Each year, the editors of the Wine Spectator select and highlight the most exciting wines from the thousands they review during the course of the year.
Three Italian wines feature in the first 20 positions of their prestigious Top 100 list of 2013: two Barolos and a Chianti Classico.
The Barolo by Giuseppe Mascarello & Figlio ranks sixth; the Barolo Albe 2008 by G.D. Vajra ranks 16th and the Chianti Classico Poggerino ranks 18th.
Here is the description of the Barolo by Giuseppe Mascarello & Figlio from the Wine Spectator website: “The Mascarello family has grown grapes in Barolo for generations, founding its winery in 1881. Winemaker Mauro Mascarello and son Giuseppe ferment their Nebbiolo in oak vats, leaving it on the skins for roughly three weeks and then aging it three years in large oak casks. Monprivato is a top site covering a south-facing slope just outside the town of Castiglione Falleto, featuring white and gray marl soils that create wines of great perfume and structure, but also elegance. Tasting Note: Detailed and fragrant, offering floral, strawberry, cherry, licorice and spice flavors, this is elegant and underlined by a strong mineral streak. Well-proportioned, picking up intensity and complexity on the long, savory finish. Extremely fresh and classy. Best from 2016 through 2035.”
Overall, 16 of the 100 top quality wines are Italian.
The top 100 wines are selected on quality, value, availability (based on the number of cases either made or imported into the United States) and an “X-factor” that stands for excitement. As specified on the Wine Spectator website, “this year, we have given more emphasis than ever before to the X-factor—the intensity of interest the wines excited by way of their singularity or authenticity.”
The average score of the wines in this year’s Top 100 is 93 points and the average price $51, a great quality/price ratio. The first Italian wine in the list, the Barolo by Giuseppe Mascarello & Figlio, scored 96.
To view the full list, go to: http://2013.top100.winespectator.com/
