This (http://www.winespectator.com/display/show?id=top100-2012) just hit my inbox and for sh!ts and giggles I decided to look it over to see what I’m supposed to be buying. Happily, there was not a single wine on the list that I’ve either purchased or drunk. Last year there was one (#75, 2009 Loring RRV pinot), but this year I was a perfect o-fer. I remember the days many years ago when my Dad and I would compare notes on who had more Top 100 wines in the cellar. My Dad, though he has stopped drinking wine, still likes to carry around a crumpled printout of the list all December in case he decides to pop into a wine shop, and over Christmas I will inevitably hear stories about the ones he was able to score, and their numerical ranking. As for me, I am very happy to be off the grid.
Though I haven’t succumbed to chasing any of the wines since mid-90s, I still enjoy reading the list, and the magazine when that comes out. I do have a few wines on the list: Canon la Gaf, Lynch Bages, Vieux Donjon, Monte Bello. One that I would have eventually bought, but has disappeared is the #2 Saint Cosme Gigondas, which I was really looking forward to drinking in the 2010 vintage.
While it’s not my favorite vintage of the wine, I did like the 2009 Ridge Monte Bello. I don’t remember the last time Ridge made the WS list though–a good thing. I am just partial to the producer I guess and my preferences don’t fit the Spectator’s model.
There are 2 wines I purchased to cellar, 1 I purchased to drink in the near term, and 5 others I’ve tasted. I have no intention to purchase any others for any of these reasons.
Same old song every year. Cries of “Pshaw! Who cares! Buncha losers!” while at the same time running through the list and secretly counting how many you have.
Myself, I have some, and if I see some of the cheapies, will definitely pick them up to try. What’s to lose?
Yep…must be great feeling so superior for not owning Ridge Monte Bello or Mascarello Monprivato…such crap…sheesh - where’s Bill Klapp when you actually need him?
Wow - that is really unbelievable actually given that the 09s and 10s were the ones eligible to make the list…baffling in every way - not a white, not a red - not even a Beaujolais. I guess ultimately I don’t really care but stunning decision by WS.
Interesting, the only ones that I had on the list were Rhone style - Saxum, Clos des Papes, Vieux Donjon and Chapoutier Bila Haut - have cuvees of Cosme Gigondas but those don’t count. Hmm, only 4 of the top wines of the year - I must not really be buying enough or trying hard enough to find the good stuff…
Sticking to the golf analogy…I must be the leader in the clubhouse. Clos des Papes, Vieux Donjon, Saxum, Cayuse, Williams-Selyem, Quilceda Creek and Spottswoode all have a spot in my cellar so far. Like Mike and Neil…I do hope to pick up the Leoville Barton at some point as well.
Just to be clear, I hope this does not devolve into generic WS bashing. I am not a subscriber anymore, but I do read some of the articles from time to time (especially Matt Kramer) and find several of their European reviewers to be credible sources of information.
My point is not to shit on the list, or the concept of the list, or the wines that were overlooked (yes, Burgundy this year), or overrepresented (pretty balanced this year), or were sold out since last year, or the retailers that use this marketing juggernaut as an excuse to raise prices and fleece unknowing or desperate consumers.
In fact, in general I think it is actually a pretty thoughtfully compiled list. I own 3 #1 wines (1985 Lynch Bages, 1989 Pichon Baron and 1995 Ducru), so I happen to think they sometimes make some pretty good choices sometimes, though the last of this bunch was WOTY in 1998! I would also not mind having some of the wines on this year’s list in my cellar, such as the aforementioned Monte Bello, St Cosme and Leoville Barton. Anyway, the point of this thread is simply to look back on how my wine buying/drinking habits have changed over the years, with the WS Top 100 list being a pretty consistent barometer of what’s “mainstream”. I put the quotes because of course every year they pick some unusual and interesting wines from less heralded regions (there was even a Savoie this year), and each year there are some surprises, but I find that over the years there has been significantly less overlap between Top 100 wines and what like to drink. Of course a large part of that is because the some of the self-proclaimed criteria for selecting Top 100 wines are availability and production, and I buy more and more stuff from small wineries with limited distribution. But mostly I think it reflects a change in what influences my buying decisions. Less important to me are the professional reviewers, and more important is this community, Cellartracker, and the palates of myself and people I trust.
The problem Scott, is that ending up with a wine on the list is essentially random chance, unless you print it and go looking after it came out. Your premise in the opening post essentially presumes pre-knowlege.
Heck - I no longer subscribe to a single publication that rates wines, and I still ended up with three wines from the list.
![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}