The hunt for red centobers

Don't waste your time looking up "centobers", since I just made the word up after 45 seconds of hard thinking, to mean the best 100. There are not many words that rhyme or even sound like "October" to begin with, let alone that mean the top or best. A better but less interesting title would be "The hunt for the Wine Spectator Top 100, which for me is mostly reds". So now you see, maybe "red centobers" doesn't sound so bad.

Every year, the Wine Spectator puts out their top 100 wines in Feb. It's a diverse mix of wines chosen based on: score well, represent their region well, have something special about them, are good values and have good availability. Like most of the top XYZ lists put forth, it is an arbitrary decision by the authors. Oenophiles debate the list I'm sure. But more importantly it has and continues to serve useful purpose for me. It lets me know when I'm drinking world class wines.

I have no illusion the WS Top 100 can be even remotely authoratative or even comprehensive. It is their arbitrary picks. But the wine world is so diverse, how do you know the stuff you like or are buying is any good? So it is nice to have a simple sign post that essentially says: this wine is world class for its price, region and varietal. That's what the WS T100 tells me.

I remember when when I was first starting to get into wines on my student like budget, I would hunt down any 90 pointer for under $10. The Top 100 list was filled with strange, exotic and mostly expensive wines I'd never heard of. The eight or nine that were under $10 were magnets, if I could find them. Some of the more memorable ones were the Rosemount 1990's Shiraz and the Hogue 199x Merlots. I would be happy to find two wines on this list.

Since the value wins in the Top 100 tend to appear in the second half, when paying at most $10, I rarely had any wines ranked higher than say 60. But that started to change once I was willing to pay a bit more and spend more time searching these wines out.

Anyways, back to today. Here's what I have the 2007 list, where the number is where the wine was on the WS list.

• 1 - I ordered this Italian red before the T 100 list came out, but after the 96 score was known. When it came in, I hadn't realized this was the #1 wine. Only 1 bottle. $48. I had forgotten why I was buying this expensive bottle and questioned if it was a mistake. The seller said he "would gladly take it back, heh, heh". And I found out what it was.
  
• 4 - Got two bottles of the Don Melchor Chilean cab. $35
• 11 - Paid a good $65 each for 3 bottles of this Chateauneuf du Papes
• 16 - Loaded up on the Langmeil Aussie Shiraz for only $20
• 35 - Costco had this Jos Jos Prum Riesling for $29, so I got several
• 37 - Matua Sauv Blanc for under $18.... obvious
• 40 - Kim Crawford Sauv Blanc for under $16... also got a few of this
• 64 - A 91 pt Aussie Shiraz for under $10... a case... though I haven't liked the one bottle I've tried, though I really liked the previous years, this one needs some time
  
• 66 - this Italian Pinot Grigio remains in the cellar for now
• 76 - this Italian Falangina white tastes like sour peach pits...and almost has a sparkly feel....I don't care for it but have 4+ bottles left
  
• 83 - I've liked the Perrin and Fils Cote du Rhone's a lot and this Vacqueyras was only $18.

Based on my increased buying since then, I think I'll have at least 10 wines on the 2008 Top 100, again, if not 15.