Wine Spectator’s Top 100 List 2008 – Wines 4, 3 and 2
Yesterday Wine Spectator revealed their fifth and sixth best wines of the year. Today they have revealed wines four, three and two.
Château Guiraud
Sauternes 2005
97 points / $57
9,165 cases made
France
Bordeaux’s sweet wines shared the limelight in the region’s legendary 2005 vintage. Many châteaus, like Guiraud, long under the direction of Xavier Planty, produced their best wine ever. During the harvest, grape pickers passed painstakingly through the estate’s 210 acres of 35-year-old Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc vineyards, selecting only grapes affected by botrytis. By harvest’s end, each acre yielded only enough grapes for 54 cases of wine, with about 20 percent of that set aside for the estate’s second label.
Quinta do Crasto
Douro Reserva Old Vines 2005
95 points / $40
1,500 cases imported
Portugal
This red from Portugal’s Douro River Valley is at the crest of the new wave of high-quality table wines issuing from the historic heartland of Port. Up to 30 different grape varieties from old-vine vineyards compose this refined blend. Some of the grapes are foot-trodden in lagares during initial fermentation, and the wine is then aged 18 months in French (85 percent) and American oak. It is neither fined nor filtered before bottling. The winemaking team includes Manuel Lobo, Dominic Morris and Tomás Roquette.
Wine #2
Château Rauzan-Ségla
Margaux 2005
97 points / $100
10,000 cases made
France
Estate manager John Kolasa claims that nature did the lion’s share of the work in 2005, leaving him and his team with a relatively simple job. Yet vast investment at the estate since the mid-1990s by the owners, who also control Chanel, enabled Rauzan to reap the benefits of a great growing season. The estate’s grand vin, which reached a quality pinnacle in 2005, is 54.5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 39 percent Merlot, 5 percent Petit Verdot and 1.5 percent Cabernet Franc, selected from 74 of the 128.5 acres of vineyards.
Tomorrow is the big day: Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year! Before then check out the above links to the top wines to see tasting notes for each wine along with video of a tasting of the wine.
Related posts:
- Wine Spectator Top 100 List 2008 – Wines 8 and 7
- Wine Spectator Top 100 List 2008 – Wines 6 and 5
- Wine Spectator Top 100 List 2008 – Wines 10 and 9
- Wine Spectator’s Top Wine List 2008 – The Top Wine
- Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines 2008
Comments
Leave a Reply
