HOW DID IT START
Top12Wines was founded in South Africa in 2010 by Frederic Dasse, following fifteen-year-experience of the French and South African wine industry, with the intention to have all the absolute best wines, the winners of the most prestigious awards and competitions, re-ranked fairly by the public, by wine lovers, through series of blind tastings.
The idea was to solve two of his frustrations, which he thought would likely be a frustration to many wine lovers:
1. Most wine lovers around the world never had the opportunity to taste the very best wines of a given category, from a given wine region of the world, next to each other, at one place, at one time. Some, at best, would have enjoyed only a few of these wines, but at different times, different places, in different circumstances.
2. In too many countries, wine lovers are told by wine professionals what wine they must enjoy and buy, while there are ways to consult the public itself on its own taste. In other words, as Fred often says “if you want to know what wine the public will enjoy best, ask that question to the public, nobody else!”.
Top12Wines aims to be a mobile tool allowing you to identify in five clicks the best-ranked wines, by wine lovers, of wine categories from the major wine regions in the world, and to find the best priced or nearest store from which to buy them.
Top12Wines generates rankings by wine lovers for wine lovers. We would like to call ourselves a true wine democracy!