WINES OF THE YEAR

Are you resolved to drink better in 2024 and looking for a unique list of classic wines, great buys under £20, and one-off quirky options? The Decanter team and our global experts nominated some of their favourites from 2023, which we then tasted blind to come up with a distinctive list of 113 top bottles scoring 90 points and above

- TINA GELLIE

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).