Jeez Alice! Now I know why we never got any Arpent here in CA! Instead, I slurped my way through many bottles of their "PIF", enjoying every minute of it (on your recommendation, I might add).
Can't afford many CdPs anymore, and I don't believe the price hikes are entirely the Euro's fault. Thank God Parker & Co don't like Loire reds!

Nah. Wine of the year is Angeli Anjou La Lune 2005!

Yellow Tail Shiraz South Eastern Australia
The Reserve 2005 coming in at #72 (90 points) sealed the deal for me....I'm moving....

So you're the culprit - I thought it was Asimov and the Times.

"If this post is sounding like a thinly veiled selfish rant, you’re right. Asimov and Bruni are not telling anyone on this site anything new, they’re preaching to the choir. Just try and find a bottle of L’Arpent Rouge this week."

The presence of the Yellow Tail on the list would be plenty reason to move out of the country, if the Spectator was voted in to run things I'd be on the first canoe across the Atlantic and go live in a cave in the Loire.

After looking over the 100 list it seems that the point of such a list is that there's enough room to appease advertisers.

Somehow the vision of seeing either Matthews or Sanderson happily drinking Yellow Tail seems like something out of Monty Python.

I shouldn't tell you this, but they still have L'Arpent at Harlem Vintage. I'm busy draining their supply! Here's to the Real Wine of the Year.

And, I understand that Chambers will be getting in a few more cases.

This, by the way, is the second time a pineau d'aunis was a winner at the New York Times Thanksgiving. I think the first time was Chaussard's Longue Vigne. Astor Place blasted through it in a few hours. And then got lots of complaints because people thinking it was something like Yellow Tail were disappointed and didn't quite understand.

What if Wine Spectator chose their wine of the year the way Time Magazine chooses their "Man of the Year?" In that, it's not necessarily the BEST in their opinion, but the most newsworthy, controversial, evil, or influential--like the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of wine, or the You Tube--but with wine, and explain why. Now that would be interesting.

I found Close Roche Blanche kind of by accident earlier this year and bought up all that I could find in SF. As a relative neophyte, it's nice to have the confirmation that not only to SOME people agree with my palette, but so do a lot of people. Cheers!

Nicely called, from morning coffee to canoeing to a cave in the Loire.

I christened the Clos Roche Blanche Sauvignon my wine of the year in 06 for similar reasons -- it's got to be a wine that will pick you up and that you can pick up everyday. (And I pretty much did, pairing it with Afghan food, hauling it across borders... shouldn't these be the things you'd expect the Wine Spec crew would be doing all year long to arrive at their answer?)

So, without doubt, the part of your post that really made me sit up was: "The wine of the year was from a tasting and not from drinking?"

The rhetorical question of the year! And with that, you've proven to me it's an in-crowd decision that's all about the ads.

Damn, that's good wine.

based on the same criteria for wine of the year (comforting, personal, would enjoy it every day), this is the post of the year, for me. I've read it four times now and i like it more each time.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "WINE OF THE YEAR," or even a "Top 100 Wines of the Year." There are, however, still too many interesting wines to count. Humble and honest wines. Wines that make you want to drink more on a warm breezy summer day out on the deck, with the sun glancing off the bay and a cool steamed Dungeness crab, a salad and a baguette on the table. Wines that say "wild flowers" and wines that say "limestone," wines that say all sorts of stuff. Grand old wines you will remember for decades. Silly young wines that work just fine right now. Need I go on?

Few if any of these wines make it onto the Wine Speculator's "Top 100" list -- and when they do, it seems to be largely by the chance intersection of the criteria applied and the wine's most obvious characteristics (i.e., the wine stands up and shouts when it is tossed in a blind tasting with 20 other victims, and may even be heard over the static generated by the taster's penchant for torching too many cigarettes and cigars and eating way too much for his own good, and it is more or less available at any retailer with a reasonably broad selection on offer).

Ten days to two weeks ago, 2005 Clos des Papes was readily available and selling at full bore retail in the $60 to $70 per bottle range, $125 to $150 per magnum. Still a lot of money for what it is, but not completely beyond reality given the weak dollar and the attention the producer has gotten from Herr Parker and the Wine Speculator over the past few years. But since it was anointed Numero Uno, "la rubia que todos quieren," the wine has been allocated and is selling for between $175 and $250 per bottle. I've seen magnums offered at $500 and up.

To paraphrase a not so great man: "there's a lemming born every minute." So raise your glass of Chinon "Les Picasses," or Fleurie "Clos de la Roilette," or Domaine Tempier rose, or Mugnier Chambolle, or whatever happens to be at hand or in the cellar that strikes your fancy. Toast the lemmings and thank heavens you are not one of the folks in that long line marching over the brink.

Found one.....Tasted it.......Loved it!

Fun, fun, wine.

Thanks for exposing me to a new producer, grape, and wine today.