Tastingbook.com organized the world's largest tasting of the 1990s decade.
Over 200 best wines from 1990-1999 tasted
The eleventh Wine of the Decade tasting took place this autumn in Finland with Tastingbook Pro members from ten countries and four continents. Over 230 top wines around the world were assessed as blind during the four days event.
The tasting included wines from all around the world including dry whites, reds, sweet and fortified wines. All wines were tasted blind in five wine sets with vintage as the common nominator on each set. The overall average scores of all wines were 94.5 which is the highest average score ever in Tasting book’s Wine of the Decade tasting.
The Wine of the Decade events were launched by FINE Wine Magazine in 2013 in South Australia. It has been followed by several Wine of the Decade events– Wine of the Decade 1940s in 2014 and Wine of the Decade 1970s in 2015, Napa Valley Wine of the Decade 1990s in 2015 and Champagne of the Decade 2000s in 2016 in Rheims, Burgundy Wine of the Decade 2000s in Beaune, Champagne of the Decade 1990s in Helsinki, Rhône Wine of the Decade 2000s in 2017, the Wine of the Decade 1980s and now the Wine of the Decade 1990s and Champagne of the Decade 2000s. Today the event is run by the Tastingbook.com in collaboration with FINE Wine Magazines.
1990s – the global revolution of the wine industry
The 1990s was the time of the arms race of wineries and the revolution of modern wine production. Although the first vintage of the decade is remembered as one of the most legendary vintages in France of all time, both in Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône and Champagne, the attention of the wine world soon turned beyond France. In Italy, Piedmont produced better wines than ever before in the 1990s, and with the launch of the IGT classification announced in 1992, new super wines from Tuscany and other Italian regions were mushrooming. In Spain, the new wave producers thrumbled in Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorato. In Portugal, the Douro Boys laid the foundations for Portugal’s fine still wine's future success.
However, the upheavals in Europe were small compared to the New World. New Zealand got on the world map with fine whites, while in Australia Penfolds Grange and Hill of Grace got numerous new challengers. On the other side of the globe, Bordeaux's First Growths received challengers from Chile when Almaviva, Don Melchor and Clos Apalta were launched. In the 1990s, with new cult wines, Napa Valley, which had already challenged Bordeaux, became the most followed wine region in the world.