San Francisco, CA, November 30, 2007 -
To commemorate another great year in American wine, Doug Wilder, Director of California Acquisitions & Sales at Vinfolio, a premier wine store and collector services company, released his annual top 25 wines of the year. Wilder, who writes a free weekly wineletter, The Wilder Side of California, with his reviews and scores of wines most often before they are reviewed by major critics, tasted over 1,200 wines in 2007 and traveled hundreds of miles visiting wineries from Santa Ynez to Dundee, Oregon. The list showcases the best 2% of wines he tasted during the year, with a particular emphasis on wines that delivered quality, value and rarity.
"One thing the 2007 list makes clear is that dirt matters," says Wilder who notes that 18 of the wines on the Top 25 list were made from single vineyard or estate grown grapes. "The care in cultivation of grapes from these vineyards, combined with the unique wines produced from them, is driving the high end of the domestic market."
Wilder also highlighted Russell From of Herman Story as his winemaker of the year. Two of From's wines made the list including the 2005 Larner Vineyard Grenache and the 2005 Larner Vineyard Syrah, Other highlights include the 2006 Shea Vineyard and 2006 Hyland Vineyard Pinot Noirs from Auteur, whose winemaker Ken Juhasz was the 2006 winemaker of the year.
Making the list for 2007 are the following wines, which all scored between 94-100 points on Wilder's scale, in order of points received:
2006 Auteur Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard 100 points
2005 Scholium Project Cena Trimalchionis 98 points
2005 Westrey Chardonnay Reserve 98 points
2005 Donum Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 97 points
2004 Ramey Cabernet Sauvignon Jericho Canyon 97 points
2004 Scherrer Chardonnay Scherrer Vineyard 97 points
2004 Andrew Will Red Wine Champoux Vineyard 96 points
2005 Dierberg Chardonnay Estate 96 points
2005 Dierberg Pinot Noir Estate 96 points
2004 Fidelitas Cabernet Sauvignon Champoux Vineyard 96 points
2006 Hartwell Sauvignon Blanc 96 points
2005 Herman Story Grenache Larner Vineyard 96 points
2004 Keever Cabernet Sauvignon 96 points
2005 Stolpman White Wine L'Avion 96 points
2005 Togni, Philip Cabernet Sauvignon 96 points
2006 Auteur Pinot Noir Hyland Vineyard 95 points
2004 Diamond Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon 95 points
2005 Herman Story Syrah Larner Vineyard 95 points
2005 Maldonado Chardonnay 95 points
2005 Owen Roe Red Wine Walla Walla 95 points
2005 Hanzell Chardonnay 94 points
2004 Hourglass Cabernet Sauvignon 94 points
2005 Koehler Grenache 94 points
2005 Neiman Chardonnay 94 points
2005 Owen Roe Yakima Valley 94 points
The list with Wilder's reviews can be found at: http://www.vinfolio.com/do/wilder
Based in San Francisco, Vinfolio (www.vinfolio.com) sells fine wine and services to wine collectors and enthusiasts. Its guiding principle is "Fine wine, finer service," demonstrating Vinfolio's unparalleled level of personalized customer service and collector services. From an extensive selection of over 2,000 wines to VinCellar™, its free online cellar management software, to collector services (including on-site inventorying and full-service storage), Vinfolio delivers "Fine wine, finer service". Vinfolio was founded in 2003 by CEO Stephen J. Bachmann, who incorporated his expertise in technology and finance with his passion for wine. For more information on Vinfolio visit www.vinfolio.com.