TOP WINES OF 2023

We're celebrating this year's JamesSuckling.com Top 100 Wines of the Year with a bottle of champagne.

It's not just an incredible bottle of champagne, it's the best wine we rated out of the almost 39,000 reviewed by me and my team of seven tasters/editors in the past 12 months. It's the largest number of wines we've ever reviewed in a year, beating last year's record of around 32,000.

A significant amount of wines were rated in our office in Hong Kong, but most were tasted on the road during visits to countries and regions around the world, from France, Spain, and Italy to the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, not to mention Argentina and Chile. We lost count of how many miles we racked up on flights, or the literally hundreds of vineyards and winemakers we visited. It was hard work but we all loved it-learning, discovering, and tasting.

However, it was a July tasting in Champagne of the newest release of Laurent-Perrier's Champagne Grand Siècle Grande Cuvée N26 that inspired us the most in 2023. It's a sensational bottle that shows incredible texture, depth, and complexity.

Its great structure will keep it fresh and vivid for a very long time, yet it's equally energetic and intense, highlighting its beauty now.

Champagne producers have always said their bottles are first great wines and then great champagnes, and this is certainly the case with the Grand Siècle Grande Cuvée N26.

It also highlights how Champagne may be one of the most exciting regions in France and Europe at the moment. Climate change may have benefited the region, with champagnes in most vintages now being richer and drier with slightly more alcohol about 12 percent on average. It's also increased the production of table wines in the area, with pinot noirs and chardonnays now comparing with the best of Burgundy.