Editors' Choice

Editors' Choice wines are those that offer excellent quality at a price above our Best Buy range, or a wine at any price with unique qualities that merit special attention.

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points

Schramsberg 1994 Reserve Late Disgorged Sparkling (Napa Valley)

Editors' Choice

Price $200

This is a gigantic wine, but it’s so well structured and refined, so beautiful, you can drink it now and fall in love with it. It’s perfectly balanced, enormously complex and not too sweet; the highest-scoring California sparkler we’ve ever tasted, blending rich toasty notes with well-ripened fruit. This fabulous wine should come together, mellow and gain… — W.E. (12/31/2005)

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Campbells NV Isabella Rare Tokay (Rutherglen)

Editors' Choice

Price $97

Campbells utilizes a modified solera system, so small portions of this blend are 60 or more years of age, imparting an incredibly elegant note of rancio. Luscious raisins and toffee bring intensely concentrated, sweet flavors, impeccably balanced. This is not in the immense blockbuster style, instead showing great harmony and purity, with all its pieces in nearly… — J.C. (12/15/2007)

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Campbells NV Merchant Prince Rare Muscat (Rutherglen)

Editors' Choice

Price $97

This wine has the rich hue of dark coffee in the glass, greening a bit at the rim. Aromas and flavors of Guinness stout, raisin and coffee fully saturate the senses, picking up hints of spicecake on the enormously long finish. Incredibly sweet, yet it’s still drinkable. — J.C. (12/15/2007)

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Livio Felluga 2007 Picolit (Colli Orientali del Friuli)

Editors' Choice

Price $90

Picolit is a precious and uniquely Italian dessert wines that relies on a variety of special conditions to produce overwhelming elegance and concentration. Livio Felluga does a wonderful job with this wine that opens with a luminous golden color and segues to luscious, creamy flavors of honey, white flower and almond paste. — M.L. (12/31/2010)

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Abeja 2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Columbia Valley (WA))

Editors' Choice

Price $85

Sourced from old-vine Bacchus and Weinbau fruit, this also includes 20% grapes from the estate’s Heather Hill vineyard. The aromas are dense and penetrating, with a powerful mix of black fruits, ripe berries, smoke, earth, olive and coffee. From the first sniff to the last swallow, the flavors are beautifully integrated and the effect symphonic. — P.G. (12/31/2010)

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Bodegas Gutiérrez de la Vega 1999 Casta Diva Fondillón Sweet Monastrell (Alicante)

Editors' Choice

Price $88

Fondillón represents the pinnacle of red Spanish dessert wines, and the 1999 vintage just might make your jaw drop. Subtle but expansive on the nose, with a blend of baked dark-fruit and cinnamon aromas, it is liquid heaven in the mouth, with excellent balance and flavors of roasted plums, black cherry, nutmeg and chocolate. This is pure, structured and outstanding… — M.S. (10/1/2012)

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Rochioli 2010 South River Vineyard Chardonnay (Russian River Valley)

Editors' Choice
Online Exclusive

Price $60

A spectacular Chardonnay—this is dazzingly beautiful and mesmerizing in its appeal. The complexity of flavor stuns, offering tiers of pineapples, oranges, green apples and golden mangoes. Then the oaky influences appear in the form of buttered toast and caramel, with a suggestion of honey. The finish is dry and crisp in acidity. — S.H. (9/1/2012)

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Cayuse 2009 Armada Vineyard Syrah (Walla Walla Valley (OR))

Editors' Choice

Price $85

Dense and concentrated, this has thick, almost jammy blue and purple fruits, with a peppery highlight and an undercurrent of sweet grain. The palate is tight, featuring layers of cassis, ink, anise, coffee and iodine, with an earthy salinity that runs through the finish. The Armada is perhaps a bit less fruity and more austere than the other 2009 Cayuse Syrahs, but… — P.G. (3/1/2013)

2010 Mira Stanly Ranch

Winemaker Gustavo Gonzalez left Robert Mondavi to do his own thing, and…

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