Everyone knows how expensive the best French wines are to buy, like our global Wine of the Year, the Laurent-Perrier Champagne Grand Siècle Grande Cuvée N.26. It is an amazing 100-point wine but it costs about $235 a bottle.
So it may come as a surprise that our French Wine of the Year is a pinot gris, and its price is around just $90 a bottle. The perfect-scoring Domaine Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Alsace Grand Cru Rangen de Thann Clos Saint Urbain 2021 hails from Alsace’s Rangen vineyard, an ultra-steep, low-yielding grand cru site with volcanic stony soils. Domaine Zind Humbrecht’s 2.5-hectare plot of biodynamically grown pinot gris produced a brilliant and impeccably balanced expression of the variety in 2021, achieving an overwhelming smoky and salty minerality that makes this wine one of a kind.
2021 was a unique vintage in Alsace, with ultra-low yields. “We lost a lot of grapes due to downy mildew and early spring frost,” said the owner of Zind Humbrecht, Olivier Humbrecht, whose son, Pierre-Emile, made the 2021 pinot gris . But producers like Domaine Zind Humbrecht who were uncompromising in their selection made exceptional wines. Many agreed that it was their best vintage for pinot gris in a very long time.
And while the 3,500-bottle production of the Pinot Gris Clos Saint Urbain 2021 was too small to qualify it for our World Top 100 list, which required a minimum production of 500 cases of 12 bottles (we require production of 250 cases of 12 bottles for our Top 100 country lists), it is still widely distributed and readily found on Wine Searcher.
The other 11 Alsatian wines in this year’s Top 100 can also be found for less than $100. Among them are enormously concentrated dry wines like the Domaine Barmes-Buecher Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Hengst 2021, at No. 3, and the Muré Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Vorbourg Clos Saint Landelin 2019 at No. 7.
READ MORE CHAMPAGNE ANNUAL REPORT: FRESHNESS AND ENERGY COME TO THE TABLE
Alsatian pinot noirs in the Top 100 include offerings from Albert Mann (No. 17 and No. 87) and Melanie Pfister (No. 43). These firmly stand their ground amid the sea of white from France.
Slotting in at No. 2 in France is our World No. 1, Laurent-Perrier’s Grande Cuvée N.26 NV. Another perfect-scoring wine, it’s a blend of three exceptional vintages in the region – 2012, 2008 and 2007 – that together create a compelling, electric and timeless offering. It highlights Champagne’s golden era in an age of warming vintages.
There are nine other Champagnes among our French Top 100, including another multi-vintage, the Krug Champagne Grande Cuvée 171ème Edition NV (No. 48), but the powerful 2008 vintage also showed strong, placing the Dom Pérignon Champagne Rosé Vintage 2008 at No. 64, the Marguet Champagne Bouzy Grand Cru Brut Nature 2018 at No. 76 and the Lanson Champagne Clos Lanson Extra Brut 2008 at No. 84.
We excluded some other top Champagnes, like the Henri Giraud Champagne Argonne Brut Rosé 2013, because of their high prices. Wines like the Marguet Champagne Bouzy Grand Cru Brut Nature 2018 (No. 76) and Château de Bligny Champagne 6 Cepages Brut Nature NV (No. 88), however, are breathtaking examples that can be found at around $80.
Bordeaux landed the highest number of wines of any French region on our Top 100 list, with 54. Most were from the warm and dry 2020 vintage, with the exception of d’Yquem’s fascinating dry white wine from 2021 (No. 100.)
2020 was the third, and possibly best, of a fantastic trio of vintages including 2018 and 2019. The reds from the year are rich and structured yet harmonized and refined. Prime examples are the Domaine de Chevalier Pessac-Léognan 2020, the Château La Fleur-Pétrus Pomerol 2020 and the Château Figeac St.-Emilion 2020, at Nos. 4, 5 and 6, respectively. The latter two, from Bordeaux’s Right Bank, are both perfect wines that can be found for under $300, while the Domaine de Chevalier is just one point off but is excellent in both quality and average price, at around $85.
READ MORE BORDEAUX 2020 TASTING REPORT: BRILLIANCE FROM A BLEAK YEAR
Wines from the Rhone Valley excelled this year, too, with 15 wines on the list, including two from the same highly esteemed site, one a pure syrah and the other a pure marsanne, both biodynamically grown from the warm 2020 vintage. The M. Chapoutier Ermitage L’Ermite 2020 (N. 10) is a perfect expression of Hermitage, a masterpiece of mountain freshness, concentration and minerality. The combination of intensity and freshness also wowed us in M. Chapoutier’s Ermitage Blanc De L’Orée 2020 (No. 38). Alongside these giants, check out exciting wines like the Domaine Gramenon Côtes-du-Rhône La Sagesse 2020 (No. 13) for its drinkability and incredible value (at just $27), next to an array of strong showings from the Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation.
There is little Burgundy on the list owing to its whopping price points at the top and even middling levels. As we’ve said before, less-esteemed appellations like Marsannay represent better value for money. Both Domaine Charles Audoin’s Les Favieres 2021 (No. 52) and Au Champ Salomon 2021 (No. 56) are single-vineyard Marsannay stars with aromatic complexity and concentration retailing at around $50 a bottle.
Meanwhile, the top crus of Beaujolais make stunningly concentrated wines at a fraction of the price of their Burgundian neighbors. We included six in this year’s list at an average price of $29, with the Domaine Anita Moulin-à-Vent La Rochelle 2021 leading the way at No. 9 with its immense wave of dark, spicy cherry fruit and incredible structure.
And at No. 8, the Domaine FL Savennières Chamboureau 2020 is an example of what the chenin blanc grape is capable of: tension and energy, with a wonderful interplay of fruit and wet stone minerality. Also from the Loire Valley is the Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Mont Première Trie Moelleux 2020 (No. 65), a superbly sweet expression of the grape.
As always, our top 100 lists focus on ratings, price and availability in the global marketplace, plus the wine’s “wow!” element – what makes us close our eyes in awe when we take a sip. Price was strongly factored into choosing this year’s France Top 100. The wines below all have a minimum production of 250 cases of 12 bottles, and each has an average price of below $400 on Wine Searcher. But the overall average price for all 100 wines on this list is about $136, and half be found at below $100, so there is plenty for all to seek out and enjoy.
– Claire Nesbitt, Associate Editor
Note: The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated in 2023 by the tasters at JamesSuckling.com. You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.
