The world’s 30 Best Wines in 2019

Forbes | By Eustacia Huen | March 25, 2019 | Original Link

When it comes to choosing wines, sometimes you just want to go for the popular choice. If that resonates with you, then don’t miss Vivino’s latest 2019 Wine Style Award, which celebrates the best 1,640 wines across 164 different styles based on 40 million reviews and 120 million ratings on the wine app and website, according to founder Heini Zachariassen.

Like getting a recommendation from a fellow wine drinker (except there are more than 35 million of them), this one-of-a-kind publicly determined industry award shares a unique glimpse of different wine trends.

Zachariassen noted,

There are no submissions, no payments and no experts involved. Every single wine in the world has an opportunity to compete in the Vivino Wine Style Awards and we fully trust that our community of wine drinkers will identify the best of the best.

This year’s award reveals some fascinating consumer preferences such as a continued rise of female winemakers; the waning popularity of Chardonnay; and an increased interest in natural wines, Portuguese white wines, plus lesser-known Pinot Noirs from Patagonia and Tasmania; among other takeaways.

The comprehensive list highlights several key categories, including the best reds, whites, sparkling wines, plus wines based on different countries of origin and styles. True to Vivino’s democratic approach, each of the scores (out of five) is rated based on users’ criteria, yet there are some common standards such as the wine’s taste profile and overall quality.

Naturally, some may wonder if such an open approach reaps inconsistent results, but Zachariassen believes Vivino’s five-point scale is generally more familiar to consumers across user-generated websites and apps as opposed to the traditional 100-point scoring system. Therefore, in studying more than 100,000 expert ratings plus comparing them to Vivino ratings—“what [they] found is a 4.0 Vivino rating correlates with a 90-point expert rating.”

There is also the ongoing concern of fake reviews for user-rated platforms such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. So how does Vivino keep its award list fair and honest?

According to Zachariassen, while the company has not encountered any significant issues with fraud, it enforces different measures to spot and correct data manipulation. For instance, a genuinely popular wine will get a lot of scans, so when there is one with too many ratings relative to very few scans, the company’s wine data team and business intelligence team would be alerted to take a deeper dive into the data.

To qualify for the award, each wine must receive a least 50 ratings in the calendar year. “This gives us a credible amount of data to work with while still being able to showcase a wide range of wines, not just the big guys. We also have a team of data experts who review every single wine to ensure the data is accurate.”

With price points ranging from less than $20 for a Domaine de Fontsainte Gris de Gris Corbières Rosé 2017 to thousands of dollars for vintage or rarer wines, here’s Vivino’s list of the world’s top 30 wines.

1. Scarecrow Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 ($695)
2. Domaine de La Romanée-Conti Burgundy Côte de Nuits Red 2000 ($4,500)
3. Soldera Tuscan Red 2006 ($475)
4. Château d’Yquem Bordeaux Sauternes 2001 ($800)
5. Taylor’s Portuguese Port 1968 ($250)
6. Domaine de La Romanée-Conti Burgundy Côte de Nuits Red 2011 ($2,999)
7. Viñedo Chadwick Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 (N/A)
8. Masseto Tuscan Red 2005 ($699)
9. Cartuxa Portuguese Alentejo Red 2005 (N/A)
10. Pétrus Bordeaux 2005 ($3,200)
11. Monteviejo Argentinian Malbec 2010 (N/A)
12. Casa Ferreirinha Portuguese Douro Red 1999 (N/A)
13. Hundred Acre Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 ($439)
14. Realm Napa Valley Bordeaux Blend 2013 (N/A)
15. Hundred Acre Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 ($479)
16. Palmaz Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 ($185)
17. Vega Sicilia Spanish Ribera Del Duero Red 1995 ($480)
18. Château La Mission Haut-Brion Bordeaux Pessac-Léognan 1989 ($329)
19. Viña Cobos Argentinian Malbec 2013 (N/A)
20. Château Latour Bordeaux Pauillac 1982 ($2,500)
21. Viña Cobos Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon – Malbec 2013 (N/A)
22. Marchesi Fumanelli Italian Amarone 2010 (N/A)
23. Casanova di Neri Italian Brunello 2010 ($320)
24. Château Margaux Bordeaux Margaux 2010 ($850)
25. Château Lafite Rothschild Bordeaux Pauillac 2003 ($1,299)
26. Frank Family Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Patriarch 2014 ($225)
27. Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Bordeaux Blend 2002 ($229)
28. Krug French Champagne Vintage 1988 ($2,200)
29. Quintarelli Giuseppe Italian Amarone 2003 ($1,200)
30. Château Cheval Blanc Bordeaux Saint-Émilion 1990 ($1,000)

Prices vary based on user’s location.