Napa Valley winemakers who had the luck and courage to make clean wines in 2020 showed a real sense of relief and satisfaction, and their wines are all the more exciting if there is real quality in the bottle.

The JamesSuckling.com tasting team was hard at it in vineyards and winery tasting rooms around the world this past week, finding intriguing bottles from Chile, New Zealand and Beaujolais.

January at JamesSuckling.com was a parade of tradition with a taste of South America and China thrown in, starting at ground central for great wine, Bordeaux.

Our tastings of more than 500 wines during the past week were heavy on Bordeaux 2020 and Burgundy, but it was a couple of stunning German rieslings that rose to the top.

December at JamesSuckling.com meant shepherding out the last of our country Top 100 reports, but we still managed to taste nearly 2,000 wines from 18 countries. And it wrapped up an awesome tasting year for us, when we managed to get through a record 33,000-plus wines and bring you the best of what the world has to offer.

2022 was another challenging year, especially when it came to finding value wine offerings when prices were going up fast everywhere. But we found more than a few great-quality bottles that fit comfortably within any budget.

The Chateau Valandraud at the top of our list this week highlights the excellence of Bordeaux’s newest vintage on the market, 2020, particularly from the Right Bank, such as St. Emilion and Pomerol. But you’ll also notice a few dozen ratings of various vintages of top wines from Burgundy’s Chassagne-Montrachet.

We rated 2,321 wines during November from 14 countries, bringing us to well over 30,000 wines tasted during 2022 with December still to go. Check out all our favorites from the month here...

We were hot on the trail of more German spatburgunders this week, and we also tasted some excellent Peter Lehmann wines from Australia and serious gamay from France.