Our latest Weekly Tasting Report of 423 wines focuses heavily on the Rioja wine region of Spain, where Senior Editor Jacobo García Andrade has been spending the summer, with his first tasting notes offering his early impressions on some of the region’s most compelling single-vineyard expressions – a category that has increasingly become one of Rioja’s strengths.

Our latest Weekly Tasting Report of 337 wines is top-heavy with the latest offerings out of Tuscany and specifically Bolgheri, which saw a challenging 2023 vintage that revealed both the skills of the region’s finest producers and the extraordinary suitability of the territory for great wine, according to Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli.

A nearly perfect-scoring bottle from Keplinger Wines in Napa Valley heads this week’s tasting report of 453 offerings, 319 of which are from California, with the rest from Italy. Of the California wines tasted, 76 scored 95 points or higher – with most of these from Napa’s cool, restrained and highly regarded 2023 vintage.

California is making some of the best chardonnays in the world at the moment, and the top wines can compete with the best white Burgundies. That was clear recently when James and Editor-at-Large Jim Gordon rated four 2024 chardonnays 100 points: two from Aubert and two from Kistler.

Our latest Weekly Tasting Report of 349 wines from five countries offers further proof that a rising tide raises all boats. In this case the tide was the unusually steady, cool, long growing season in Napa Valley in 2023. The boats that rose the highest include four perfect-scoring cabernet sauvignons.