Wine Spectator's Top Ten Wine's of 2008: 4.......3........2!!!

Inseriti i vini alla posizione quattro, tre e due. Ancora tanta Francia (stavolta anche con un vino dolce) e, a sorpresa, un portoghese dalle grandi prospettive.

Torno supertelegattone e vi dico che al numero quattro troviamo:

Château Guiraud Sauternes 2005

97 points / $579,165 cases madeFrance

Bordeaux's sweet wines shared the limelight in the region's legendary 2005 vintage. Many châteaus, like Guiraud, long under the direction of Xavier Planty, produced their best wine ever. During the harvest, grape pickers passed painstakingly through the estate's 210 acres of 35-year-old Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc vineyards, selecting only grapes affected by botrytis. By harvest's end, each acre yielded only enough grapes for 54 cases of wine, with about 20 percent of that set aside for the estate's second label.

Al numero tre un rosso portoghese che non conosco ma che, visto il mio amore per quella terra, mi riprometto di bere al più presto:

Quinta do Crasto Douro Reserva Old Vines 2005

95 points / $401,500 cases imported Portugal

This red from Portugal's Douro River Valley is at the crest of the new wave of high-quality table wines issuing from the historic heartland of Port. Up to 30 different grape varieties from old-vine vineyards compose this refined blend. Some of the grapes are foot-trodden in lagares during initial fermentation, and the wine is then aged 18 months in French (85 percent) and American oak. It is neither fined nor filtered before bottling. The winemaking team includes Manuel Lobo, Dominic Morris and Tomás Roquette.

Al numero due un'altra sorpresa con questo bordolese da 97 (!!) punti:

Château Rauzan-Ségla Margaux 2005

97 points / $10010,000 cases made France

Estate manager John Kolasa claims that nature did the lion's share of the work in 2005, leaving him and his team with a relatively simple job. Yet vast investment at the estate since the mid-1990s by the owners, who also control Chanel, enabled Rauzan to reap the benefits of a great growing season. The estate's grand vin, which reached a quality pinnacle in 2005, is 54.5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 39 percent Merlot, 5 percent Petit Verdot and 1.5 percent Cabernet Franc, selected from 74 of the 128.5 acres of vineyards.