The “Wine of the Year” for 2022 by “Wine Spectator” comes from Napa Valley

The “Wine of the Year” for 2022, according to “Wine Spectator’s Top 100”, the most influential ranking in the world of wine critics, is the 2019 Oakville Double Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon from Schrader Cellars in Napa Valley, signed by one of the area’s top winemakers, Thomas Rivers Brown. An answer, writes “Wine Spectator”, even to those who believe Napa Valley”s great Cabernets must necessarily have triple-digit prices: at the shelf, the 2019 Oakville Double Diamond, comes in at $80 a bottle. It is what would be called a “second wine” in Bordeaux, capable of reflecting the winery’s style, at a more affordable price. It is made from grapes from vineyards raised in To Kalon, on Oakville’s western flank, arguably the most prestigious cru in all of Napa Valley: indeed, Kalon’s deep, well-drained clay and gravelly soils have given the wine world some of Napa Valley’s longest-running varietals since the 1960s. “With the pedigree of a great vineyard under the hand of a great winemaker, a second wine should never be overlooked. For its compelling combination of quality and price in a category awash in billed bottlings, the 2019 Schrader Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Double Diamond is our wine of the year for 2022”, “Wine Spectator” concludes.
For Italy, there are no less than three labels in the top 10: in second position, the Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2016 from Fattoria dei Barbi, a historic label in the area, which has been producing Brunello since 1892, and among the 25 wineries that, in 1967, created the DOC. A good sign, for what “is now without great doubt the best wine in Italy”, comments, to WineNews, Stefano Cinelli Colombini, at the helm of Fattoria dei Barbi. At position No. 5 stands, on the other hand, Tignanello 2019, Marchesi Antinori’s super Tuscan, born as an unconventional wine, forerunner of its time (the first vintage was 1971, ed.), from the genius of Niccolò and Piero Antinori with the help of Giacomo Tachis, capable of making a fundamental contribution to that extraordinary movement now known as the “Renaissance” of Italian wine. Finally, at position No. 8, the Maremma places, for the first time, a wine from one of the most authentic and wild territories of Italian and Tuscan wine: the 2019 Saffredi from Fattoria Le Pupille, a wine born from the will of producer Elisabetta Geppetti, who, since the mid-1980s, created the winery in Piagge del Maiano, in Grosseto.
Rounding out the Top 10, going backwards, the 2019 Napa Valley Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay at position No. 3 and the St.- Julien 2019 from Château Talbot (Bordeaux) at position No. 4, announced yesterday, then, at position No. 6 Robert Mondavi’s Oakville The Estates 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2019 from Château de Beaucastel at position No. 7, Columbia Valley (Washington State) Quilceda Creek 2018 Cabernet at position No. 9, and Louis Roederer’s 2014 Cristal, one of the most iconic Champagnes out there, at position No. 10.
A year ago, in the very small circle of the world’s top 10 wines according to “Wine Spectator” - which saw Napa Valley’s Dominus Estate 2018 at the top - there were two Italian labels: Brunello di Montalcino 2016 “Le Chiuse”, at No. 5, and Barolo Bricco Boschis 2016 Cavallotto, at No. 8. On Monday, the entire “Top 100” 2022 by “Wine Spectator” will be online, with WineNews’ usual analysis focusing on the Italian labels in the rankings.
Since 1988, only four times a wine from Italy has succeeded in being named “Wine of the Year”: Tenuta San Guido’s Sassicaia 2015 in 2018, Brunello di Montalcino 2001 Tenuta Nuova di Casanova di Neri in 2006, Tenuta dell'Ornellaia’s Ornellaia 1998 in 2001 and Antinori’s Solaia 1997 in 2000.