WINE SPECTATOR Top 10: Reaction & Tasting (& Why It Left Me Disappointed)

Hi everybody! This is Agnesa from No Sediment, and today I'm going to react to Wine Spectator's top 10 of 2024 and even taste bottles that I managed to track down. Plus, let's talk about what this year's list left me kind of disappointed. The annual Wine Spectator top 100 list is out, and I have a lot to say about their top 10 wine selection. But before we start, please remember that this is just my own opinion. In no way I'm criticizing the wines themselves, but rather the choices made by Wine Spectator. Of course, if you do not agree with me and have something to add, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. The first thing that startled me was the lack of diversity. Out of the top five wines, four are Cabernet Sauvignon, and the fifth has Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, so half the list is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. Then we have two Pinot Noirs, one Chardonnay, one Barolo, and one Southern Rhone blend. If it weren't for Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Super Tuscan, this list would be essentially praising only four grape varieties. Italy alone offers more than 300 grape varieties that are bottled and have commercial significance. Let that sink in. And this Chateauneuf-du-Pape with its Grenache, Mourvièdre, Syrah, Sanssou, and other grapes offers more diversity on its own than all the top 10 wines combined. In terms of countries and regions represented, I love that Chile got the spotlight. It is truly a country where we can find amazing quality wines at great value. That said, it was not exactly a value offering. Any wine that is priced just below $200 mark is ultra-premium wine, no matter where it's coming from, Napa, Bordeaux, or Burgundy. But we will talk about the pricing later. Moving on, we have five wines from California and six total from the United States, as if other regions across the globe do not make great wines. I know, I know, this is an American publication, but let's be honest here. It has an international following, and in the digital age, its subscriptions are available worldwide. And to put a cherry on top, not a single lesser-known or less-talked-about winemaking region or grape variety has squeezed into the top 10. All classics, it's like they're playing the safest game in the world. And that brings me to the next piece of As I waited for the wines to be revealed, I was surprised to see that these are all very well established names associated with high quality, not just for years, but for decades. Every single wine lover already knows these iconic names. We have Tinnanello, Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe, Chateauneuf-du-Pape-Lacrao, and William Sellum's Pinot Noir. What was the message here? All of these wines are strictly sold on allocation, and most people are already struggling to get even a few bottles, while some can only dream of ever tasting them. So including these wines in the top 10 does not do much, except for drive the prices up, way up, thus making them less available for us regular folk. It's as if we simple wine lovers didn't already have enough wines on the list that we cannot afford. Rankings like these only further alienate wider public and younger generation from publications like Wine Spectator and wine critics in general. No wonder so many people criticize wine industry for being so elitist. Lastly, let's talk about prices. I already mentioned the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon priced at around $200 per single bottle, and I am 100% sure Chile can offer way better value for the same quality. But for this video, I wanted to find and purchase all top 10 wines. Well, I failed. Many of these wines were not available in my market, and as I struggled to find shipping options within Europe, availability only shrunk. But if I had managed to get all top 10 wines, according to Wine Spectator, it would have cost me $1,032, as opposed to last year's $890. However, I truly believe that these wines are great, and huge effort has been invested into crafting them. So let's dive into the most fun part of it, reacting and tasting. So let's start with wine number 10, the only white wine in the top 10 by the way. So this is Rémy Chardonnay from Russian River Valley Vintage 2022. So this was one of the rare bottles I managed to track down. Let's taste it. Okay, on the nose, this wine shows a lot of ripe fruit. We have apple, pear, slight hint of melon. And overall, this has a very classic nose. So we have a bit of that creaminess, that creme fraiche, that sweet toast, that vanilla. But there's also a hint of greenness, like a slight lime peel, or maybe lemon drop. Let's taste it. Okay, on the palate, this wine seems way zestier than on the nose. We have here green apple, we have here that lemon, that lime peel. And I wonder if they have harvested at several ripeness levels, because you have here that really ripe kind of opulent fruit, and also have a bit of that zestiness and freshness. So I think it is quite a beautiful wine, and I will give this wine 93 points. Shall we move to the wine number nine? Wine number nine is Gidi Vaira Barolo Alba 2020. And I'm quite familiar with this producer. I actually have included it in one of my videos, where I talked about value Barolo and Barbaresco wines. And I'm really pleased that they have included it. And I'm also quite happy that they have included the regular kind of blended Barolo style, that is more affordable. This actually is around 40 dollars. It's amazing value. But let's taste it before we examine it. What an intense nose! I mean, we usually talk about Nebbiolo not being this really fruit-driven grape variety, but here it has a lot of that fresh, zesty, wild strawberry, wild raspberry. It's just so beautiful. It is very inviting. The nose is really beautiful. We also have hints of lilac, some roses. And only in the background, somewhere there behind all the fruit, we have a bit of that earthiness, you know, that autumn leaf character. Quite youthful. Let's taste it. Absolute freshness on the palate. We have lively, zesty acidity. But we also have that backbone from the tannin. This tannin, however, is quite approachable in its youth. It is, of course, Nebbiolo tannin. It is mouth-coating. It is a bit maybe harsher, you know, slightly grippy for sure. But it is still wrapped within this beautiful, juicy fruit character. For sure, this wine deserves its spot and I will give it 94 points. I think it beautifully shows itself in the glass. Now it just shows a bit of that flowery character, like the fruit has maybe gone somewhere in the background and we have a lot of flowers now. It's also beautiful. It says a lot about the if it develops in the glass. Unfortunately, I could not track down wine number eight, which is William Sellum Pinot Noir. And I know this wine is highly allocated and it makes sense because it is produced only just a bit more than 2000 cases per year. So it makes sense that this wine is hard to get, especially for me here in Europe. However, it has already established a cult status. So I wonder why specifically this wine needed to be included in this list. OK, wine number seven is Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape Lacrao. And this one is a well-established name. Whenever you will read something about Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines or any book you will find, there will be mentioned at least one or two sentences about this legendary wine. So let's taste it. It is just so beautiful. I like the nose here. Similarly, as with Barolo, this also shows a lot of ripe fruit. But here these fruit are more kind of bluish or blackish, like we are talking about plums, we are talking about black cherries and really ultra-ripe strawberries. But here on the nose, this wine shows more complexity. There are layers of earthiness, black earth. We have Garrigue here. Forest floor, I mean. And also kind of like crushed berries. We have some fresh, zesty, bursting with juices berries and we have crushed berries. So slight oxidation as well. It is really, really complex on the nose. Okay, let's taste it. I mean, this is the beauty of Chateauneuf-du-Pape being so young, 2020 vintage and actually able to live for another 10 or 20 years. It offers a lot of pleasure right now on the palate. We have beautifully crafted tannin. It is not too aggressive. It is not too mouth-coating. It is just really kind of polished in a way. We have lively, juicy acidity, not as high as for Barolo. But all of that, all those structural elements are kind of wrapped in this really lovely, beautiful, harmonious mouthfeel. I absolutely love this wine and I think it delivers. I will give it 96 points. It is absolute beauty. For sure it deserves to be on the spotlight. We all know that they make beautiful wines. But here I wanted to address the criticism I was talking about. Yesterday, I was dining with the industry professionals and we talked about Wine Spectator's top 10. And one of the importers, who I bought this wine from, he said that he is already sold out of all of his allocation, only a week later. So that means that Wine Spectator publication is not only important within America, but it is also important outside in such a small country like mine, Latvia. And even here, being on the top 10 means that your wines are instantly sold out. Okay, wine number six. Juan Oregon Rose Rock Pinot Noir. Vintage 2022. I forgot to say that. It shows really plump fruit character on the nose. Really energetic and bright. It is ultra fruit driven. I don't have a lot of earthiness or toastiness here. It is really fruity. Let's taste it. This is quite lovely, juicy, fresh fruit driven red wine. And it is definitely made for immediate appeal. I don't see this wine really developing into something more complex or richer in flavors. And the acidity is actually quite balanced towards the lower side, which is interesting for Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is usually well known for its elevated acidity. The tannin is really kind of soft and more playful than adding structure. One thing that kind of struck me a little bit here is that I feel alcohol on the palate. I feel that warming sensation and it sweeps away all the fruit on the aftertaste, which I'm not a fan about. I like my aftertaste to be fruit driven, not texture driven, not acidity driven, definitely not alcohol driven. And this is interesting specifically because the previous wine I tasted was Chateauneuf-du-Pape with 15% alcohol. I did not feel it. It was just so smooth. And here, I feel it especially well. So coming after more alcoholic wine, it means that maybe alcohol was not perfectly balanced here. I'm not sure. But I mean, it does offer that really bright, immediate appeal that you can enjoy in a hot summer day. And I will give this wine 89 points. I think it is nice that they have included more value bottle, but it is at the same price level as the Barolo. And I don't think it offers the same pleasure and definitely not the same aging potential. For some, it might be important. I'm kind of convinced that there are definitely more Pinot Noirs out there that offer similar value, but kind of a bit more quality, a bit more complexity in the glass. But let's move to number five. Okay, wine number five, Chimney Rock, Cabernet Sauvignon, Stagsley District from Napa, Vintage 2021. Let's taste it. I have never tasted this wine, so this is going to be new for me. We have some bright fruit. We have blackberries, blueberries, cassis here, but it is kind of linked with that toastiness and kind of tobacco leaf and cedar wood. That kind of adds a bit of complexity here. It is really intense on the nose and actually quite complex. Let's taste it. I really think on the palate, this wine shows itself quite elegant. You have a lot of that ripe fruit, but it is not over extracted or, you know, too heavy or too blackish, too tannin driven. It has that freshness, it has that liveliness, it has bright, lively, full of energy, acidity, and the fruit is there bursting everywhere, kind of covers your palate, and the tannin just gives nice backbone, kind of line to follow. Absolutely lovely. And now it shows that kind of black currant leaf intensity of aroma, something that you can only feel slightly in Cabernet Sauvignon and intensely in Sauvignon Blanc. It just shows a lot of typicity here without being cloaking or too heavy or too rich or extracted, as I mentioned before, and I think this is beautiful wine. I really like it. I will give this wine 96 points and have another sip. Okay, wine number four. Unfortunately, I was not able to track because it is simply not available in Europe, so if there are any other wine importers listening to me, maybe that's something you could look into, because it kind of seems a value offering from Napa Valley, so I cannot really talk about it much. So we will move to wine number three. Wine number three, and unfortunately my last bottle here from the top 10 wines is Tino Nello 2021, but let's be honest, it is a legendary name, so we will kind of end on the banger. So I have to taste it. Okay, so we have tiny strawberries, tiny cherries, sour cherries, but ripe sour cherries, but we also have a bit of black fruit, blueberries, blackberries, plums even, and then there is that vein of toastiness, of kind of meatiness, adding kind of depth of flavor in it, like cedar wood, clove and nutmeg. Let's taste that wine. Wow, I think on the palate this wine is more open and more approachable than on the nose. On the nose, maybe it was a bit too tight, a bit too shy, but on the palate it is just giving everything to you. It's just so lovely, juicy, fruit-driven, but opposed to the Pinot Noir that we tasted, here the juiciness has structure, here the juiciness, that kind of fruitiness, has depth and kind of it lingers on the palate. It is just absolutely harmonious wine, and what I wanted to say that this is unique Super Tuscan because it is actually based in Chianti Classico and majority of the grapes here is Sangiovese. Sangiovese is known for its high bursting acidity, really red fruit-driven character and quite tannic structure, and here they kind of have calmed it down, kind of made it really approachable in its youth. It is stunning wine. I will give this 98 points. I think it just shows itself absolutely beautiful. I don't have the last two wines, the second wine being Bolio Vignardes Cabernet Sauvignon, but I actually know this producer quite well, because I have worked with it for a while. What was interesting for me, this specific wine, Bolio Vignardes, if I'm not mistaken, had 95 points given by Wine Spectator, second place, and Tignanello has 97 points, and somehow both of these wines are at the same price level, and yet Tignanello is in the third place, and Bolio Vignardes is in the second place. I don't want to talk too much about it, because I don't have that specific bottle here on the table, so it would be unfair from my side, but even Wine Spectator team said that the Tignanello was better than the Bolio Vignardes. Yeah, they gave it more points, and somehow it ended up below Bolio Vignardes. And lastly, one bottle that I could not track down, Don Melcher Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, from Maipo Valley, from a very unique terroir, that is just well known and highly regarded for its Cabernet Sauvignon. I don't want to talk too much about this wine, because I don't have it here on the table, so it would not be truly fair, but first of all, 96 points by Wine Spectator, number one this year. Within the last 10 years Don Melcher has appeared on the top 100 list for four times, four times. I think it would make sense to maybe add other wines, you know, from Chile or from Argentina maybe, because what is interesting, so these countries are dominated in the export markets by huge companies, and Don Melcher is owned by Conchotoro. Yes, they say that it has separated from Conchotoro as a brand, but it is still owned by Conchotoro, and Conchotoro is one of the largest, if not the largest, wine producer company from South America. So it begs you to question why it is already a well-established name. Wine Spectator has said already many times that they like this wine and that they think it is great. I wonder how many other Cabernet Sauvignons out there, not made by a huge company, we could maybe include in this list, not costing 200 dollars, maybe 50, still producing enough amount of bottles, so that there is global reach with this wine. Of course, I don't want to talk about some really nice beautiful wine that is produced in this miniscule amount, so it is only available for few people. Of course, we have to talk about wines that has a global reach, but yeah, should it always be the most expensive, the best known wine from the largest company? I'm not sure. At this point, there might be bursting a lot of videos about Wine Spectator's top 100 2024, so let me know guys in the comments if you want me to make another video where I would talk about my top 5 or my top 10 wines from the Wine Spectator's top 100. And if you liked this video, make sure to click on the next one here.