Each year since 1988, Wine Spectator has released its Top 100 list, where our editors select the most exciting wines from the thousands we reviewed during the course of the year. Vintage showed its trump card in this year’s wine releases, influencing key shifts in the makeup of the 2014 Top 100 list, which includes wines from 14 foreign countries and three U.S. states. California, France and Italy play major roles as in years past, but with an atypical mix of grape varieties and regions. Meanwhile, some countries saw big upticks in their numbers on the list, due to magnificent vintages and continued improvements in the vineyards and wineries. Our editors found dozens of thought-provoking wines among the 18,000 we tasted in 2014. Whether from emerging labels and regions or historic estates upholding tradition, these wines turned our heads for a singularity and authenticity we call the X-factor. Our selection also prioritizes quality (based on score), value (based on price) and availability (based on the volume of cases either made or imported).

These criteria were applied to determine the Top 100 from among the more than 5,400 wines that rated outstanding (90 points or higher on Wine Spectator’s 100-point scale) this year. Overall, the average score of the wines in this year’s list is 93 points and the average price $47—an excellent quality/price ratio and a slightly lower average price than the 2013 list.what red wine do you chill Many wines on the list are made in limited quantities, a reflection of the greater wine world. best wine to bring back from spainAs such, our Top 100 is not a “shopping list,” but rather a guide to wineries to watch in the coming months and years, comprising the producers and wines our editors were particularly passionate about in 2014.red table wine types

We hope you enjoy this exciting list of great values, rising stars and veteran producers that make up Wine Spectator’s Top 100 of 2014.Everyone loves espresso machines don’t they? Well, I do and I love sharing information on espresso, coffee products and espresso machines. best wine turkeySo today, I am going to let you know a little about the best espresso maker that I purchased last week after reading some good automatic espresso machine reviews. bc wine tours mapAfter a week of using this machine, I couldn’t help it but to tell the world how great it is. wine good for back painWhat model is it you ask? Well, the best automatic espresso machine under $200 that I purchased was the EC 155 by DeLonghi! The DeLonghi EC 155 espresso machine is amazing because of the features it has and the way it makes coffee.

With this espresso machine, I look forward to my mornings and I don’t seem to have the Monday blues now with fresh, refreshing cup of espresso in the morning. The DeLonghi EC 155 espresso machine has features such as a patented dual function filter and holder and a swivel jet frothing wand. What’s great about the patented dual function filter is that it allows you to use regular pods or ground coffee. It is convenient and easy with the usage of pods or ground coffee and it prepares espressos for you fast as well. The swivel jet frothing wand helps you perfect the espresso and even cappuccino that you are going to serve or drink. The frothing wand really makes a difference to your espresso and since it swivels, it doesn’t get in the way of making great espressos or cappuccino. What I really like about this espresso machine is that it has a self-priming feature which allows you to kick start the machine and prepares your coffee beforehand. So, there’s no time wasted and you can enjoy your espresso or cappuccino with the push of a button.

Also, the DeLonghi EC 155 espresso machine has two separate thermostats. With this feature, it allows you to brew your espresso or cappuccino in the perfect temperature when serving. Other than that, it allows you to control steam and water temperature separately as well with the separate thermostat. The boiler on this espresso machine is made out of high quality stainless steel that ensures you a long lasting lifespan on it which means, you can enjoy great tasting espressos for many years to come. Also with the 15 bar pump, you can obtain the most original flavour from the pods or ground coffee beans. It makes it much more wonderful with that. To make life easier, the water reservoir can be removed for easy refills and cleaning up. It also holds up to 35 ounce in capacity so you don’t really have to refill it occasionally. It also tells you that the water is almost gone by indicating it with a LED light display on the front of the machine. Last but not least, the DeLonghi EC 155 works with just a push of a button.

If you want it to start, just push the button. It does the same with making espressos, cappuccinos and turning it off. So what more can I say, it is an amazing espresso machine. DeLonghi has never failed to impress me and I bet it can change your life too. This espresso machine can be yours for only $100. Yes, it is that cheap so go and get it now at your local store!Finnish divers recently discovered several crates of champagne and beer from a sunken ship that had been at the bottom of the Baltic Sea for nearly two centuries. The experts carefully identified, researched, and analyzed the alcohol...then they drank it.The divers discovered the wreck just south of Aaland, a Finland-controlled archipelago of some 6,500 small islands in the Baltic Sea. Inside the sunken schooner, they found 168 bottles of champagne and an undisclosed amount of bottles of beer. The ship itself likely dates back to the second quarter of the 19th century, making its cargo almost certainly the oldest alcoholic drinks in existence.

By comparison, the oldest wines in private hands are only thought to date back to the very end of the 1800s.This entire story is a good reminder of a basic scientific truth - when in doubt, start drinking the 200-year-old booze. The divers first discovered the champagne was drinkable when changing pressures caused the cork to pop off one of the bottles, and a diver decided to take a swig. He expected to taste seawater that had seeped into the bottle over the last 200 years - which raises very legitimate questions about just why he decided to take a sip in the first place - but was shocked to discover the wine still tasted fine.The divers all had some of the ancient wine, and then resealed the wine and brought it to wine expert, or sommelier, Ella Grussner Cromwell-Morgan. Here's how she described it:"Despite the fact that it was so amazingly old, there was a freshness to the wine. It wasn't debilitated in any way. Rather, it had a clear acidity which reinforced the sweetness. Finally, a very clear taste of having been stored in oak casks."

Other descriptions that came out of a recent official tasting range from "lime blossoms, coffee, chanterelles" to " yeast, honey and...a hint of manure." Whatever the exact taste, the champagne was definitely significantly sweeter than what we're familiar with today. While a modern bottle has about 9 grams of sugar, a typical bottle in the 1830s had 100 grams of sugar, and Russians were known to add an extra spoonful of sugar just to make sure it was sweet enough.So how did the alcohol survive for so long under the sea? That's actually the absolute best place to keep them, as champagne expert Richard Juhlin explains:"Bottles kept at the bottom of the sea are better kept than in the finest wine cellars."We can only hope this starts off a craze of storing wine inside shipwrecks. If you really care about your wine, I don't see any alternative. And it really was incredibly well-preserved - other than a loss of fizziness from the slow loss of air bubbles over the nearly 200 years, the wine tasted exactly the same as it would have back in the 1800s.