Wine Spectator is an American magazine specializing in tasting notes, industry news and wine-personality profiles. The magazine was founded by Bob Morrisey in 1976, and sold three years later to Marvin Shanken, who moved the operation to its current headquarters in New York.
Each year the announcement of the magazine's Top 100 Wines and Wine of the Year in November is eagerly awaited. For the latest list of results and where to find the wines, see our page: Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines.
All 15 editions of Wine Spectator published each year include more than 400 tasting notes, and in some cases upwards of 1000. The wine critics who figure among Wine Spectator’s tasting and reviewing panel are James Laube, Harvey Steiman, Bruce Sanderson, Kim Marcus and James Molesworth. James Suckling wrote for the magazine between 1981 and 2010.
Wine Spectator's main online presence is at Winespectator.com. The Top 100 Wines now has its own dedicated website.
Wine Spectator's 100-point wine-scoring scale:
- 95–100 – Classic: a great wine
- 90–94 – Outstanding: a wine of superior character and style
- 85–89 – Very good: a wine with special qualities
- 80–84 – Good: a solid, well-made wine
- 75–79 – Mediocre: a drinkable wine that may have minor flaws
- 50–74 – Not recommended
Wine Spectator's wine scores on Wine-Searcher:
Score range: 60 – 100 points
50% fall between: 87 – 91 points
Average score: 88.5 points