Greece and South Africa were the stars of our two-day Wines of the Year blind tasting, between them taking home the White, Red and Offbeat Wine of the Year gongs (turn the page to find out who they are), and with 14 other wines earning an average of 90 points or more.
While Italy had the greatest number of top-scorers last year, it was France’s turn to shine in 2023, with 17 wines rated Highly recommended or better, crowned by Champagne house Louis Roederer taking the Sparkling Wine of the Year for the second year running – this time with the multi-vintage Collection 243 cuvée repeating the success of Cristal 2013.
With nine top-scoring entries, Spain followed South Africa (10), and also secured repeat success in the Value Wine of the Year, thanks to Hidalgo’s La Gitana Manzanilla En Rama Sherry. Last year, it was the 2013 Reserva Blanco Rioja from Bodegas Muriel that triumphed.
PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION
Unlike other end-of-year wine round-ups which are just run-of-the-mill, reprinted lists or retastes of selected high-scoring/big-name wines, the wines entered into Decanter’s Wines of the Year are all personal favourites of our experts. They are recommendations by wine lovers for wine lovers – Decanter’s readers – of amazing classic wines, great-value buys and exciting discoveries they have tasted over the past 12 months. Decanter World Wine Awards Co-Chairs, Regional Chairs, key contributors and staff had the opportunity to nominate three wines each under the categories of Classic (a premium, textbook wine style), Value (under £20) and Offbeat (unusual grape, regions, winemaking method or unearthed gem).
At the time of nomination, the wines had to be available commercially (so no rare or ancient bottles) but due to low stock or exclusivity, we couldn’t source some bottles. Additionally, others we did source and taste had sold out by the time we published these results.
In the final analysis, from more than 180 recommendations we blind-tasted 153 wines in all, sourced from 29 countries and priced between £7 and £270. Wines were tasted within their category but, in order to ensure a level playing field, no prices were revealed.
On the following pages we highlight the 113 wines that scored 90 points or more overall, all of them offering great pleasure, whatever your taste or bank balance.
For in-depth insight from the Wines of the Year judges about the wines entered into the Classic, Value and Offbeat categories this year, see the individual reports and score tables on decanter.com/premium
THE JUDGES
Tina Gellie is Decanter’s Content Manager, joining in 2008 and most recently Regional Editor for Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. Before wine, she worked as a newspaper journalist in London and Australia
Anne Krebiehl MW is a widely published wine writer, editor and awarded author, and is a competition judge and lecturer on wine with a particular focus, among others, on Pinot Noir and traditional-method sparkling wine from around the globe
Michaela Morris is a wine writer, judge and educator with a particular focus on Italy. Based in Vancouver, she is a VIA Italian Wine Expert, a cavaleiro of the Confraria do Vinho do Porto, and a regular speaker at international wine events
Thank you to the following 63 people who contributed their nominations (some of which we were not able to source): Sarah Ahmed, Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, Amanda Barnes, Richard Baudains, Laura Bianco, Jim Budd, James Button, Michelle Cherutti-Kowal MW, Ch’ng Poh Tiong, Shana Clarke, Brianne Cohen, Gabriela Colotto, Jonathan Cristaldi, Peter Csizmadia-Honigh,
