Several weeks ago I bought a wine that resonates deep with me. Not made every year, the winery only uses the best juice from select years to assemble an iconic, long lived beauty. I convinced my friends Keef and Arty to purchase two bottles as well. Fast forward to the latest issue of a well known wine magazine- it was named the top wine of 2020. Imagine my surprise! That issue made me realize that I have not done a retrospective ranking of the year for quite some time. As you may know, I use a combination of points and price to come up with a Star Rating. If a wine gets 5 stars then it is a worthy contender for wine of the year. I have had the opportunity to try many delicious wines with my friends through the Virtual Wine Tasting Company. I have also been privy to my mate’s cellar, which features heavily in the top 2020 wines. Another thing I did in 2020 was join several wine clubs. Call me a snob, but I never thought someone else should be picking my wines- I was wrong. There are several clubs out there but only one will garner my business going forward. Splash Wines offered up a few interesting wines at rock bottom cost but shipped three bottles of every wine. I was not interested in volume, variety being key to expanding my palate. Next up was First Leaf which offered a decent selection but basically forced you to buy every month or else you continually had to change shipping dates. They had a mixed bag of quality with several outstanding 5 star wines alongside some 2 and 3 star efforts. I have had the most success with Naked Wines who have a higher quality selection and are more consistent. They have a different model that basically subsidizes the winemakers with upfront money ($40 per month in my case) that goes into my piggy bank. I can use it any time to select from their offerings. They have a slightly more limited selection to chose from but I have enjoyed most of their wines. If you want a $100 credit from them, use this Link.
It is difficult to narrow down such great wines but it is a fun retrospective to skim through all the entries of the past year. Here they are, with the top three heading this group of stunning wines:
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