Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Belongs to Sonoma and Napa Counties

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Each year, editors from the Wine Spectator revisit reviews from the previous 12 months to find the bottles that stand out for quality, value, availability, and sheer excitement. From those come the annual Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list.

Spanning 12 countries, this year’s Top 100 list is led by California, which claimed 24 spots — most from Napa and Sonoma counties.

Napa Valley vineyards offered a few surprises that were not Cabernet Sauvignon by producing the top three whites on the 2025 list.

Topping them was a 2023 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast by Calistoga’s Aubert, which ranked second highest overall on the list.

Editors said the wine offers a stunning mix of "crème brûlée, orange curd and peach preserves, with so much depth and complexity to the range of details, including wildflower honey and apricot pastry, plus spicy accents of nutmeg and Saigon cinnamon," according to the tasting notes, adding that toffee and a touch of smoked salt linger on the finish.

Right behind Aubert came a set of Healdsburg wines.

At No. 3 was a 2023 Lytton Springs Dry Creek Valley red with Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Carignane, Alicante Bouschet, and Mataro. Next, a 2023 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Eastside Road Neighbors registered at No. 4.

In 2025, Wine Spectator reviewed more than 10,000 wines, 5,500 of which earned scores of 90 or better. Those 5,500 wines all qualified for the Top 100 list.

For consumers with limited wine knowledge, choosing a wine can be overwhelming, confusing, and sometimes embarrassing. Researchers note that reviews, and indeed lists, can help these consumers by offering an overall evaluation of a wine's quality, especially if they they accompany each other. For most, wine ratings offer the simplest summary of wine quality, and the 100-point wine rating system has become the benchmark in the wine industry, according to the authors of a statistical study of numbered lists.

Wine Spectator’s annual Top 100 highlights the most compelling wines our editors tasted this year, encapsulating the wine world over the past 12 months, according to Wine Spectator.

Editors reviewed more than 10,200 wines in 2025 in blind tastings, of which more than 5,500 rated 90 points or higher. The wines were evaluated for quality (based on the original score), value (based on price), availability (based on cases made or imported into the United States), and, just as important, according to the magazine, "the excitement and story behind the wines, what we call the X-factor."