Is Your Favorite Wine on the List? Reacting to Jeb Dunnuck's Top 100

Jeb Dunick recently released his top 100 wines for 2025. I always enjoy the Jeb Dunick list because his palette aligns somewhat closely with my own. He definitely has a focus on Rhone varietals such as Syrah and GSM blends. Jeb does not have a specific list of criteria that he used to prepare this list, rather he just identified some of the wines that stood out the most. These wines feature a variety of price points in wine regions around the world, and they received varying scores as well. So in this video I'm going to review Jeb Dunick's top 100 list and single out some of the wines that I think are standouts and which are worth considering adding to your collection. Evan Martin Wood started his winery in Willamette Valley in the McMinnville foothills back in 2017. He's been doing a terrific job and is definitely an up-and-coming, exciting producer in Willamette Valley. So I was pleased to see that the Martin Woods Jesse James Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Outstanding 2023 Vintage made Jeb Dunick's top 100 list this year. This is a wine that sells for around $60 per bottle and received a 98 point score. This wine came in at 91 in Jeb Dunick's top 100. The Jesse James Vineyard is an east-facing vineyard that receives substantial influence from the coastal breezes from the Pacific Ocean that flow through the Van Duzer Corridor. This marine influence helps to preserve acidity and freshness in the wines. Jeb absolutely raved about this wine, and in fact he compared it to Vaughan Romanais. It features both elegance and power. This is a mineral-driven wine that flavors and aromas of cherry, leather, earth, mixed herbs, and spice. This is a wine that will definitely benefit from a couple more years of bottle aging in your cellar and drink well for two decades after that. In my view, one of the more compelling values in Jeb Dunick's list comes in at number 85. This is the Sierra Cantabria Rioja Reserva Unica from the 2020 Vintage. This wine received a 95 point score from Jeb Dunick. While he lists the price as $42 a bottle, I've found several places selling it for much closer to $30 per bottle in the United States. Certainly at the $30 price point, this wine offers compelling value in its wine that would make an excellent cellar defender. This wine is dominant in Tempranillo, but it also features a splash of This wine matured in a mix of French and American oak for 24 months. Only about 15% of the oak was new. This is a wine that features flavors and aromas of blackberry, cherry, and mixed spice. It's extremely elegant with refined tannins and a long finish. For $30 a bottle, you really can't go wrong with this one. 2022 Bordeaux did extremely well on Jeb Dunick's top 100 this year, and 2022 is shaping up to be an epic vintage in Bordeaux and is being compared to the likes of 1982. Coming in at number 71 is Chateau Tronquois from San Estef. This wine received a 96 point score from Jeb Dunick. The list price for this wine is $40 per bottle, but if you shop around, you can probably find it for less than that. This wine was well-received by all the other critics who reviewed it as well. This is perhaps the finest wine ever made by Chateau Tronquois. This wine is a Bordeaux blend that consists of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and 6% Petit Verdot. This is a wine that will definitely benefit from another 5 or 6 years of bottle age before you start enjoying it. This wine features flavors and aromas of blackberry, blackcurrant, graphite, mixed spice, and tobacco. This wine offers extraordinary quality for a wine at this price point. If you're a fan of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, you'll definitely want to consider Gigondas as well. Gigondas is located extremely close to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and many of the wines are made in the exact same style. I'm a big fan of Domaine Brusaye, for example, and this is a producer that I've featured many times on this channel, so I was pleased to see that one of my favorite wines from Domaine Brusaye came in at number 46 in Jeb Dunick's Top 100 list this year. This wine is a classic GSM blend. It's around 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, and 20% Mouvede, but what I really like about this wine is that while the Syrah is only around 30% of the blend, it really shines through in the flavors and aromas for this wine. From this wine, you can expect flavors and aromas that include blackcurrant, blackberry, plum, and there's also some Syrah-loving characteristics such as pepper, meatiness, and crushed stone. This wine has impressive purity of fruit. Better still, for those of you who are impatient, you'll be pleased to know that you can enjoy this one right away. There's no need to age it further, although it will certainly cruise in your cellar for up to a decade as well. This wine received a 96 point score from Jeb Dunick, and it sells for only around $30 per bottle, so it's another extraordinary value. One of my favorite Italian wines from Jeb Dunick's Top 100 this year came in at number 42. This is the BB Grit's Testamatta, which received a 95 point score. While Jeb lists the price point as being $85 per bottle, I recently bought this wine myself at $59 per bottle from LastBottle.com. Many viewers routinely ask me where I purchase some of my wines, and LastBottle is definitely one of my favorite sources. This is a flash site that has some excellent deals on many of the wines that I feature on this channel. If you'd like to sign up for their list, you can definitely check out the links in the description below, and you'll get a discount on your first order. Testamatta means crazy head in Italian. This is a wine that's 100% Sangiovese from Tuscany. It comes from vines that average an impressive 30 to 50 years of age. 2021 was an outstanding vintage in Tuscany, so I've definitely been adding a number of wines from that vintage to my cellar. This wine features flavors and aromas of cherries, wild strawberries, citrus, earth, rose petal, and mixed spice. This wine is already extremely enjoyable, but there's certainly no rush to open it, as it will age effortlessly for more than 10 years as well. Value hunters will also want to check out the number 36 wine in Jeb Dunnock's Top 100 this year. This impressive wine received a 96 point score, and typically sells for less than $40 per bottle. This is the Zuccardi Concreto Malbec from Bucco Valley. This wine is aptly named as they mature it exclusively in concrete. It does not see any oak at all. As such, there's tremendous purity of fruit for this wine. This is a mineral-driven wine that features flavors and aromas of cherry, blueberry, plum, mixed herbs, and spice. It's refined and elegant, and there's a surprisingly long finish. This wine offers incredible quality at this price point. Zuccardi is also a fantastic place to visit, so if you visit the Mendoza, Argentina area, definitely make sure you check it out, and I would highly recommend having either lunch or dinner there as well. A couple 2022 Bordeaux that were extremely strong, and which made Jeb Dunnock's Top 100 this year, come from some of my favorite producers that I feature regularly on this channel. So regularly, in fact, that I'm not going to get into much detail about these wines in this video. Namely, the 2022 Belair Ménage and the 2022 Ponte Canae. Belair Ménage comes in at number 33 on Jeb Dunnock's Top 100, and received a 99 point score. This is a wine you should be able to find for around $200 per bottle. Belair Ménage is one of my favorite producers in Saint-Emilion, and they make a wine that competes favorably with wines that sell for triple the price point. Belair Ménage is owned by Christian Moax, who also owns top wineries like Petrus. This wine is around 99% Merlot, and there's a splash of Cabernet Franc as well. I strongly recommend that everyone who appreciates Right Bank Bordeaux add Belair Ménage to their collection, and the 2022 Vintage is certainly one of their finest to date. Of course, Ponte Canae needs very little introduction, as many people are extremely familiar with it. The 2022 Ponte Canae received a perfect 100 point score from Jeb Dunnock, and sells for around $150 per bottle. Jeb Dunnock was not alone in his enthusiasm for this wine, as wine enthusiasts also gave it a perfect 100 point score. This wine comes in at number 29 in Jeb Dunnock's Top 100. This is a Bordeaux blend that includes 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and there's also smaller amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Coming in at number 22 on Jeb Dunnock's Top 100 this year is a wine with which I'm very familiar, as I visited this producer and featured this wine on my channel earlier this year. Here are my thoughts. Last week I had the chance to visit Dunn again, and I sat down for a proper tasting and tried numerous different vintages of the Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. As with the last visit, I was greeted by an extremely friendly dog, who must have remembered me, as he was definitely even more friendly this year than the last time I visited. The Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon comes exclusively from Dunn's estate-grown fruit on Howell Mountain. This wine is always 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, and both of the Dunn wines mature for an impressive 32 months in 100% new French oak, and then spend another year in bottle before they're released. The wines also have less than 14% alcohol, typically 13.9% alcohol by volume, and there's various winemaking techniques that are implemented by the Dunn's to ensure that this 14% threshold is not exceeded. 2021 was a fantastic vintage for Napa Valley generally, and the Dunn's certainly crushed it in 2021. The 2021 Dunn Howell Mountain features flavors and aromas of blackberry, plum, licorice, menthol, and mixed spice. While this is definitely a powerful wine, the tannins were refined, and there's ample acidity and freshness. This is a wine that will certainly cruise in your cellar for decades, but you don't have to wait that long to enjoy it. In fact, I also tasted the 2013 and 2015 vintages of Dunn Howell Mountain when I was there, and both of those vintages were showing well already. The family also advised that they tend to enjoy the Dunn Howell Mountain release between 10 and 15 years after the vintage, so certainly much more approachable at an earlier age than they were historically. Now that Chateau d'Isson and Chateau Giscou have been named Wine of the Year by James Suckling and Wine Spectator respectively, their pricing has unfortunately shot up to close to $100 per bottle. For that same price point, however, I would strongly recommend that you consider Bran Cantenac. Like D'Isson and Giscou, Bran Cantenac is located in the Margot Appellation. Bran Cantenac is a second growth in the 1855 classification of Bordeaux, and recently it's been making wines that live up to this lofty classification. Bran Cantenac received a 99 point score from Jeb Dunnock and comes in at number 10 on his Top 100 Wines for 2025. This is wine that's still flying under the radar, however, and offers incredible quality at this price point. This is perhaps the best vintage ever for Bran Cantenac, and it compares favorably with some of the top producers from Margot in 2022. Despite that, it sells for right around $99 per bottle. This wine is a blend that consists of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, and there's a small amount of Cabernet Franc as well. This is an incredibly elegant wine with fine-grained tannins and impressive purity of fruit. This wine features flavors and aromas of blackcurrant, licorice, tobacco, graphite, and mixed spice. This is a wine that I definitely try to keep away in your cellar for at least another seven to eight years. I recently tasted the 2016 and 2019 vintages of this wine, and the 2016 in particular were showing quite well, but will still benefit from a little bit more time. With respect to the top 10 wines in the Wine Spectator Top 100 list for 2025, I prepared a separate video that contains my thoughts regarding each of those wines. If you'd like to watch that video, please be sure to check this video that's linked above.