Influential wine website, Wine-Searcher.com has named its best value wines in the world, with four Australian wines named in the top five.
The website has come up with the list using a quality-price ratio algorithm, although it does admit that making a decision on which wines to include in the list is “a difficult task and one that is fraught with danger”.
Speaking about the list Wine-searcher’s Editor, Don Kavanagh said that looking through the top 50 wines on the best value list does offer up some surprises.
“The first thing you notice, casting an eye down the list, is the surprising number of wines from France, and Bordeaux in particular. Bordeaux is rarely equated with value, because its top wines tend to be rib-rattlingly expensive, while its cheaper wines tend towards rotgut,” Kavanagh said.
He added that having taken a lead from the algorithm the Wine-Searcher team then worked together to put together the final list.
“Despite the cold, digital eye of the algorithm ruthlessly picking on a points-per-dollar basis, we decided that there should be a human element in all this, if only to ensure we had some wines that offered a little more than small change from a $50. And what we found were five absolute gems. Get ’em while they’re hot.”
Wine-Searcher.com’s top five best-value wines are:
- 2014 Artadi El Seque, Alicante, Spain – 93 points for an average price of $24.
- 2014 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Riesling, Frankland River – This wine has an average score of 93 and an average price of just $25.
- 2015 Giant Steps Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley – rown in the cool, rolling hills of the Yarra Valley, this complex Pinot has an average score of 93 and an average price of $31.
- 2013 Hardy’s Tintara McLaren Vale Shiraz – With an average score of 92 and an average price of just $16, it’s an absolute steal.
- 2012 Grosset Springvale Riesling, Clare Valley – There isn’t much of the 2012 vintage around, but it’s worth chasing; it’s a 93-point wine for an average price of $28, although the score/price ratio across all vintages is only slightly lower at 92 points and $29.