If you think that a list of the most exciting American wines would be dominated by Napa Valley cabernet sauvignons, you would be wrong.

West Coast pinot noir and chardonnay dominate the upper echelon of our Top 100 Wines of the USA 2025 list. They taste fantastic and exemplify the theme of great value that we’re emphasizing this year.

The key elements in value are very high quality and a reasonable price, so dozens of highly rated California and Oregon wines that aren’t cabernet sauvignon dominate this amazing list of attainable but luxurious new releases.

Cabernet sauvignon from California and Washington is a great category for rich, tannic, sometimes ageworthy reds, but not when value is a major factor. True, our tasting team this year rated about 20 American cabernet-based wines at 99 or 100 points, but they were all priced at $200 to $800 a bottle, so none of those made the Top 100 this year.

The excitement now comes from brilliant, elegant, coastal wines made from Burgundian grape varieties. The ones selected for this list deliver quality and are all rated 94 points or higher, have average prices of $100 or less and are widely available, with at least 3,000 bottles of each made (most are produced in much higher quantities).

The fourth element we consider in creating our Top 100 lists is the “wow” factor – the emotional response we get from a truly great wine.

The JamesSuckling.com American Wine of the Year exemplifies all four attributes. The RAEN Pinot Noir Sonoma County Sonoma Coast Royal St. Robert 2023 is a complex, concentrated and ageworthy red from a cool-climate vineyard located just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean.

This creation of brothers Carlo and Dante Mondavi tastes amazingly complex and dynamic, demanding your attention from the first sniff of redwood forest, rosemary and black cherry to the lingering, filigreed finish.

Fermented with all whole clusters on native yeast, it is laced with black tea, pomegranate, dark cherry, dried raspberry and wild mushroom flavors, and structured in fine-grained, moderate tannins and crunchy acidity it offers an agile physique that carries all those flavors effortlessly.

This cuvee sourced from multiple sites in the most westerly parts of the Sonoma Coast region is the Mondavi brothers’ tribute to their grandfather, Napa Valley icon Robert Mondavi. Their father is Continuum Estate’s co-founder, Timothy Mondavi.

Carlo and Dante have joined a phalanx of forward-looking winemakers in California and Oregon who are increasingly making more elegant, tensioned, vibrant pinot noir and chardonnay wines.

The beauty for consumers is that the RAEN Royal St. Robert 2023, priced internationally on WineSearcher.com at $83, is a nearly perfect-scoring wine.

But there are many other high-value pinot noirs and chardonnays like this in our Top 100 Wines of the USA, plus many syrahs, a few red blends and some affordable cabernet sauvignons and various other wine types. Looking at just the top 10, five are chardonnay and five are pinot noir. Three of the reds come from California’s Sonoma and Napa regions and two from Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The chardonnays were grown in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Sonoma and Napa.

The RAEN wine at No. 1 culminates 12 years of effort by the Mondavi brothers and their winemaker, Melanie McIntyre, on the Sonoma Coast. They made a brilliant range of 2023s, including two perfect-scoring wines from this highly anticipated vintage.

It was a long, cool and peaceful growing season that seemed perfect for producing the kind of well-balanced, acid-energized wines that we love. And it delivered.

“2023 was the best year since we started in 2013,” McIntyre said. “We harvested a month later than usual, picking some of the pinot in early October instead of early September. We never pick in October.”

The late harvest dates meant long hang time at cooler-than-normal average temperatures throughout most of California’s coastal regions. This built up beautiful phenolic flavor compounds in the grapes without losing much acidity or gaining too much sugar (a proxy for potential alcohol).

A great Oregon wine with many of the same attributes is our No. 2 American wine this year. The Arterberry Maresh Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Maresh 2023 is even more affordable than the RAEN, and made in a similarly generous range of 2,000 cases, or 24,000 bottles.

This savory, spicy, elegant and tightly wound wine represents a whole host of similarly tensioned and balanced Oregon pinot noirs we tasted, but with more concentration, linearity and length than almost any.

Jim Maresh in Oregon’s Dundee Hills made this pinot from old vines planted between 1970 and 1983 – the dawning era of modern winemaking in the state. The vines are own-rooted, non-irrigated and the wine fermented on wild yeast. It feels tense, deeply rooted in tannins, with pure, elegant fruit wrapped in blood-orange zest flavors. The mid-palate unfolds with bitter oranges, seashells, iron and crushed bricks, adding complexity, followed by such a long finish.

A perfect-scoring wine holds the No. 3 spot this year – the Kistler Chardonnay Sonoma County Russian River Valley Laguna Ridge Vineyard 2023. Kistler, a well-known, long-time favorite of James’ and an icon of Sonoma winemaking, released an incredible lineup of 2023s. This one is so distinctive, fresh, minerally and acid-driven. It’s a racy, vivid, linear wine that soars from the first whiff of flint and crisp fruit to the lingering finish. Lively citrus acidity backs poached pear, lemon zest and chalk flavors that expand as you sip.

The Kistler Laguna Ridge is an unusual offering. It was bottled only in magnums and thus is an even greater than usual candidate to lay down for extended aging.

Winemaker-president Jason Kesner oversees the production of 12 Kistler chardonnays and two pinot noirs from prime vineyard sites in Sonoma County, and two chardonnays from the Napa side of the Carneros district.

Kesner treats the grapes from each vineyard in the same way, aging in the same brand of barrels for the same length of time and so on to let the vineyard’s unique qualities show through. “In 2023 the site to site differentiation was the best he had ever seen,” Kesner said. “There was long hang time, so the flavors were developing without the chemistry changing too much.” He said the acid levels were so high that they needed sugar levels proportionally high to balance the juice, so that final alcohol readings are in the low 14 percent range.

The No. 4 wine is the second Oregon pinot noir in the top five. The Soter Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton Mineral Springs 2022 represents the latest release of an admirably consistent wine grown on the Soter hilltop winery property.

The tension and linearity are incredible, as fresh, vivid fruit flavors ride an electric wave of bracing acidity from the first whiff to the long, lingering finish. Founder Tony Soter and winemaker Chris Fladgood perfected an impeccable wine for drinking now through at least 2032.

To show how well this wine should age, we tasted the 2008 version last year and it was brilliant! Full-bodied but elegant and supple with brilliant balance, still tasting fresh and linear. The 2018 was wine No. 3 in the Top 100 Wines of the USA 2022.

The second chardonnay on this year’s Top 100 is the Rhys Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains Horseshoe Vineyard 2022 at No. 5. Our team had never formally tasted the Rhys lineup, so when we did so in April of this year with winemaker Eric Prahl, the results were eye-opening, to say the least.

Rhys makes wine strictly from vineyards they own in California’s Mendocino County and Santa Cruz Mountains and mostly from Burgundian grape varieties.

The Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard tastes fresh, crunchy and energized, offering brilliant citrus and spice flavors that are held firmly by nervy acidity. It’s a wine worth aging, as it builds complexity around this freshness and verve.

In the No. 6 spot is the Hirsch Vineyards Pinot Noir Sonoma County Sonoma Coast East Ridge 2022, a full-bodied wine that’s so powerful in tannins it reminded James of nebbiolo. It opens with blue fruit, caramel, bark, walnut and pepper aromas, then shows great drive and energy on the palate.

It is definitely an ageworthy wine that should rest until at least 2028 for peak enjoyment. It was grown in the West Sonoma Coast AVA on the Hirsch family’s hilly estate vineyard. East Ridge is a section first planted in the early 1990s.

The No. 7 wine, the DuMOL Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2023, brings us into Napa Valley. This is a gorgeous, voluminous, creamy and distinctive wine, with the signature Hyde richness tempered by a bit of restraint in texture and tempting flinty accents on the palate. Medium-bodied at 13.5 percent alcohol, it blends power with gracefulness and good acid balance.

The Carneros district, which borders San Pablo Bay and overlaps Napa and Sonoma counties, is the best part of Napa for cool-climate grapes. While DuMOL is heavily focused on Sonoma grapes for most of its lineup, chief winemaker and proprietor Andy Smith buys his chardonnay fruit from Larry and Chris Hyde in Napa. And he is not alone. The No. 10 wine also highlights Hyde chardonnay.

The Ferren Chardonnay Sonoma County Sonoma Coast 2022 is our No. 8 American wine, earning major respect for its super fresh character, layers of salinity, richness and a long finish.

It’s a nuanced, tangy, mouthwatering and approachable wine whose aromas are delicate, lifted and fresh, with oyster shells, lime zest, white flowers and chamomile. Though rather small in quantity, this is the most widely available of Ferren’s whites.

Paul Hobbs’ wines are no strangers to the Top 100 arena. This year’s No. 9 wine is the Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir Sonoma County Russian River Valley George Menini Estate 2023, a super well-structured, vital wine with oodles of generous black fruit flavors on a firm frame that will help it age well.

The wine is distinguished by a slight stemmy, peppery character from using mostly Calera-clone grapes, with 15 percent whole clusters and 30 percent new French oak. There is great interplay between layered fruit and a fresh, crunchy texture.

The Tor Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Hyde Vineyard Cuvée Susan 2023 at No. 10 is the second wine among the top 10 to be made from this almost-legendary vineyard.

It is ethereal to taste, wonderfully light in texture and ultra rich in flavor at the same time. Silky and layered, detailed and ripe with great acidity and a deceptively full body. Tor Kenward and winemaker Jeff Ames barrel fermented Wente and Calera clone grapes in 50 percent new French barrels.

The theme of Burgundian grape variety wines continues throughout the Top 100 Wines of the USA 2025 list, but we also found syrah to be an exciting category. The Jeff Cohn Cellars Syrah Sonoma County Rockpile Domaine des Chirats 2022 is No. 23. Its mountain-grown structure, iron, chalk and blackberry flavors are striking. And look for more outstanding syrahs from K Vintners, Donelan, Pax, Halcon, Stolpman and others.

Several cabernets made the list, too – ones that offer excellent quality along with reasonable prices, like the powerful but seamless Etude Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Coombsville 2021 and the silky, enticing Calais Cabernet Sauvignon Texas High Plains Cuvée de L'Exposition Clone 47 Navarra Vineyards 2020.

We could go on, but the best way to appreciate the whole USA Top 100 is to browse through the tasting notes below, see which ones are most appealing to you, then buy as many as you can and taste for yourself.

– Jim Gordon, Executive Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. 

Note: You can sort the wines below by vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.