Puente Alto Vineyard 2021 from Viña Don Melchor is Wine Spectator’s “Wine of The Year”

It is the Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Puente Alto Vineyard 2021 from Viña Don Melchor, an independent reality but related to the Concha y Toro galaxy, the “Wine of The Year”, the No. 1 in the world according to Wine Spectator’s “Top 100”, the most influential ranking in the market, which therefore crowned the Chilean wine as the “successor” of Brunello di Montalcino 2018 by Argiano, at the top in 2023.
Two, then, are the Italians in the “top 10”, namely a legend of Italian wine like Antinori’s Tignanello 2021, at No. 3 (and already at No. 5 in 2022, with the 2019 vintage), and a great flagship of Langhe like G.D. Vajra’s Barolo Albe 2020, at No. 9. With the top 10 positions rounded out by American and French wines: at No. 2 is Beaulieu Vineyard’s 2021 Georges de Latour Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, at No. 4 Faust’s 2021 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Chimney Rock’s 2021 Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon, again from California, at No. 5, by Drouhin Oregon Roserock’s Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills 2022, the Oregon winery of French Maison Joseph Drouhin, at No. 6 , preceding, at No. 7, Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau 2020, at No. 8, Williams Selyem’s Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Eastside Road Neighbors 2022, and Ramey’s Chardonnay Russian River Valley 2022, at No. 10. On Monday, November 18, the entire “Top 100” will be unveiled, which had as many as 24 Italian labels in 2023. Which, thus far, have been at No. 1 five times. As mentioned, with Argiano’s Brunello di Montalcino 2018 in 2023, in a record obtained, previously, by Antinori’s Solaia 1997 in 2000, Tenuta dell’Ornellaia’s Ornellaia 1998 in 2001 (now owned by Frescobaldi, at the time by Lodovico Antinori, ed.), Tenuta Nuova di Casanova di Neri’s Brunello di Montalcino 2001 in 2006, and Tenuta San Guido’s Sassicaia 2015 in 2018.