‘We tasted 4,000 American wines this year. These are Decanter's Top 50 US Wines of 2025’

This is our second annual list of Decanter’s Top 50 US Wines. My hope is that our list of wines inspires conversation and sparks disagreement.

That it makes people take note of the regions beyond those you think of first when you think of the wines being produced in America’s wine country. There are some spectacular wines throughout the US.

I feel like we’re in the process of both getting started and figuring it out. I guess that’s life in a nutshell. I work with a very small team of freelance writers, and I’m the only full-time person at Decanter in the US, so, with limited resources, we are doing what we can to maximise our scope.

We’ve expanded and moved coverage around in some areas, done more in others, and, regrettably but necessarily, less in others. It is a challenging landscape for media, and while it hasn’t been a perfect year for our US team or me when it comes to expanding coverage, I think we’re moving in the right direction.

Top 50 US Wines 2025: How the selections were made

The selections for Decanter’s Top 50 US wines were chosen from over 3,500 wines tasted and reviewed between December 2024 and November 2025. To be considered, they must be current or soon-to-be-released wines; library wines are not eligible.

They were selected to show a range of styles, places and exciting and emerging winemaking talent. This is not intended to be a list of the top-scoring wines of the year, but wines that show the brilliance and diversity of America’s winemaking talents and regions.