After it was awarded our No. 1 Wine of the World in 2021, it would have been easy for New Zealand to rest on its laurels. Instead, the overachieving wine country looked ahead with renewed vigor and churned out a slew of even more amazing bottles to take the Top 100 Wines of New Zealand 2022 to another level.

The team at JamesSuckling.com tasted more than 32,000 wines over the past year, with a few exceptional bottles rising to the top. Find out which wine we rated No. 1 among our Top 100 Wines of 2022.

We uncorked some pure and beautiful pinot noirs, chardonnays and cabernet sauvignons from Napa and West Sonoma Coast over the past week, and the historic estate of Immich-Batterieberg in Germany gave us two spectacular rieslings.

Most of our October tastings were taken up by Australian and New Zealand wines, in conjunction with our annual reports, but there was plenty more from Spain, South Africa and Germany.

From Waiheke Island in the north to Central Otago in the south, we combed New Zealand for almost a month to uncover the best of what the country has to offer. Although pinot noir dominated our list of top wines, there is so much more coming from the many winemakers dedicated to holistic winemaking.

We tasted more than 850 wines over the past week, including some sterling New Zealand pinot noirs, a few silky German cuvees and some fantastic South African chenin blancs.

Behind the scenes in small wineries on New Zealand's North Island, Bordeaux blends continue to rock, none more so than from the numerous producers found on Waiheke Island.

James hit New Zealand this week and straight away uncovered some incredibly structured Bordeaux blends from Puriri Hills. We also tasted some exceptional Margaret River chardonnays and found unique expressions from Spain’s Comando G.

We continued our journey through the world of Australian wines this past week, rating more than 800 bottles, including some of the finest shiraz and dry white rieslings the country has to offer.