Wine Spectator just released their top 100 exciting wines of the year. We went through and tagged them in our database as 2006ws100, so check them out! You can sort the list by price or by ranking.

My take on the list
It’s great to see such a range of varieties. I was beginning to think that wine reviewers only liked Bordeaux! Yes, there are many of the usual suspects, including several notable Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Shiraz. However, I’m glad to see a couple of lone rangers, like the Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer 2004 from the Alsace Region and Francois Chidaine Montlouis Les Choisilles 2004 a Chenin Blanc from the Loire Region in France.

The breakdown
There are 76 red, 18 white, 2 sparkling, and 4 dessert/port wines. As for pricing, there are 33 wines with a list price less than $30 and only 12 wines priced at over $75. The geographic mix is fairly broad, but as you probably guessed, some of the top regions are Bordeaux, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

Download a PDF of the list from Wine Spectator.