The year's best wine values

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Happy New Year! As we move into the year 2008, here's my annual New Year's year report on the best - and the best values - of the wines I've reviewed during the past 12 months.

As I do at the end of every year at this time, I've sorted all my wine-tasting reports of the year to reveal the specific wines that I've rated best for both quality and value. These are the wines that showed exceptional value at all price points, earning the admiring moniker that online wine "geeks" call "Quality-Price Ratio" or, for short, "QPR."

Many of the recent trends that we've recorded last year and the year before seemed to continue in 2008: Artisanal, small-farm wineries came under some pressure as international corporations buy up properties and write distribution agreements with producers around the world. The combination of continued warm weather in many wine regions and a perception that the public wants big, fruity, highly alcoholic wines that win high ratings points continues to make "international" wines in this style ever more available.

Curiously, only 51 of the wines I tasted during 2008 made my "honor roll" for top rank in quality and value; this is down from 56 top-QPR wines in 2007 and 60 the year befor that. While this trend isn't large, it's consistent enough to suggest that it's becoming more and more difficult to find wines of true interest at "everyday" price points.

A decade ago it was still easy to find interesting wines at $5; a few years ago the dividing line had risen to $10. Now I find that most of my wines for everyday consumption range from $12 to $20. Will prices continue to rise in the face of a possible global recsssion? The year 2009 should be an interesting time for wine consumers.

Looking more closely at my top quality wines of the year, as noted, 51 made the cut. Ten of those sold for $10 or less, the great value Cave de Montagnac 2006 Picpoul de Pinet marking the low end at $7.99. Surprisingly, I spent over $20 for only two of my top-value wines this year; all the rest fell in the $10 to $20 range.

Sorted by country or region, this year's QPR list includes 17 from perennial winner France, 13 from Italy and - jumping up in the race this year, perhaps because of the dollar's low valuation against the Euro, 13 from the United States (including 11 from California and one each from Oregon and Washington State). Filling out the list were Australia, 3; and one each from Argentina, Austria, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain.

Here are all the top-value wines that I tasted during 2007, ranked in order of the actual retail price that I paid. You may click each link to view a more detailed tasting note in our standard "shelf-hanger" format. In most instances, I purchased these wines from retail shops in and around Louisville, Ky.; a few came from California Wine Club or were hand-carried back from New York City, most from the excellent Chambers Street Wines. For your shopping convenience, I have added specific links for each wine to the databases at Wine-Searcher.com to help you compare prices and check availability at selected vendors online.

Wines retailing for more than $20

Mosby 2005 "Ossessione" Marche Rosso (Italy), $26. (Find it on Wine-Searcher.com)
Emilio Lustau Palo Cortado "Peninsula" Sherry (Spain), $21.99. (Find it on Wine-Searcher.com)

Wines retailing from $15 to $20

Wines retailing for less than $15

To submit your personal QPR favorites, post them as a tasting note on our online WineLovers Discussion Group.

Robin Garr's best value wines of 2008

Robin Garr's best value wines of 2007

Robin Garr's best value wines of 2006

Robin Garr's best value wines of 2005

Robin Garr's best value wines of 2004

Robin Garr's best value wines of 2003

Robin Garr's best value wines of 2002

Best value wines of 2001

Best wines over $12 of 2001

QPR picks for 2000

Cliffwood Organic Works