🍷 My Everyday Go-To Wine Glass: https://amzn.to/3OAQAcW
🥂 My Favorite Champagne Wine Glass: https://amzn.to/3qhMLRF
🥂 One of My Favorite Wine Glasses: https://amzn.to/3uG8Nfc
🧳 The Best Wine Travel Suitcase: https://bit.ly/3Zlzuoq (Use code NOSEDIMENT10 for 10% discount)
🗜️ I Preserve My Wines with CORAVIN: https://amzn.to/3O1AYPS
🪡 CORAVIN Vintage Needle: https://amzn.to/4eVf8bl
🐚 CORAVIN Gas Capsules: https://amzn.to/4eVf8bl
🍾 I Safely Open Older Bottles with This Cork Puller: https://amzn.to/3iBrFZZ
🍾 The Durand Cork Puller: https://amzn.to/3ZuRWfv
🏳️ I Polish My Wine Glasses with This Cloth: https://amzn.to/3izWJcx
🪣 My Favorite Wine Chiller: https://amzn.to/4eVf8bl
👝 I Safely Transport Bottles With This Sleeve: https://bit.ly/3B8lFBQ
📚 Some of my favorite WINE BOOKS:
📓 Taste the Limestone, Smell the Slate by Alex Maltman: https://amzn.to/47hdA9V
📙 Native Wine Grapes of Italy by Ian D’Agata: https://amzn.to/4ggqM1P
📗 The Wines of Piemonte by David Way: https://amzn.to/4igXrG4
📓 Flawless: Understanding Faults in Wine by Jamie Goode: https://amzn.to/3eb7AYP
📒Understanding Wine Technology: The Science of Wine Explained by David Bird: https://amzn.to/3e2qBNb
📕 Authentic Wine: Toward Natural and Sustainable Winemaking (by Jamie Goode): https://amzn.to/3ygtuAC
📘 The Oxford Companion to Wine (by Jancis Robinson): https://amzn.to/49Wwe7V
📙 Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including Their Origins and Flavours (by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and Jose Vouillamoz): https://amzn.to/3RCAheM
📗 A Life Uncorked (by Hugh Johnson): https://amzn.to/3M5yeyQ
📓 Drinking with the Valkyries (by Andrew Jefford): https://amzn.to/45mGBOG
In this video, I taste some of Wine Spectator’s TOP 10 wines of 2025 and talk about this very “exciting” list.
**WINES TASTED IN THIS VIDEO:
🍷 2022 Chateau Giscours, Margaux, Bordeaux, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/giscours+margaux+medoc+bordeaux+france/2022/
🍷 2022 Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Bordeaux, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/beau+sejour+becot+st+emilion+grand+cru+bordeaux+france/2022/
🍷 2021 Clos Apalta, Colchagua Valley, Chile
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/clos+apalta+colchagua+valley+chile/2021/
🍷 2022 Saint Prefert Famille Isabel Ferrando Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Rhone, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/st+prefert+fmly+isabel+ferrando+chateauneuf+du+pape+rhone+france/2022/
🍷 2021 Castello di Ama ‘San Lorenzo’, Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG, Tuscany, Italy
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/castellodiama+st+lorenzo+grand+select+docg+chianti+cls+tuscany+italy/2021/
🍷 2021 Produttori del Barbaresco ‘Barbaresco DOCG’, Piedmont, Italy
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/produttori+docg+barbaresco+piemonte+italy/2021/
**LET’S CONNECT:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blancdenoir/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blancdenoir
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nosediment
**CONTENTS OF THIS VIDEO:
0:00 My Thoughts on This Year’s List
4:56 Tasting of Wine Spectator’s Top 10 Wines of 2025
#winetasting #wineeducation #wine
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
41 Comments
Definitely a list meant for people wishing to remain within a certain comfort zone so they can just go and order the top 10 bottles online before they sell out. We all need to start somewhere, and I started here, but abandoned it long ago.
It’s clear this list is network-driven rather than taste-driven. As with pretty much everything above the working ranks..
Great video and I agree with your analysis. These ratings should start to open up to different regions and varieties. We should all start appreciating new trends while respecting the classics
I 1000% agree with you.
What is the object of this list? Making sure people do not explore other wine styles? Plus the list is by and for Americans.
Ah, the highlight of my Sunday mornings!
As a former subscriber to Wine Spectator and someone who has attended their Grand Tastings a few times, I have found WS very educational. However my biggest criticism is that they focus on higher-end wines. The top ten list, with a couple of exceptions is emblematic of their focus.
As for your critique of their focus on the “classic” regions, that is more than valid, especially for advanced wine people like you in the trade. However, for me as a mere mortal, my cellar contains eighteen regions from France, six from Italy and a smattering from Spain, Portugal, Argentina and the US. At under 400 bottles ( maxing out my budget to avoid divorce) it has more than enough depth and breadth, with everyday drinkers and better bottles m to lay down, for every meal I can imagine. To be frank, if I had to choose, I could drink French and Italian wines exclusively for the rest of my life and not feel I am missing anything. Those two countries have such a variety of wines!
I agree 👍
You are absolutely right. Today we opened a bottle of Neuburger grape from Austria. Never tasted it before. And i am looking forward for some spanish whites from Rioja and Galicia to open during christmas … There is so so much to discover
I think the heavy hitters of wine YouTube , which is your channel is is one off, have more weight on what future wine drinkers will drink and enjoy than magazines which have a very old average reader age. This is probably also why the wine spectator top 100 list looks like it does, it is curated for a certain demographic. Unrelated, Produttori always delivers in any company. One of my favourite wines.
👍🇺🇲 lovely shirt also
It's funny and lovely that your t-shirt says “dopamine”:). I'm a dopamine researcher who loves wine and classic music❤
One would almost think that you and Konstantin collaborated on your reviews of the WS top ten. And you're both right!
Just curious, with you not being a fan of decanting/breathing, how long were these wines in the glass when you started tasting??
Where is Australia? It's not just Barossa and Maclaren vale. Margret river chardonnays go toe to toe with burgundy, Tasmania has some of the purest acidity driven wines in the world.
Another excelent video. I loved clos apalta and i think 2019 vintage is beatifull. I didn’t tasted 21 vingage yet.
Agnese, don’t hold back. 😂😂 Are these choices for their readers or their advertisers ? For the latter. Otherwise why include wines under @allocation. Or utterly unaffordable to ordinary people.
The top wine critics have always preferred a rather narrow range of wines. This was the case back in the 1990s when I first became interested in wine. The sort of wine that is in this year's top ten is similar to what was there thirty years ago. These are very good wines, and I would certainly enjoy them, but I agree that there is more to wine than the usual suspects.
Even in California, many of the top rated California wines are hard to get. Allocations go to long time customers who got on a list years ago and to some of the top stores and restaurants. Some are almost impossible to get and sell for ridiculous prices on the secondary market. Bourbon has a similar problem. I have tried a few of the top allocated wines and bourbons, and while they are good, I don't think it is worth the trouble to hunt for them or pay secondary prices when there are so many other great options that are a lot easier to get.
Nobody care Agnes, please stop making those videos and this message goes to all the wine YouTubers that indirectly encourage viewers to think this magazine is relevant. It’s a mafia and we all know.
I watch you and your channel I can’t give a shit about what bad tasters Americans think about our European wines.
Start your own NS rating, we love your opinion we love you and we love good honest culture.
Many thanks for your uprightness. WS TOP 100 look more as a pub than anything else. I can't wait for your top 10 of 2025. Cheers
Even my palate has aligned best for red wines with WS's, I definitely agree that Wine Spectator's Top-10 and Top-100 Lists should be more adventurous. That said, I look for certain wines from this list while hunt or other varietals/regions in other Top-100 lists. For instance, the last time I got a Wine Spectator #6 wine (2022 list's 2019 Mondavi "The Estates" Cabernet Sauvignon), I thoroughly enjoyed it and made the rare decision to get multiple bottles since I like to try more variety than commit too heavily with one specific vintage's wine. Having recently enjoyed the #6 wine's corresponding 2020 vintage, I am hoping the 2021 you enjoyed succeeds as the 2022's #6 did for me!
Tell us how you really feel 😀 Nice discussion 🥂
I’m a fan of your channel. Still, I’m mixed and a bit perplexed by videos like this. To be clear, these reactions aren’t specific to your videos.
On the one hand, I’m in agreement with the blandness of the WS100. Quality cradled in boredom. On the other, so what? I’m not their target audience, you’re not their target audience, I suspect a decent % of your viewers aren’t their target audience. So, whilst I’m very much in favour of protesting important causes, calling out the WS for being bland is a bit like complaining about a chain restaurant for not growing their own produce. Would it be better if they did? Certainly! Are there more important causes to champion, also certainly.
In a sense, it seems to me, that making videos expressing frustration with the WS10/100 could be criticised in similar ways to the actual list itself
Excellent analysis of the WS Top 10 list. I do wish you would have been able to acquire some of the US wines such as William Selyem and Aubert. Both are excellent producers and are worthy of positive reviews. The difference between top 10 and top 100 is not really all that big. Everyone has their own opinions and tastes. I really liked your discussion and I appreciate your honesty. Hopefully we all can taste quite a few of these wines over the next year and form our own opinions. Keep it up! Cheers.
I agree — more diversity would be nice. But when I look at my cellar, it’s mostly Burgundy, Bordeaux, Piedmont, Tuscany, Austria, and Spain.
Okay… maybe that’s because I live in Europe.
By the way: I love your enthusiastic way of talking about wine. Agnese is the number one wine YouTuber for me!
Excellent video! Cheers!
not even one wine from Greece, Germany and Austria..
I wish you would have taste all of them blind and give your usual honest review. It would be more impactful then verbal disagreement with WS list. WS seems like is filled with old guards and old generation of ' this is how we do it'. In addition to this, ratings from James suckling is equally mehhhhh.
Well start doing the Vinous list since it is the best one anyway
Your criticism of Wine Spectator is beautifully tempered by your enthusiasm for the wines themselves. What a genteel way to offer a critique! I am a WS subscriber who feels very conflicted by the publication and its influence for exactly the reasons you discuss. I rarely pass up the opportunity to try wines of lesser known regions, and I am routinely frustrated to discover that WS has reviewed few, if any, offerings from those areas. Thank you for another enlightening video.
What’s the criteria for WS when deciding this list? Because if it’s purely choosing the top wines for 2025 then they don’t need to ensure that there is at least 1 wine from each wine producing country.. but if they are doing a top 100 recommended wines to buy/ try, then yes they definitely should include at least 1 wine from each country
There is so much politics in these ratings. It does not show the best wines in the world, simple as. Anyways it is still exciting to see you taste them and give your honest reviews 🙂
From what I heard, they get be paid to rate the wine.
I guess as many have mentioned, the WS target demographic is 50+ yo men so unfortunately the list is probably what they (and I) would traditionally enjoy. Having said that we don’t go to WS for “real” insights. For that we watch you and other great YouTubers like Konstantin! 😅 I do like their choice of Giscours as no. 1 though. It does suggest that you don’t need to overpay for good Bordeaux.
At least I am not the only one who thinks they are too repetitive. Of course we have a Williams-Selyem Pinot Noir in the Top 10.
I love Chianti Classico, but they always pick Castello di Ama. There are so many others.
So glad you Duded Them!!!
Remember these wines are based on US availability too. I don't like when they repeat wines year after year though
Haha I like the provocative title
They are influential? For which market exactly?
Great video thanks looking forward to your top 10.
They should publish a top 100 Left Bank Bordeaux Red Blends of 2025, to me that would be useful. Austria doesn't compete with Left Bank Bordeaux Red Blends, so a Bordeaux heavy list of 100 wines with 1 from Austria doesn't make sense. Was this the best Veltliner in Austria? How many Austrian wines did they even consider? A guide on Austrian Veltliner makes sense too. Otherwise it just throwing darts at a board – we picked 10,000 great wines and here are the 1% we randomly decided to feature.
The Wine Expectorator must have a veneer of accessibility to North American lushes.
Thanks For The Excellent Reviews. Much Needed 👏
WS publishes Top 100, not Top 10, for exactly the reasons you articulate.
Where is Cote Rotie, Ermitage, Porselinenerg, Pedro ximinez, Amarone, Sauternes ???