Tuscany released many excellent wines this year on the market including a perfect 100-point pure merlot - 2011 Masseto Toscana - and the pure sangiovese genius of Bibi Graetz's 2011 Toscana Testamatta, plus Petrolo's tiny production pure cabernet sauvignon - 2011 Toscana Campolusso. Some late releases were equally compelling such as the 2007 Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona Brunello di Montalcino Vigna di Pianrosso Santa Caterina d'Oro Riserva and the Bibi Graetz Toscana Colore, 97 points and 96 points respectively.

In all, I tasted more than 1,100 Tuscan wines this year and I still have a few more to go including reds, whites, and roses. But anyone interested in Tuscan wines is going to like what has been put on the market this year. And there are a number of top scores that you don't want miss buying and drinking!

I also tasted about 100 amazing 2010 Brunello di Montalcinos, whose tasting notes have not been posted yet. This vintage is one of the most exciting ever. It produced wines of strength, balance and incredible complexity and length. The vintage will redefine how many view the style of Brunello whereby the vintage yielded wines with much more refinement and intense mineral style due to the long growing season of the sangiovese. They have an underlying saltiness and savoriness that I have only encountered in few Brunellos over the last 30 years of tasting them. The wines will be released on the market in January 2015 and you are going to want to buy some. Stay tuned for the notes in the next month.

Tuscany continues to show its strength as Italy's most popular wine region due to its ability to produce so many exciting wines with so many different grape types, from indigenous ones such as sangiovese and colorino to international ones such as cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Both large and small producers accelerate with these grapes.

Many wineries also seem to have the ability to produce outstanding quality wines despite problems with the growing season. For example, so many wineries made excellent wines in 2011 even though it was extremely hot and had many heat spikes in the late summer. I expected to find more jammy and unbalanced wines in my tastings over the last two years of the vintage, but Tuscan wine producers now have the ability to manage such weather with better viticulture and winemaking practices.

The big test for their abilities will be this year due to the cold, wet and relatively cloudy summer. People are still praying for sunshine to save their sangiovese crop. Wait and see.

I also noticed many winemakers this year now talking about balance and finesse in their wines, and how they want to make more drinkable and elegant wines. The days of super extraction, power, and new oak seem to be less and I wholeheartedly applaud this.

"I want to make wines that I want to drink so I am cutting back on new wood and heavy-handed extractions in the winemaking process," admitted Sean O'Callaghan of Chianti Classico's Riecine. His new "Burgundian-styled" pure sangiovese from his estate's vineyards near Gaiole is a mindbender. The 2010 Riecine Toscana Riecine is a wine you want to drink. It's a wine that gives pleasure from the moment you put your nose in the glass.

It's wines like these as well as some of the classics such as Masseto and Solaia that make tasting and drinking Tuscan wines so exciting in 2014 and for the future. I hope you enjoy my Top 100 Tuscan wines for 2014.