Highly Rated Wines

Critics' scores are a quick guide to quality, and the wines we carry include perfect 100 point bottles alongside many more scored 95 or above. They span France (Bordeaux, Rhône, Loire Valley, Jura, Champagne), Italy (Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto, Friuli), Spain (Rioja, Ribera del Duero), the USA (Napa Valley, Sonoma, Central Coast, Washington, Oregon), Argentina (Mendoza) and Australia (South Australia). The questions buyers ask most are answered below, and our Price List shows the full range. If you are looking for a wine we don't list, contact us.

Your questions answered

Does Singapore have good wine?

Yes, though none of it is made here: Singapore imports wine from all the major wine regions. Hong Kong is the region's wine trading hub and a leading auction centre, but small, sought after estates and mature vintages are found here too, alongside the famous châteaux. More on older wines is on our Rare and Collectible page.

Sought after names we carry, from across the wine world:

• Roagna, Italy (Barbaresco): A family estate since the 19th century, run by Luca and Alfredo Roagna without outside consultants; its Vecchie Viti Barbarescos come from the oldest vines, age for years in large casks and have been scored 97 by Wine Spectator.
• Bartolo Mascarello, Italy (Barolo): Bartolo refused barriques and single vineyard bottlings alike, and his hand drawn label reading No Barrique, No Berlusconi became famous; his daughter Maria Teresa still blends a single Barolo from four plots, and Vinous has scored it 98.
• Montevertine, Italy (Tuscany): Sergio Manetti left the Chianti appellation in 1981, when its rules refused a pure Sangiovese, and his Le Pergole Torte became the first great Super Tuscan made from Sangiovese alone; the Wine Advocate and Vinous have both scored it 98.
• Case Basse di Gianfranco Soldera, Italy (Montalcino): Gianfranco Soldera, a Milan businessman, planted abandoned fields in the early 1970s and made the most uncompromising Sangiovese in Italy; in 2012 a former employee destroyed six vintages in barrel, making the surviving bottles rarer still.
• Clos Rougeard, France (Loire Valley): Founded in 1664 and run for eight generations by the Foucault family, it made Loire Cabernet Franc a collector's wine to rival fine Bordeaux; the wines rest for years in tuffeau cellars seven metres underground.
• Pierre Overnoy, France (Jura): The godfather of natural wine in the Jura made his first wine without added sulphur in 1984, and the Wine Advocate gave the estate's Vin Jaune a perfect 100; in 2001 he passed the estate to Emmanuel Houillon, whom he regards as a spiritual son.
• Tertre Rôteboeuf, France (Saint-Émilion): Its name means the hill of the roasting ox, after the oxen that sweltered ploughing its sun baked slope; François Mitjavile makes it by instinct on a hillside that never entered the classification, and the Wine Advocate has scored it 97.
• La Rioja Alta, Spain (Rioja): Founded in Haro in 1890 by five Riojan and Basque families, it still makes its own American oak barrels and racks its wines by hand; its Gran Reserva 904, a benchmark of long aged Rioja, has scored 96 from the Wine Advocate.
• Giuseppe Quintarelli and Dal Forno Romano, Italy (Veneto): Quintarelli, the master of Valpolicella, drew and glued his labels by hand; Romano Dal Forno met him at 22 and went on to build one of Italy's most sought after Amarone estates in Val d'Illasi, and the Wine Advocate scored his sweet Vigna Seré 99.
• Henri Giraud, France (Champagne): Rooted in Aÿ since 1625, the family marked 400 years in 2025; its Champagnes ferment in oak from the Argonne forest, and Fût de Chêne blends each harvest with a perpetual reserve going back to 1990.

What is a good wine score?

Anything from 90 up. On the 100 point scale, the Wine Advocate calls 96 to 100 extraordinary and 90 to 95 outstanding, and Wine Spectator, which tastes blind, calls 95 to 100 classic and 90 to 94 outstanding. So a 91 or a 93 marks an outstanding wine. Vivino is different: Its ratings, out of five stars, average the views of the app's users, so they show how much drinkers like a wine rather than a critic's verdict.

Highly scored whites and Champagnes we carry:

• Aubert, USA (Sonoma): Mark Aubert made his name as winemaker at Peter Michael and Colgin before starting his own label, and the Wine Advocate has scored his single vineyard Chardonnays 97; they sell mainly through a mailing list.
• Gravner, Italy (Friuli): Josko Gravner gave up steel and barriques for clay amphorae from the Caucasus, buried in the ground, and his long macerated Ribolla became the benchmark for skin contact white wine; the Wine Advocate has scored it 95.
• Mayacamas Vineyards, USA (Napa Valley): Its Chardonnay, scored 93 by the Wine Advocate, comes from a historic estate high on Mount Veeder, whose stone winery of 1889 is still in use; its 1971 Cabernet was among the American reds at the 1976 Judgment of Paris.
• Agrapart, France (Champagne): Based in Avize since 1894, it makes Minéral from thin soil over chalk, scored 91 by Vinous, and its single vineyard Vénus is ploughed by a horse of that name.
• Taittinger, France (Champagne): Comtes de Champagne, first made in 1952 and named after the medieval Counts of Champagne, rests about ten years in Gallo-Roman chalk quarries beneath Reims before release; the Wine Advocate has scored it 98.
• Jérôme Prévost, France (Champagne): One of grower Champagne's cult names, from a single two hectare block of Meunier in Gueux; the cellar runs without machines or electricity, and the Wine Advocate has scored Les Béguines 97.

Who is the most respected wine critic?

For decades the answer was Robert Parker. He founded the Wine Advocate in 1978 and made his name by calling the 1982 Bordeaux vintage superb when others doubted it. He has however retired in 2019, but the Wine Advocate carries on with a team of critics, and its vintage chart rates each region's years on the same scale. Buyers also follow Vinous, founded in 2013 by Antonio Galloni, formerly the Wine Advocate's lead critic; Wine Spectator; and Decanter, the British magazine.

A top scorer from each critic, among the wines we carry:

• El Enemigo and Bodega Catena Zapata, Argentina (Mendoza): Alejandro Vigil, Catena Zapata's director of winemaking, made the first two Argentine wines ever given a perfect 100 by Robert Parker, and founded El Enemigo with Adrianna Catena, daughter of Nicolás Catena; the Wine Advocate gave Gran Enemigo Gualtallary Cabernet Franc a perfect 100 and the Nicolás Catena Zapata flagship 98.
• Château Le Dôme, France (Saint-Émilion): Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100; Jonathan Maltus, one of the garagistes who transformed Saint-Émilion in the 1990s, launched it in 1996, and its winery by Foster + Partners sits beneath a 40 metre timber dome.
• Accendo Cellars, USA (Napa Valley): Its name is Latin for to illuminate or inspire, and Vinous gave its Cabernet a perfect 100; since 2025 the brand has been run by the Napa growers whose five vineyards supply it, and less than 2% of their harvest goes into Accendo.
• Hundred Acre, USA (Napa Valley): Decanter gave its Dark Ark a perfect 100; Jayson Woodbridge, a Canadian former investment banker, founded it in 2000 and also makes a Shiraz, Ancient Way, from old vines in Australia's Barossa.
• Domaine la Barroche, France (Châteauneuf-du-Pape): Wine Spectator scored its Cuvée Pure 97, Grenache alone from vines planted around 1900; the Barrot family founded the estate in 1703, and Robert Parker gave Pure a perfect 100 twice.

What are 100 point wines?

A perfect score, the top of the scale. Critics give it rarely, and always to one vintage of one wine, so the same estate's other years may score lower.

100 point producers we carry:

• Spottswoode, USA (Napa Valley): Among the first Napa estates to farm organically, from 1985, it is now certified biodynamic and a Certified B Corporation; the Wine Advocate gave its Estate Cabernet a perfect 100.
• TOR, USA (Napa Valley): Tor Kenward's family winery makes Black Magic and Pure Magic only in the rarest vintages; Robert Parker rated Black Magic and the Proprietary Red up to 100 from barrel, and Vinous has scored the Melanson Cabernet 98.
• Vérité, USA (Sonoma): The Bordeaux winemaker Pierre Seillan models each wine on a bank of Bordeaux, Le Désir on Saint-Émilion and its Cabernet Franc; Robert Parker gave Vérité more than ten perfect scores, and the Wine Advocate gave Le Désir a perfect 100.
• Château Boswell, USA (Napa Valley): Its founder's first wines were directed by André Tchelistcheff, the legendary winemaker of Beaulieu Vineyard, and in 2007 it became the first winery certified Napa Green; the Wine Advocate gave its flagship RTB a perfect 100.
• Dana Estates, USA (Napa Valley): Founded by the South Korean businessman Hi Sang Lee, it had a perfect score within three years of its first vintage, when Robert Parker gave the 2007 Lotus Vineyard Cabernet a perfect 100; it is based in a restored winery of 1883 in Rutherford.
• Shafer, USA (Napa Valley): John Shafer, a Chicago publishing executive, bought the Stags Leap hillside estate in 1972, and Hillside Select became one of Napa's benchmark Cabernets, with a perfect 100 from the Wine Advocate; South Korea's Shinsegae group bought the estate in 2022.
• Sine Qua Non, USA (Central Coast): Manfred Krankl, then a Los Angeles restaurateur, began in 1994 with about four and a half barrels of Syrah called Queen of Spades; the Wine Advocate has since given perfect scores to wines such as Stockholm Syndrome and Pajarito del Amor.
• Clos Saint Jean, France (Châteauneuf-du-Pape): The brothers Vincent and Pascal Maurel took their great grandfather's domaine to the top of the appellation, and Robert Parker gave a perfect 100 to its Deus Ex Machina three times and to Sanctus Sanctorum three times.
• Domaine du Pégau, France (Châteauneuf-du-Pape): Laurence Féraud makes Cuvée Da Capo only in exceptional years, from whole bunches matured in large old foudres, some more than a century old; Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100 four times.
• Tenuta San Guido, Italy (Bolgheri): In 1978 a Decanter panel including Hugh Johnson ranked Sassicaia's 1972 first among 33 wines from 11 countries; in 1994 Sassicaia was given its own appellation, and the Wine Advocate has given it a perfect 100.
• Harlan Estate, USA (Napa Valley): H. William Harlan set out in 1984 to make a California first growth from the hills of Oakville, and held back the 1987 to 1989 vintages; Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100 six times, and its mailing list is closed to new members.
• Dominio Pingus, Spain (Ribera del Duero): The Danish winemaker Peter Sisseck made the first Pingus in 1995 from about four hectares of old bush vines, and it became Spain's most sought after wine almost overnight; Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100, and none is made in poor years.
• Pétrus, France (Pomerol): Madame Loubat, a Libourne hotelier, built its fame after the war, and after the frost of 1956 its vines were cut back to the rootstock rather than replanted, saving their old roots; Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100 ten times.

What are the top rated wines in the world?

Every list of the top 10 rated wines, or the top 5 wines in the world, differs, but the same names recur at the top of critics' scores: Bordeaux's First Growths and the great estates of Saint-Émilion, with icons from Italy, California and Australia. They are also the usual answers to the best red wine in the world, and decades of perfect and near perfect scores earn them their place.

Icons we carry:

• Giacomo Conterno, Italy (Barolo): Giacomo created Monfortino, the long aged Riserva released only in great years and now one of Italy's most collected wines, and his grandson Roberto has run this most revered name in traditional Barolo since 2004; Vinous has scored its Barolo 96.
• Penfolds, Australia (South Australia): Dr Christopher Penfold and his wife Mary founded it in 1844 near Adelaide, and its chief winemaker Max Schubert made the first Grange in 1951 and began the Bin series with Bin 28 in 1959 and Bin 389 in 1960; the Wine Advocate scored Quantum Bin 98 97+.
• Screaming Eagle, USA (Napa Valley): Jean Phillips made the first vintage in 1992 and Robert Parker scored it 99; within a few years it was among the most expensive wines in America, and only 400 to 750 cases are made a year.
• Château Angélus, France (Saint-Émilion): Promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé A in 2012, it left the classification in 2022; Cabernet Franc makes up 47% of its vines, unusually high for Saint-Émilion, and Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100.
• Château Ausone, France (Saint-Émilion): Named after the Roman poet Ausonius, it is one of the smallest and most revered estates in Bordeaux, at seven hectares and about 1,500 cases a year; it left the classification in 2021, and Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100 twice.
• Château Cheval Blanc, France (Saint-Émilion): Each plot ferments in its own cement vat in a winery designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc, and Robert Parker gave a perfect 100 to the 1947, 2015 and 2016.
• Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion, France (Pessac-Léognan): Haut-Brion, the only First Growth from outside the Médoc, was praised by Samuel Pepys in his diary in 1663, the earliest known wine review; La Mission, a Classified Growth of Graves across the road, has shared its owners since 1983, and Robert Parker gave a perfect 100 to Haut-Brion eight times and to La Mission seven times.
• Château Latour, France (Pauillac), First Growth: Owned by François Pinault since 1993, it releases each vintage only when it is ready to drink, so the 2012 reached the market in 2020; the estate has been certified organic since 2019, and Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100 six times.
• Château Mouton Rothschild, France (Pauillac), First Growth: The only estate ever promoted in the 1855 Classification, raised in 1973, when its label proclaimed Premier je suis, second je fus, Mouton ne change (First I am, second I was, Mouton does not change); Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100 five times.
• Château Margaux, France (Margaux), First Growth: One of only four estates ranked First Growth in 1855, its grand vin comes from a plateau of deep gravel farmed organically since 2017; Pavillon Rouge has been its second wine since 1906, and Vinous has scored the grand vin 99.
• Château Lafite Rothschild, France (Pauillac), First Growth: It heads the list of First Growths of 1855, and Robert Parker gave the 2003 a perfect 100; its vineyard is certified organic from the 2024 vintage, and a third wine, Anseillan, returned in 2018 alongside the celebrated Carruades de Lafite.

What is the best red wine to drink in Singapore?

The one that suits the food and the company. A critic's score is a guide to quality, not to taste, and many of the highest scored reds cost far less than the famous names. In Singapore's warmth, reds show best served a little cool.

Reds scoring 95 or more that we carry, from beyond the biggest names:

• Château Pontet-Canet, France (Pauillac), Fifth Growth: Owned by the Tesseron family since 1975 and certified biodynamic since 2014, it puts almost the entire harvest into the grand vin; the Wine Advocate has scored it 97.
• Château Clos St. Martin, France (Saint-Émilion), Grand Cru Classé: The smallest classified growth in Saint-Émilion, about 1.3 hectares on the limestone plateau, named after Saint Martin, patron saint of winegrowers, whose church stands next door; Robert Parker scored it 97+.
• Jim Barry, Australia (Clare Valley): Its Armagh vineyard, two kilometres northwest of Clare, was planted with Shiraz in 1968 and gives one of Australia's great Shirazes, scored 98 by the Wine Advocate; three generations of Barrys now work in the winery.
• Ceretto, Italy (Barolo): The family founded the three Michelin star restaurant Piazza Duomo in Alba with the chef Enrico Crippa, and its glass cube above the Bricco Rocche vineyard is a landmark of the Langhe; the Wine Advocate scored its Barolo Prapò 95+.
• Artadi, Spain (Laguardia): In 2015 it announced it would leave the Rioja appellation, in protest at rules that did not recognise individual vineyards and villages; the Wine Advocate scored its El Carretil 96 and its single vineyard Viña El Pisón 98+.
• Beaux Frères, USA (Oregon): Michael Etzel founded it on Ribbon Ridge in 1986 with his brother in law, the critic Robert Parker, an early investor, and beaux frères is French for brothers in law; Vinous scored its Pinot Noir 95.
• Kobayashi Winery, USA (Washington): Founded in Seattle by Travis Allen and his wife Mario, it began in 2014 with just 25 cases of Cabernet Franc; the Japanese cooper Ariake Sangyo supplies its Mizunara oak, and Vinous scored the Cabernet Franc 96.
• Cayuse, USA (Washington): Christophe Baron, from a Champagne family, planted his first vines in 1997 on a field of river stones near Walla Walla, and Cayuse was the first winery there to farm biodynamically; the Wine Advocate scored its God Only Knows Grenache 95+.