Yet despite winning 38 of 42 tests and drawing two, there's a level of dissatisfaction about their consistency of performance.
It's hard to imagine, given that England and Wales combined haven't won as many tests as the All Blacks in the same period, how there can be any griping.
That, though, is one of the traits that has driven this side to where they are: they refuse to make peace with anything but perfection. And 2014 has, in a performance sense, been far from perfect.
It has been a season dominated more by perspiration than inspiration and the thing the All Blacks have perfected in 2014 is the art of winning ugly.
Only one defeat in 13 tests and yet how many truly dominant performances within that run?
"We probably haven't been as consistent as we were in 2013," says All Black coach Steve Hansen. "I think there are a number of reasons for that. Our own ability to really mentally get ourselves where we needed to. Some of the other performances have been riddled by some very average officiating and that hasn't made it easy.
"And the opposition has got better so it is hard to go out and dominate them for 80 minutes. Is domination about minute one to minute 80..? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't but in some games it is not going to be like that.
"The pleasing thing is that good sides always find a way to win when they are playing poorly too and we have shown that we can do that. We can win ugly when we have had to. We have fought some of the odds and shown we can win."
In having set themselves the goal of being the most dominant team in history, the hard part for the All Blacks is measuring their progress. At what stage can they sit back and believe they are what they want to be?
In Paris last year France coach Philippe Saint Andre said the current All Blacks already were the most dominant side in history. Since then they have played another 15 tests and won 13, drawn one and lost one.
If the World Cup is included, the All Blacks have played 48 tests, winning 44, drawing two and losing two.
The compares with the only other genuine candidates to be considered the most dominant - the All Blacks of 1987-1990.
Judged over the equivalent period - from the World Cup of 1987 to the last test of 1990 - that All Black side played 26 tests, won 24, lost one and drew one.
It's a remarkably similar record and who would know whether it is better than the current team's or which could be considered the most dominant side.
Having a definitive answer, though, is not actually something captain Richie McCaw is relevant in their quest. "I don't think you ever reach a goal like that," he says.
"Those sorts of goals are the kind of things that allow you to live every day the way you want and it is something you keep coming back to you. It is the same with being a top player, a great player - whether you ever get there is irrelevant.
"It is about asking what would a guy who is considered that do today? Same with the team - what would the team that is considered the most dominant do on Saturday? They would go out and perform well. They would keep those standards high - no matter whether you are playing a team you should beat easily. That is the thing that I love about being in this environment because you are always striving regardless of the situation to be better."
That's ultimately what has been driving the All Blacks this week in Cardiff - the desire to be better than they were in Edinburgh. That's it - they don't really care about anything else.
And if they win and play well, they will, 11 months from the start of the World Cup, provide an ominous warning about how they are placed.
By winning so much this year and not quite playing as well as they can, the All Blacks have managed to do two things. They have preserved their status as the best team in the world and built their confidence. They have also managed to do alert themselves to their own frailties and keep the rest of the world guessing about how much more they have to come.
The All Black attacking game in particular has been kept mostly under wraps - not by choice, but by the inability to execute as much of it as they would have liked.
"I think that is why the year has been good for us," says Hansen. "There have been periods where we have put our mark on games. Would we like to put our mark on those games for longer ... certainly. We haven't so we have got to look at the reality of where we are at and say 'how do we get better because the others are certainly getting better.
"I think it has been the perfect year for us. If we win on Saturday then we will have had one loss and one draw which is the same as we had in 2012. This has still been a phenomenal season on the scoreboard and there are still parts of our game that we are really happy with and still parts that we have to get better in and be more consistent."
- Gregor Paul, Herald on Sunday
