A few years ago, a wine purveyor friend of mine called to alert me that a wine I had been interested in was still in stock in his shop and that within a few days Wine Spectator would be naming it the wine of the year. He offered a few bottles to me at $29; after the magazine came out it would be $40.
I have yet to open the wine and last I checked there was not a strong market for it, though I could certainly get double the amount I spent. Once the Top 100 list came out, though, and I looked over the magazine's selections, I started to wonder if indeed the wine was indeed the year's best, seeing as how the list ultimately represents wines that, at one time or another, are readily available in the U.S.
Albums are a lot like wines that seem to hit the top 10 in various polls and year-end lists. The artists - or winemakers - are often stars who have met expectations or up-and-comers who have provided a new way to look at something established; when put side by side with their peers, they're often a bit showier.
Wines that score high ratings get them for several reasons, one of which is how well will it age. I'm not sure that that consideration is taken into account enough when albums are listed from No. 1 to whatever, but guessing whether a sound will endure is rather foolhardy.

Both lists, do, however, promote spending sprees. The days that follow the release of any best-of-the-year list mean endless phone calls at wine retailers. It's less so at music emporiums, though I have found that certain lists do drive the action at retail, especially in the classical world where Amazon's top-sellers at the end of the December will often include the choices of New York Times critics. (This year, when it came to albums, they went truly indie).
Last week we saw few sales bumps for albums on the lists of Rolling Stone, Spin, NPR and others; this week, perhaps a mention on Pitchfork's list will bolster sales, too. In my limited experience it already has.

The album that caught my fancy on this year's Pitchfork list was Air France, a band I know nothing about but, based on the review, I thought it would make a good purchase. At Amoeba on Friday it was sold out.
Had a similar experience a year ago with Jens Lekman and James Blackshaw, two artists I enjoy whose 2007 releases never came my way. The hunt for those lasted months.
What struck me this year about Pitchfork's lists - and this is where wine lists from publications such as Spectator come in - was the relative established reputations of the crowned winners. Fleet Foxes, TV on the Radio and M83 are bands paying to good-sized clubs, their albums are promoted online and in stores and a fair number of publications have written about them. Most years, Pitchfork's 100 best is stuffed with obscurities and albums from sub-sub-subgenres such as sitcom-inspired rappers' mixtapes. Not so much this year.
Wine Spectator's top 100 does not include those obscurities that make their critics see daylight in a way. It emphasizes wines that have distribution, showed well upon release and are still pleasant now. That's what Pitchfork's list feels like, too,this year at least.
Rolling Stone always has a safe list at year's end. Pitchfork is the one that goes to the edge, but with the marketplace so fractured, their take on indie rock in 2008 reflects how easily the indies are abutting up against the majors. Fleet Foxes, this year's winner, and Deerhunter, the No. 5 album, will continue to see bumps in sales and the next time they come to your town, odds are they will be performing at a venue that is double the size of the last place they played. Prior to March's SXSW, when something else will be declared the Next Big Thing That People Will Talk About, the Pitchfork Top 10 has a window to capitalize on critical goodwill and develop fan bases even further
The sad thing is, the achivement in '08 does not guarantee antcipation for the next record the way it was 10, 20, 30 years ago. Instead, it's like the wine reviews often state: Enjoy now.

The years concert tally has hit 98 shows and 254 acts and it might well end there, but maybe I'll find a way to sneak in a show or two by year's end.