What a difference a week makes.
Before Wine Spectator announced its top 100 wines of the year last week, the awarded wines were hardly setting Wine Searcher's database on fire. But interest has exploded as each of the top 10 wines was announced, showing that there's no doubt that wine lovers are swift to act on authoritative lists of recommended wines.
| Related stories: |
| Top 100 List Underlines Port's Success |
| Spain Wins Its First-Ever "Wine of the Year" Title |
| Price Hikes Expected For Spectator's Top Wine |
The top wine, the 2011 Dow's Vintage Port, leaped from 78 searches a day to a whopping 6503 on the day it was announced as Wine Spectator's top wine. Searches for Dow's Vintage Port that were non-vintage-specific also soared, going from 279 to 7344 overnight.
The 2012 Brewer Clifton Pinot Noir, which was placed eighth on the list, rose from a paltry three daily searches to 512 once it was named on the list. Searches for all vintages of the wine went from seven to 868 in the space of a day.
All the wines named in the top 10 saw impressive growth in interest, and not just for the individual vintage listed. The wines also showed sustained interest, with search figures higher now than they were when the results were announced a week ago.
The 2012 Mollydooker Carnival of Love Shiraz jumped from 30 daily searches on November 12 to 819 on November 13 and an even more impressive 1060 by November 14, before dropping back to a still-respectable 189 on November 21.
Interest hasn't yet been matched by huge price jumps, at least not by previous years' standards. The top wine in Wine Spectator's Top 100 wines in 2013, CVNE's 2004 Imperial Gran Reserva Rioja, more than doubled in price overnight once the list was released, going from $42 a bottle to $94.
This year's winner has increased from $97 to a relatively reasonable $120. The sixth-placed 2010 Castello di Ama Chianti Classico surged from $35 a bottle to $47 a bottle, an increase of more than a third.
It would pay to get in quick as previous years' top wines all appreciated in price over time, so expect to dig a little deeper for most of the wines in the top 10, as the interest filters through into price increases.
