiing. Well, maybe not this year. At least not yet anyway.

Snow aside, it is also the season when Wine Spectator announces its selection of the Top 100 wines of the year. Since 1988, the wine publication that bills itself as “The world’s most widely read wine magazine” has been compiling an annual list of 100 wines it deems to be the most exciting releases of each year. It is a fun exercise, kind of like the College Football Playoff rankings that also come out this time of year. The Wine Spectator rankings stimulate conversation and discussion amongst those who love fine wines.

But even more importantly, the rankings are used by the makers of wines that find a place on the list to market their wines and differentiate them from their competition. There is no doubt those who produced the 2023 Wayfarer Pinot Noir from Fort Ross-Seaview, which came in 8th place in the Top 10, were thrilled to be acknowledged and will let people know that Wine Spectator said their wine was in the top tier of all those the editors tasted this past year. As they should. While there are some in the industry who suggest that ranking wines is strictly an objective exercise, which it is, and has no basis in fact, the list is a popular endeavor that has a positive influence, especially in these troubled times for wine.

It may seem like a fun process, tasting and rating wines, but it can be a long and laborious journey for those editors at the publication whose job it is to whittle the world’s wines down to the final 100. They estimate the team spends 3,600+ hours a year evaluating wines. The tasting team started with over 5,500 wines that scored 90 points or higher in blind tastings this year. These wines represent wineries and regions from around the world from a variety of vintages.  

The goal is to compile a list featuring wines that are not just tasty but also offer great value, can reasonably be found in wine shops, and have great stories behind them. Or, as they say at the Spectator, wines that bring “quality, value, availability, and most importantly the energy and story behind the wine” to the table. The wines are tasted blind and rated on a variety of criteria. Once the best wines are identified, they then undergo a thorough review so the final rankings can be determined. 

Everyone wants to know the identity of the wines that made the Top 10, and of course, who is No. 1. But I thought we would start this year at number 100. In the NFL draft, there is an award given for the final player drafted each year at the end of the seventh round. He is deemed to be “Mr. Irrelevant.”

Well, the 100th-place wine in this year’s Wine Spectator Top 100, the Freemark Abbey 2022 Cabernet Bosché, is anything but irrelevant. Freemark Abbey is one of California’s most iconic producers, and this wine is sourced from the Bosché vineyard in the Rutherford AVA of the Napa Valley, an equally iconic site. Made by Kristy Melton, the eighth winemaker in Freemark Abbey’s more than 130-year history and its second female winemaker since Josephine Tychson in 1886, this wine is an opulent, substantial example of a defining Napa Cabernet. If that wine is 100th on the list, I can’t wait to taste the other 99.

Perhaps the Freemark Abbey wine found its way to No. 100 because of its price. At $225 a bottle, it was the most expensive wine on the list. But as I perused the prices of the wines, I was pleased to find not just values but also a number of lower priced, affordable wines. The 28th-ranked wine, with a 90-point score, was just $15, the easily found Castello Banfi Toscana Centine 2022.

This Tuscan blend of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot made by a respected producer is a great value and a fine drinking wine. You can also place the No. 48 selection, the Symington Family Douro Altano 2022, from Portugal, in that same category. A still wine from a producer perhaps better known for the fortified wines they make, this blend of the regional grapes touriga franca, tinta roriz, and tinta barroca is an affordable introduction to the wines from the Douro.

According to the Spectator, just 14 of the 100 wines are priced at $100 or more, while fully a third, 34, sell for less than $30. The average price point is $58.

The wine that tops the Top 100 for 2025 is also all about value. The No. 1 wine is the Château Giscours Margaux 2022, which sells here for just $68 a bottle. It is cabernet sauvignon based with merlot, petit verdot, and cabernet franc playing supporting roles. A classic Bordeaux blend with a great back story, the wine hit all the right notes with the Spectator editors. It would be interesting to taste the #1 and the No. 100 wines, same vintage, same grapes, but from different parts of the world, side by side.

You can find the Top 100 list in full in the current issue of Wine Spectator, which is on newsstands now, and you can get more info on the Top 10 wines in short and informative videos on the website at: top100.winespectator.com/2025/. These videos, hosted by the editors of the Spectator, are a great way to learn about the producers and pedigrees of these wines.

It’s a fun list and it will give you something to do until it snows.