Seghesio Does it Again: Wine Spectator Top 10 of 2008

Wednesday, November 12, 2008



About a month ago, I heralded the Seghesio Sonoma County Zinfandel as a super-value red. On Monday of this week as part of Wine Spectator's annual Top 100 unveiling, it was announced that Seghesio's high-production garden-variety Sonoma County Zin was one of their top wines of the year. Quite an achievement for such a mass-produced wine and a Zinfandel of all things which is not the most prestigious varietal. Good call by Spectator I say.

Their Top 100 list is based on the following criteria:
  • Quality
  • Value
  • Availability
  • An X-factor called "excitement"
It should be noted that this list is *not* a list of the "best" wines of the year- that's easy enough to calculate by searching their database and sorting on score. Rather, this is their list of "now" wines- the wines that really stood out for the past year. I think it's interesting. I'm not sure whether this will create a spike in demand for the '07 Seghesio but I will be more likely to pick up a couple of bottles than I would have been otherwise. I recall how the market moved on last year's #1, the 2005 Clos des Papes Chateaufeuf-du-Pape once announced. At release it was 98 points/$80. Last I saw it in a wine store it was $250 which makes $80 seem like a bargain. It would've made a good wine to lay down for my 3-year old (who was born in '05).

Have a look at historical WS Top 100s here.

Update: The #1 Wine on this year's list was the 2005 Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta Colchagua Valley with a release price of $75.


Further reading:
Question of the Day: Do you pay any atention to this list? Or do you think it's a bunch of nonsense?

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