So much great wine is being made around the world right now that it’s hard to narrow our favorites this year to just 100 bottles. I personally traveled around the world four times during the year, visiting dozens of wine regions, meeting hundreds of winemakers and tasting thousands of wines. My team of 12 tasters did much the same, racking up visits across the globe, spending time with producers and rating bottles. In total, we reviewed more than 45,000 wines over the past 12 months.
We hope you’ve enjoyed the stories behind so many of the outstanding bottles we rated this year, along with the reporting from their respective regions. It’s not just about ratings – my team of writers and tasters and I also share the backstories in our weekly and monthly tasting reports, as well as in our regional reviews throughout the year.
One of the biggest stories this year was the release of the exceptional 2022 vintage in Bordeaux. I am still amazed how the wines, both reds and whites, have such focus and brightness despite coming from such an incredibly hot and dry year. And the vines held up under the heat.
Of course, most of the wines are high in alcohol, approaching 15 degrees, and also have high pH levels (low acidity). But this makes them very approachable to drink and illustrates that you don’t need to wait to pour young Bordeaux anymore. And they will only improve with age. Look at other hot and dry historic vintages in Bordeaux, such as 1982, 1959, 1947 and 1928, and you will find that many bottles are still alive and very drinkable.
