The Wine Pair Podcast

The Best & Worst Wines We Drank in 2025!

• The Wine Pair • Season 1 • Episode 198

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Welcome to our very own version of Spotify Wrapped! In this episode, we review the best and worst wines we drank this year, and share with you why we thought they were so good or so bad. In 2025 we drank 80 wines from 12 different countries and 3 different states in the US, interviewed 8 winemakers from all over the world, and released 5 minisodes on a variety of subjects. Listen in to learn about how many downloads we got this year, in how many countries our podcast was downloaded in, and how much money we spent on wine for the podcast this year. That’s right, we buy all of our own wine, we do not accept wines sent to us from wineries or distributors because it is really important that we share real, honest reviews with you and help you to find authentically good wines - or avoid bad wines - that are reasonably priced. It’s just what we do! You’ll hear excerpts from episodes where we rated our top 5 and bottom 5 wines, some of which are pretty darn funny! Thank you all for a fantastic 2025, and we can’t wait to hear from you in 2026! We have tons of fun in store!

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Show Notes

Episode #198: The Best & Worst Wines We Drank in 2025!  00:00

Hello to our tribe of faithful listeners and new listeners as well, and welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and you will hear my wine pairing partner in crime Carmela virtually through different excerpts from our podcast this year. 

If you are new to our podcast, here is what you can expect. If you love wine and want to find great wines at affordable prices, and you want to expand your wine horizons, and you want to have some laughs and fun while doing it - then you are in the right place! Each week we explore a different wine varietal, style, brand, or region of the winemaking world, and learn about what makes them worth knowing about. And then we taste 2-3 of those wines that are reasonably priced to let you know if they are worth your hard earned money. If that feels like your vibe, then we are super happy you are here. And, we are proud to say that Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining.

That’s right, you heard Carmela virtually in our orientation right there, and I bet if I didn’t say anything, you might even had wondered throughout this episode if she is actually here or not. Or maybe it’s AI Carmela. No, never, never. There will never be an AI Carmela!

Before we get to the heart of this episode, which is our list of the best and worst wines we drank this year - and when we go through those wines, we will share with you actual excerpts from those episodes, I wanted to share with you some fun facts about what we did on the podcast this year. Everyone likes facts, right? Not fake news, but real, honest to goodness facts that you can fact check yourself if you check our back catalog!

Including this episode, we released 51 episodes this year, and even though there are 52 weeks in a year, based on the release schedule, which is a Sunday for us, we released an episode each week. That’s right, we never missed a week. 

  • 5 of those episodes were minisodes which covered topics like minerality, why wines are sometimes named for the place and not the grape, how alcohol impacts wine, if you can chill a red wine, and what body in wine means.
  • 8 of those episodes were interviews with winemakers, including 3 for our Virginia winemakers series, and then 5 other winemakers from California, Israel, New York, Oregon, and New Zealand.
  • We reviewed 80 wines this year from 12 different countries and 3 different states in the US.
  • Because we buy all of the wines we review, which we do so that we can give you unbiased reviews, we spent over $1,750 on wine for the podcast.
  • We had over 42,000 episodes downloaded this year, and the 5 most popular episodes we released this year were
  • Episode 167: Getting Serious About Rosé #3: Tavel!
  • Episode 168: WTF is Châteauneuf-du-Pape?
  • Episode 179: WTF is Chablis?
  • Episode 169: Costco Kirkland Signature 2022 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Challenge
  • Episode 153: Italian Wine Adventure #14: Rosso di Montalcino
  • Some of this is likely based on the dates of the release because they have been out longer, but that gives you some idea of the breadth of wines we covered and the interest people have in different subjects. 
  • We had listeners from 169 different countries and territories, with the US being where the majority of people listen from, but right behind the US, the next countries were the UK, Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Norway, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands
  • In terms of US states, the top states were California, Texas, Washington, Virginia, New York, Illinois, Florida, Oregon, New Jersey, and Massachusets


In terms of the 80 wines themselves that we tasted and reviewed this year

  • 59% were red, 29% were white, 5% were rose, 5% were sparkling, and 2.5% were orange. So, it feels like we were a bit red heavy, and we were really light on sparkling for what Carmela and I like
  • In terms of ratings, I am basing the ratings on the average ratings that Carmela and I gave them combined, so while we can’t give a half point rating individually, when combined, the totals are often half points. 
  • Only 5 wines got a rating of 9 or higher, while 55% got a rating of 7 or higher, which means those are the ones we recommend as a buy. 36% got a rating of 5 or 6 which means we liked them just fine but we would not buy them, and 7 wines got an average rating of 4.5 or lower, and two of those kind of don’t count because they were corked, which is a rare thing for us surprisingly
  • Thankfully, the lower rated wines were lower in cost as well. Those rated 4.5 or lower had an average cost of $14.52 while the highest rated wines, those with an average score of 8.5 or higher had an average cost of $22.69
  • I did look at how price may have played a role in our ratings. Interestingly enough, wines we rated 9 or higher were not our most expensive on average, they were about a dollar less expensive than those we rated between 8 and 8.5, and those averaged $22.89. 
  • What is interesting is that the lowest rated wines, those 3.5 or below, not including the two corked wines, averaged $14.24, while those rated between 4 and 4.5 cost an average of $11.89. That is a bit of an outlier, however, because the wines rated between 7 and 7.5 were $2 more on average than those we rated between 6 and 6.5, and were $7 more expensive than those that rated between 5 and 5.5.
  • Without going full data nerd, those wines we rated 7 or above cost an average of $21.32. Those we rated between a 5 and 6.5 cost an average of $19.34, so close, but still we rated the higher priced wines higher, and those rated 4.5 or lower cost an average of $14.12, so the ones we suggest you pour down the sink cost $7 less than the ones we recommend you buy.
  • Here is something interesting. By wine style or color, here is how our ratings broke down
    • Red and orange wines averaged a 7 rating
    • White wines averaged a 7.5 rating
    • Rose averaged just under 7
    • And sparkling wines averaged 8.5. We just like sparkling wines, and Carmela tends to prefer white wines to red

Ok, that’s a lot of data, so I think we need to get to our best and worst rated wines of the year:


But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

Oh wow. Again, it sounded like Carmela was actually here! Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and remember, we buy all of our own wine so that we can give you real and honest reviews, and we do all of the writing and recording and editing to  bring you a show every week because we love you all, and all we ask you for in return is that you please follow or subscribe to our podcast and also please leave us a nice rating and review  to help us grow our listeners - and a huge thank you to all of you who have done so already!

You can also follow us on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast, and on Bluesky. You can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and you can also visit our “Shop Wine” section where you can find links to buy the wines that we rate as buys in each episode.

And we want to make content you care about and you like, so send us a note or DM us and give us some feedback or let us know if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us - and this week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who loves retrospectives, Spotify Wrapped, data, or just needs to get some good ideas for wines to try or avoid because they may like this episode.


Our Worst Rated Wines in 2025 11:23

Let’s find out just what the eff ourBest and Worst this year, what do you say?!? Again, weird, it sounds like Carmela is actually here.

We are going to start with the worst wines we drank this year. Now, we did have two corked wines, so we are leaving those off the list because they kind of don’t count, even if they were bad. If you are not sure what a corked wine is, it does not mean there is cork in the wine, it means that a chemical called TCA has caused a reaction in the wine that makes it smell like wet cardboard or old musty and damp basement or a wet dog. We are leaving those out because we can’t really judge the wine if it is corked.

We had 5 wines that had a rating of 4.5 or lower, so that is a nice tidy number. We will do these in order of average rating from 4.5 down to our lowest rating which was a 3. Of these wines, 2 were red wines and three were white wines, and all of the white wines were Chardonnays, which is totally in line with how we feel about oaky Chardonnays in general.

Coming in at the 5th worst wine with a rating of 4.5 is the 2023 Trader Joe’s Reserve Arroyo Seco Monterey County Chardonnay Lot #262 which I gave a 4 and Carmela gave a 5 from Episode 159 How Good are Trader Joe’s Reserve Wines?

Coming in as the 4th worst is JaM Cellars Butter California Chardonnay which did not have vintage, and which both of us gave a 4 from Episode 182 which was the Costco Kirkland Signature Challenge: Sonoma County Chardonnay

The 3rd worst wine is actually a tie with the second worst, so I am basing the order on the lowest score it received from the two of us. That means the wine for third worst, which I gave a 3 and Carmela gave a 4 is the 2022 Maison L'Envoye Straight Shooter Willamette Valley Pinot Noir from episode 169 Costco Kirkland Signature 2022 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Challenge

The 2nd worst wine, which I gave a 2 and Carmela gave a 5 was the 2022 Layer Cake Creamy Chardonnay from Episode 161 Are Layer Cake Wines Any Good?

And the worst wine of 2025, also from Layer Cake winery and also from the episode 161 on Layer Cake Wines, which I guess just make shitty wine, and this is a wine we both gave a 3 rating to, is the 2021 Layer Cake Cabernet Sauvignon.


Our Top Rated Wines in 2025 29:26

Now let’s move on to our highest rated wines, and there were 7 of these wines. I will only do excerpts from the top 5, and all of those wines received an average score of 9 or higher. Of our top 7, 2 were sparkling wines, 3 were white wines, and 2 were red wines - so that is interesting!

So, the two wines that got an average rating of 8.5 from us were
2022 Camilgiano Rosso di Montalcino from Episode 153 Italian Wine Adventure #14: Rosso di Montalcino! I gave it a 9 and Carmela gave it an 8
2023 Abbazia di Novacella Kerner from Episode 163 WTF is Kerner?

Ok, now the top 5. We had 4 wines that rated a 9, and two of those got one rating of 10 and one rating of 8, and two got a 9 from each of us. So, because I can’t find a natural way to order them, I am just going to do them in the order of episode number.

Coming in at #5 is the 2021 Voliero Rosso di Montalcino also from Episode 153 Italian Wine Adventure #14: Rosso di Montalcino! which I gave a 10 and Carmela gave an 8

Coming in at #4 is Contadi Castaldi Franciacorta Brut, which was a non-vintage. That came from episode 157 Sorry, Prosecco. Franciacorta is Italy’s Answer to Champagne! And both of us gave the wine a 9. And you’ll catch in the clip that we first gave it an 8 and then changed it to a 9 after we tried the next wine.

Coming in at #3 is the 2023 Le Vieux Clocher Chablis from episode 179 WTF is Chablis? And we both gave this wine a 9 as well. Again, it doesn’t come through on this clip, but Carmela changed her rating to a 9 after initially giving it an 8

At #2 is a very recent wine, 2024 Cleto Chiarli Lambrusco di Sorbara Vecchia Modena Premium Secco from episode 196 Holiday Sparkling Wines #5: Lambrusco! And this is the only wine that Carmela gave a 10 to this year, and I gave it an 8

And coming in at #1, also from episode 179 WTF is Chablis? A wine I gave a 10 to and Carmela gave a 9, so it gets our highest overall average rating for the year at 9.5, and that is the 2023 Thomas Labille Chablis


Thank you so much for a great 2025 and we look forward to seeing you in 2026! 46:36

We really want to thank you for listening to us and supporting us this year. We do work hard to bring you an episode every week, and while that does take some time, what makes it all worth it is when we get the chance to hear from you and even talk with you.

This year, we started asking people to give us ideas for the name for our tribe, or what we call you, our faithful listeners, and we did interviews with 13 of you this year, which has been one of the highlights. Please keep those ideas coming, and if you send us a tribe name idea, we’ll ask you if you want to be on the podcast.

But more than anything, we love to hear about what you’re up to, what you’re drinking, even what’s going on in your lives, so keep it coming, and know that we always read and listen to everything you send us, and we aim to respond to everyone who reaches out to us!


Wines coming up in future episodes in case you want to drink along with us 48:01




Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 48:41

Ok, so, Carmela, it’s time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

We would also love to hear from you about a wine you would like us to taste and review. You can leave a message for us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com and you can join our email newsletter there - and if you missed our latest newsletter, email me and I will send it to you. You can do that by reaching out at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. And tell us some things you want to hear us do, or not hear us do!

Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine. Again, weird. Carmela, are you hiding or something?!?

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