Hackett and Banks have named it as one of their favourite of all Genesis records. Wind & Wuthering turned out to be favourable with several critics at the time of release. In a positive review for Record Mirror, David Brown opened with "The grey misty, autumn cover gives away the mood of this album, with its mellow tones and airy songs". He believed the band's new following after the success of A Trick of the Tail would not be disappointed. He thought the album is "remarkably well-paced – the music flows ... in an almost undisturbed stream ... subtle instrumentals cleverly link the songs together". Barbara Sharone reported her various positive impressions of Wind & Wuthering through multiple sessions listening to the album for Sounds. Her thoughts include "too much to digest on one listening", "less immediate but more substantial" than A Trick of the Tail, and "the band now seem relaxed and confident to be themselves". As the review progresses, she comments that "One for the Vine" is "Genesis' finest moment". Rolling Stone gave the album a positive review, praising Genesis for being more experimental and steeped in conventional rock than their progressive rock contemporaries. They made particular note of "Your Own Special Way", calling it "a first-rate pop song". Wind & Wuthering was included in Billboard magazine's Top Album Picks feature, noting "Genesis has grown into one of the premiere art-rock bands to come out of England and its fans will not be disappointed with the latest offering ... sometimes the music and the words are brilliant". Stephen Lavers for National RockStar named the album the best from Genesis at the time of its release and their most ambitious work since The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Circus magazine described the album as "flawless" with "the most mature orchestration to date" from the band. Bruce Malamut for Crawdaddy! said the "Unquiet Slumbers" suite was "majestic" with its "colourful sound textures". The album continued to receive praise from retrospective critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album a retrospective rating of four stars out of five on AllMusic. "Eleventh Earl of Mar" and "One for the Vine" were selected as the album's two "Track Picks". He made note of "Your Own Special Way", calling it "the poppiest tune the group had cut and also the first that could qualify as a love song" and summarised the album as "a standard