Four S.B.-Related Wines on Top 100 List

In an industry saturated by scores, lists, reviews, and other methods of entirely subjective analysis, Wine Spectator‘s annual list of the Top 100 wines of the year manages to rise above the hype and deliver a slate that’s respected by both wine lovers and winemakers alike.

This year’s list came out earlier this week (it can be viewed for free until November 27 at WineSpectator.com) and featured 26 wines from California. Of those, three were sourced from grapes made in Santa Barbara County: Rusack’s Santa Barbara County Syrah from 2008 at #27; Sans Liege’s The Offering 2008 at #34, a Rhone-based blend of grenache, mourvedre, syrah, and viognier from eight different vineyards; and at #82, Margerum’s Sybarite, a 2010 sauvignon blanc from Happy Canyon. And another was made by a Lompoc-based winemaker: at #75, the Loring Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2009.

Produced by the magazine every year since 1988, the list is based on scores, fair pricing, availability, and the “x-factor,” which Wine Spectator‘s executive editor Thomas Matthews says embodies “important and exciting aspects of the previous year in wine.” This year’s list was chosen from more than 16,000 new wines that were tasted and scored blindly, and then subjected to the editors’ further review based on the above factors. It features 12 countries and a drop in average price, from $48 to $44 per bottle.