Wine Spectator and the Generational Divide in Making "Best Of" Wine Lists

The Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines is for those who want to get their hands on wines

It’s that time of year, which is why this is the second installment of the FERMENTATION Newsletter in just a few days where I take a look at a Top Wines of the Year list. In the earlier post I wanted to showcase how one prominent wine media outlet made DEI work for its “Best Wines of the Year” list. Today, we take a close look at the granddaddy of year-end lists: Wine Spectator’s Top 100 List of 2024.

This is the 36th year Wine Spectator has released a Top 100 list. As with past years, the list is not merely a recitation of the top-scoring wines placed in order. It’s something more as Wine Spectator explains:

“Each year, Wine Spectator editors survey the wines reviewed over the previous 12 months and select our Top 100, based on quality, value, availability and excitement. This annual list honors successful wineries, regions and vintages around the world.”

I’m honestly less interested in the specific wines that were placed on the list in 2024 than I am in breaking down the list to get a sense of which slices of the wine world are most represented. So what follows are basically statistics that highlight wine origin, varietals, price, scores, value, etc. What’s notable is that the highest-rated wine on the list does not come in at 100 points. Moreover, there is not a single First Growth, Grand Cru Burgundy, or Grand Cru Champagne on the list. Here is the breakdown: