red white and gris grapes

Essential Winemakers

The Who's Who of Italy and France. Winemakers who are always compelling, always a great introduction to their area, and always priced fairly. A solid mix of value-driven as well as splurge-worthy wines.

Wines to Admire

For this series of single-bottle profiles, we succinctly give you the skinny on why these wines matter.

Opening a Bottle's Top 12 Wines of 2023: six wine bottles on a wood table

Top 12 Wines of 2023

The Mission: Build the Most Compelling Mixed Case from All The Wines Tasted This Year

Tasting Reports

Vintage reviews, appellation reports, produce verticals ... if it's noteworthy, we publish it here.

Still Essential

Where we give the wines of our Essential Winemakers another test.

How We Rate Wine - Wine bottles for Opening a Bottle ©Kevin Day/Opening a Bottle

How We Rate Wine

Our reviews are written for beginners to wine as well as "wine obsessives." And we use icons to indicate vineyard practices, history, and other compelling details that matter m0st to understanding a wine's story.

Key to Our Wine Icons

– Practicing Organic
 – Certified Organic
 – Practicing Biodynamic
 – Certified Biodynamic
– Biodiversity
– Polyculture
– Old Vines
– Heroic Viticulture
– Volcanic Soil
– Traditional Winemaking
– Clay Vessel Winemaking
– Family-Operated Winery
– Historic Winery
– Co-operative Winery
– Négociant
– Stay at Winery
– Age-Worthy Wine
– Expensive Wine (+$100)
– Requires Some Searching

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