wines of the year 2025

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Decanter's Head of Content Tina Gellie on the Wines of the Year 2025.

Tina Gellie

(Image credit: Credit Unknown)

Of the 2,999 wines rated 95 points or more in the 12 months to the end of October 2025, just 30 – equating to 0.01% – earned the perfect 100-point score. And while a few of them feature on the pages that follow, Decanter’s Wines of the Year was never intended to be a copycat annual countdown of the highest scorers, or a simple list only rewarding perfection.

It is, as we say in our headline, the regional highlights for 2025. Our team of Regional Editors have selected five wines from across each of their respective areas of expertise, all scoring 95 points and above, to showcase the quality and diversity on offer across the wine world. Some of the 65 wines they’ve tasted themselves; other scores and notes have been provided by our global band of expert contributors.

But all have featured either on the pages of Decanter magazine or on our Decanter Premium or Decanter.com online channels over the 12-month qualifying period (after which the process of nominating and whittling down to reach the final annual selection had to begin).

And each of these 65 bottles – plus the 2,934 others scoring 95 points or more, and indeed any of the 100,000-plus wines in our database – has a unique story to tell of the place, the people and their passion for wine. What’s inside the glass matters far more than a number.

So I would encourage you to use our Wines of the Year regional highlights as a starting point for your own voyage of discovery for 2026.

Venture into new territories, explore unexpected grapes, challenge your preconceptions and, regardless of the rating, may you find a bounty of new bottles that give you immense drinking pleasure.

Happy new year from all of us here at Decanter.

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