As many of you know, The Wine Spectator Magazine usually blind tastes about 15,000 wines each year and from these, using a formula of quality, price and availability, they produce their Top 100 Wine List. I would like to tell you about our connections with a few of them.

Last year the wine that placed first overall was the Shafer Vineyards “Relentless” 2008 and it scored 96/100. We quickly ran out of stock and now have been offering the 2009 that rated 95/100.

We sell this Syrah/Petite Sirah blend for $79.35 and its consistent and remarkable quality is due to the relentless pursuit for perfection by wine-maker Elias Fernandez that literally gives this wine its well deserved name.

Of course the magazine does not taste the same 15,000 during the following year and so it is not often that the same wine appears twice in a row. On the Top 100 just released this past weekend the Shafer Relentless 2010 again scored platinum winning 95/100 and it placed seventy second overall.

If you are contemplating a rich dish such as venison you really should match the two together.

The wine that placed first overall this year is the Cune Rioja Imperial Gran Reserva 2004 with a score of 95/100. Our connection started only a few weeks ago during my annual visit to the New York Wine Experience, and I did not have the slightest idea that Cune was about to receive this greatest of wine honours.

Good friends convinced me to taste the Cune wines and as a result of this we have a selection on the way from Spain. I would love to say that our Gran Reserva will be the 2004 but truth is that 2005 will be the vintage. This latest vintage rated 93/100 and it is a blend of 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo.

Reviews say that it is a deep red with heady aromas of cherry, redcurrant, vanilla and rose oil with a smoky nuance and a hint of cured tobacco. I await its arrival in the early New Year.

Two weeks ago I advised in this column that 2011 Ports were a good investment for the future and I mentioned our Croft that had just arrived and is available for $96.60. This has now placed thirteenth overall on the Top 100 with a score of 97/100 and a USA price of $93.00, so we really are competitive, and with this added award boost I would suggest that stocks will not last long.

I have already had to reorder more Taylor’s and Graham’s 2011 that arrived at the same time.

Considering that only one wine out of every one hundred and fifty reviewed makes the top list it is still quite remarkable to see that number eighty seven is our Graham’s Tawny Port 20 Year Old ($68.75).

Please do not ever consider having crème brûlée without this wine. Vintage Port is left in barrel for about a year and then bottled to age for decades. Tawny develops in the barrel for the time span on the label (10, 20, 30 or 40 years) and this one informs you that it was bottled last year.

As approximately three percent evaporates through the wood each year (the angel’s share) the wine becomes most intense and concentrated. The sediment is left in the barrel and so a fine tawny is ready to pour and enjoy when you buy it.

The Wine Spectator says this of the Graham’s 20 Year Old: “Deep, intense flavours of orange cream, glazed apricot, baked peach and roasted pineapple that are balanced by chocolate and toffee notes.” Yum.

The ageing of a tawny stops when it goes in the bottle, so if you keep this for ten years you do not end up with a thirty year old tawny. I would also suggest it would be perfection with your Christmas pudding.

Michael Robinson is Director of Wine at Burrows, Lightbourn Ltd. He can be contacted at mrobinson@bll.bm or on 295-0176. Burrows, Lightbourn have stores in Hamilton (Front Street East, 295-1554), Paget (Harbour Road, 236-0355) and St George’s (York Street, 297-0409). A selection of their wines, beers and spirits are available online at www.wineonline.bm