As the new year begins, it’s time to share my Best Wine 2025 year in review, highlighting standout wines and memorable tasting experiences from the past year. In addition to in-person and Zoom tastings in Los Angeles, I traveled to Paso Robles, El Dorado County, Amador County, and Morgan Hill to explore their wineries. As always, my year in review also includes time spent in Santa Barbara Wine Country, my favorite nearby destination for discovering new wineries and exceptional wines.
Once again, my list leans more heavily toward white wines—perhaps influenced by the regions I visited or the standout quality of the current white wine vintages, which made a lasting impression.
The wines are selected and categorized based on my tastings throughout the year, many of which I documented in articles for The Written Palette and other publications. A few of these wines will also be highlighted in an upcoming article slated for 2026.
Table of Contents
Best Wine 2025 – Sparkling Wine
Bells Up Winery Joy Estate Seyval Blanc Brut: Seyval is a hybrid grape that delivers a fresh, bright, and fruity finish.
Carter Creek Brut Sparkling: The wine is made primarily from Chenin Blanc, which gives it a very fresh, lively demeanor.
Best Wine 2025 Whites
Concannon Vineyard 2024 Cabernet Franc Blanc: By far my all-time favorite white wine of 2025. The wine speaks of apples and stone fruit with a slight sweetness on the finish.
Landry Vineyards Blanc Du Bois: With aromas of pineapple and grapefruit, this wine blossoms forth with stone fruit and grapefruit on the palate.
LXV Blanc De Franc: Another white made from Cabernet Franc. It was a luscious wine with textured layers and a nice mouthfeel.
Cordevalle Winery Sauvignon Blanc: I found a wonderfully easy-drinking Sauvignon Blanc with tropical fruit flavors.
Priest Ranch 2024 Sauvignon Blanc: The wine is bright and fresh with nice acidity. It showcases tropical and citrus fruits.
Alta Colima Picpoul Blanc: The winery’s first release of Picpoul Blanc, the wine showcases the variety excellently. I found a creamy texture with citrus flavors.
Lava Cap Vermentino: The wine displayed flavors of green apple.
Delfino Farms Edio Vineyards Albarino: The wine showcases nice acidity and freshness.
Las Positas 2024 Albarino: The aromatics on this wine stand out with florals and green apple. The palate exhibits a crisp wine with flavors of pineapple and citrus.
Las Positas 2024 Verdelho: The wine is fermented and aged in neutral puncheons. On the nose, there are aromas of pineapple. The palate delivers tropical notes accented with pear and lemon.
Omega Road 2024 Chenin Blanc: I found a bright, refreshing wine with nice acidity and citrus and green apple flavors.
Andis Wines 2023 Bill Dillan Vineyard Semillon: The grapes come from the Shenandoah Valley AVA. The wine is elegant, delivering dried herbs, apple, and citrus flavors.
Bella Grace 2023 Grenache Blanc: The wine delivers refreshingly crisp wine with flavors of stone fruits and pear.
Best Wine 2025 – White Blends
Trujillo 2023 Madelyn White Cuvee: This wine is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminner. I found a fun, whimsical wine that delivers crisp, fresh citrus flavors from Sauvignon Blanc and tropical fruit notes from Gewürztraminer.
Tercero 2022 Trilogia: The wine is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Malvasia Bianca, and Clairette Blanche. This blend is very aromatic and crisp, delivering savory and sweet notes on the palate.
Best Wine 2025 – Rosé
Retzlaff Vineyards 2023 Rosé of Merlot: This wine delivers a fruity yet dry wine.
Guglielmo Winery 2024 Grignolino Rosé: This was my first time experiencing the Grignolino Grape, which comes from Italy’s Piedmont region. The wine produced is a light, refreshing Rosé with floral and citrus notes.
Alta Colina Carbonic Grenache 2023: The carbonic maceration makes this wine very Rosé like. I found fresh red fruits with floral accents.
Best Wine 2025 Reds
Pinot Noir
Bells Up Winery 2022 Maestro Estate Reserve Pinot Noir: The wine is a tribute to John Williams and my favorite of the Pinots I tasted from Bells Up. The wine is elegant and balanced with red fruit flavors.
Bells Up Winery 2022 Titan Estate Pinot Noir: As owner Dave Specter says, Titan is the Merlot of Pinot Noir. It is more rounded on the middle palate.
Cabernet Sauvignon
Warson Wines 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon: To me, this wine is just right, not too jammy and well-balanced.
Priest Ranch 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley: This wine utilizes fruit from 22 distict blocks to deliver a wine that has aromas of red fruits and baking spices. On the palate the exhibits dark fruit accented by fresh herbs.
Trujillo 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon: For winemaker Michael Trujillo this wine represents his 4 decades of making wine. The wine is bright but at the same time luscious with hints of spiceness that accent the dark fruit and mocha flavors.
Cabernet Franc
Rodrigue Molyneaux 2020 Cabernet Franc: This Cabernet Franc reveals a bolder structure but signifies why Cabernet Franc is the signature grape of Livermore Valley. Find dark fruit flavors and notes of tobacco.
Rosa Fierro Cellars Big Daddy: This wine represents Rosa Fierro’s take on the Livermore Valley signature grape. As it’s name describes it, it is a big, rich and luscious wine with flavors of cherry and raspberry.
Grenache
Holly’s Hill 2023 Grenache: With floral aromas, the wine is bright and fresh with flavors of Strawberry accented with white pepper.
Skinner Vineyards 2023 Grenache: Another elegantly silky wine from Skinner, delivering flavors of strawberries with some savory spices.
Mourvédre
Delfino Farms Edio Vineyards Mourvédre: The wine showcases the Sierra spice and freshness of El Dorado Wines.
Holly’s Hill 2023 Mourvédre Classic: I found a lighter-textured Mourvédre delivering a smooth, balanced, and elegant wine.
Petit Verdot
Jones Von Drehle 2019 Petit Verdot: I found a full-bodied, luscious yet silky wine for this variety.
Warson Wines 2020 Petit Verdot: This wine exhibits dark, lush fruits.
Zinfandel
Yorba Wines 2015 Zinfandel was highlighted for its smoothness and balance.
Andis Wines 2022 Friedlander Block Reserve Zinfandel: The grapes come from a dry-farmed old-vine vineyard. This wine exhibits dark fruits with accents of mocha and baking spices.
Other Reds
Alara Cellars Aglianico: I found a delicate yet excellent representation of this variety.
Guglielmo Winery 2021 Sagrantino: One finds a bold yet elegant interpretation of Sagrantino with red fruit flavors.
Cordevalle Winery Malbec: The wine features a smooth, velvety, rich balance of earthy dark fruit with notes of mocha, as is often typical of the variety.
Lava Cap Merlot: This wine comes from 40-year-old vines and is smooth and balanced, with hints of cedar and clove.
Skinner Vineyards 2023 Cinsault: Of late, like Mencia, I am really liking Cinsault as a stand-alone variety. In this case, the wine has bright flavors of blueberries and spices.
Skinner Vineyards 2023 Counoise: This is an earthy wine displaying dark fruit accented with pepper.
Omega Road 2023 Mencia: There is a rustic quality to the Mencia grape that I thoroughly enjoy. In this case, it delivered a herbaceous quality, accented by red currant and blueberry flavors.
Cuda Ridge Wines 2022 Carmeniere Casa de Viñas: This wine showcases wonderful blackberry flavors with notes of chocolate and leather.
Rodrigue Molyneaux Sangiovese: The wine displays earthy notes of dark fruits accented by herbs.
Best Wine 2025 – Red Blends
Concannon Vineyard 2020 Mother Vine: This wine is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot, aged in 55% neutral, 27% new American, and 18% new French oak. The wine is smooth and balanced.
Landry Vineyards 2021 Bayoutage: This wine showcases the winery’s interpretation of a Bordeaux blend or Meritage. The wine exhibits rustic notes of dried herbs.
Starfield Vineyards 2022 Miner’s Inch: The blend combines Grenache, Mourvèdre, Roussanne, Tempranillo, Cinsaut, Aglianico, Petite Sirah, Syrah, Counoise, and Muscat of Alexandria. The wine is balanced and very approachable.
Rodrigue Molyneaux il Segreto: This wine blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Barbera and Sangiovese that emphasizes the flavors of cherry.
Dessert Wines
Toogood Estate Winery Double D Pinot Noir Port: Not only is this port a delicious and luscious wine, but a portion of the proceeds goes to Parkinson’s research.
Landry Vineyards Louisiana Heat Lenoir Port Red: This port-style wine is Landry Vineyards’s interpretation of a Tawny Port. Made from Lenoir grapes, the wine is heated to 107 degrees for six months. It is then aged in the winery’s hillside cellar for an unspecified number of years, released at the winemaker’s discretion. The prolonged heat caramelizes the sugars, while barrel aging adds a distinctive, nutty character—similar to a Madeira-like Tawny.
Landry Vineyards Louisiana Heat Blanc du Bois follows a similar process but uses a white grape. The result is a lighter, tawny-style port with nutty notes and a softer, more delicate profile.
Let’s raise our glasses and toast the Best Wine 2025 as we say goodbye to the memorable bottles of the past year and welcome the wines we’ll discover in 2026. With optimism and enthusiasm for the new year, I look forward to exploring new vintages, finding new favorites, and sharing fresh wine discoveries in 2026.
Happy New Year!
As is common in the wine industry, most of the wines discussed in this article were provided as hosted samples. Although it did not influence this review, the author believes in full disclosure.
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