13 Top ITALIAN WINES You Have to Try!

In many of my top wine videos, I try to include wines from a number of different countries so that there's something for everyone. However, I know that many of my viewers are very big Italian wine fans. So in this video, I've compiled some of my favorite Italian wine recommendations from the past 12 to 18 months or so, and I've put them into this single video. There's red wines, white wines, and even a sparkling wine, and numerous different regions and price points represented. So there should be something for everyone. Produttori del Barbaresco is a cooperative that has a little more than 50 members. Collectively, this cooperative controls around one third of the vineyards in Barbaresco. While many cooperatives have a bad reputation, this one has a well-deserved reputation for quality. There's several safeguards in place that help to ensure that there's consistent quality vintage after vintage at Produttori del Barbaresco. First, the producers are all required to give 100% of their fruit to the cooperative, so they can't cherry pick the best wine and sell that separately for themselves. Second, prices for the grapes are determined annually and are based on quality. While Produttori del Barbaresco has a flagship Barbaresco that it produces every vintage, and which I also enjoy very much, that one sells for about 50 bucks a bottle. But the fruit that does not make it into that wine, and some of the fruit that's not located within the Barbaresco growing zone, makes it into the Langa Nebbiolo. The Langa Nebbiolo is an excellent way for people to get their Nebbiolo fix if they want to be able to pop and pour a wine immediately without having to give that wine additional bottle age. While this is a consistently excellent wine that does well most vintages, the 2021 vintage is on store shelves now and it received a 93 point score from Robert Parker. This is a wine that has refreshing acidity. It's an excellent food wine and one that will pair extremely well with pizza, pasta, and both white and red meat. They produce about 12,000 cases of it annually, so you should be able to track this one down with no difficulty. This is a wine that you can definitely enjoy immediately or at any time over the next six to eight years, so it definitely gives you tremendous flexibility in your cellar and is an excellent cellar defender as well. As viewers of this channel know, I'm a strong believer in loading up on wine from strong vintages, and for 2024, there's very few vintages that are stronger than the 2019 vintage for Brunello di Montalcino. Indeed, 2019 is considered to be a five-star vintage for Brunello. The weather was practically perfect for producing high-quality Sangiovese. As a result, lots of the wines are characterized by elegance, precision, and finesse, and are extraordinarily well balanced. About six weeks ago, I attended a Brunello tasting during which about 70 of these upcoming pre-release wines were offered. I tasted through almost all of them, and they were extremely impressive across the board. In fact, there were only about 10% of the wines that I did not like and would not consider purchasing, but that was primarily due to stylistic reasons and not because they were bad quality wines. So in my view, the floor for Brunello di Montalcino for 2019 is quite high. So if there's a producer that you've enjoyed in the past, you can buy with confidence knowing that it's pretty likely that that producer also made a strong wine in the 2019 vintage. But in this video, I'm going to be identifying two of my favorite 2019 Brunello di Montalcino, and these are both Brunellas that I tasted at the recent tasting and confirmed that they're of outstanding quality for this particular vintage. The first of which is the Leggerla Brunello di Montalcino. Leggerla is a high-quality, traditional, but small producer of Brunello di Montalcino that was founded back in 1975 when they purchased a 6.5 hectare parcel of vineyards from Biondi Santi that were part of the original Biondi Santi estate. They now have around 11.5 hectares of vines spread out over two parcels, and their Brunello di Montalcino is a as well as their other parcel. The 2019 Leggerla Brunello di Montalcino is a classic Brunello that matured for a long period of time in large Slavonian oak casks. This is an elegant, refined expression of Sangiovese. Descriptors included mixed berry, mixed spice, violets, and there was ample acidity and a long lingering finish. Really an impressive wine despite the fact that it wasn't even released yet. Il Poggione was one of the original three producers of Brunello di Montalcino, and it's now run by the fifth generation of its founder. The 2019 Il Poggione was definitely another one of the standouts at the recent Brunello tasting. Fans of Il Poggione will definitely want to make sure to get the 2019 Il Poggione in their cellar. This was an extremely impressive wine that was intensely concentrated, but yet had abundant structure, and so it's definitely going to be one that you're going to want to give some additional bottle age to before you start enjoying it. The Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino comes from vines that average more than 20 years old, as the younger vines are used for the Rosso di Montalcino. Tignanello fans will want to pay close attention to this first cellar defender. This is a wine that a viewer actually reminded me about a few days ago in the comments to my Antinori Super Tuscan wine video, and then just a couple hours later I was at the wine club and someone opened a bottle of this wine and shared it with me. So I knew that I had to discuss the Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Reserva from the Tignanello vineyard in this video. This is a wine that is made from fruit from the Tignanello vineyard that does not go into the Tignanello bottling. Of course now the Tignanello bottling sells for close to $150 per bottle, but this Chianti Classico Reserva on average will sell for about $50 a bottle in the United States, and if you shop around you can definitely get it for $40 or even a little bit less. This wine is dominant in Sangiovese. It also includes a little bit of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It's matured in a mix of French oak and Hungarian oak. It's a wine that will definitely improve with another couple years of bottle age, and it will cruise in the cellar for 12 to 15 years or more. It's definitely a highly acclaimed wine, and you can find the 2020 vintage on store shelves now. Lodovico Antinori helped to establish iconic Super Tuscan producer Ornelia, but he later sold his interest. Then in 2001, along with his brother Piero, Lodovico Antinori helped to establish Tenuta di Becerno, which has become an esteemed Italian producer in its own right. Becerno is ideally and idyllically situated in the upper Morema area with stunning views of the Trinian Sea. Becerno has a highly acclaimed flagship wine, which is also named Becerno, that is a Super Tuscan blend which competes with the likes of Sassicaia and Ornelia, but which sells for right around $200 per bottle or so. Fortunately, however, they also make an outstanding entry-level wine that sells for only around $30 per bottle, and which makes an excellent cellar defender. The fruit for this entry-level wine does not come from the Becerno estate, but rather from a nearby estate that's called Campo di Sasso. The soils at Campo di Sasso are very different and consist primarily of sand and clay. These soils help to produce a wine that's extremely approachable and ready to enjoy immediately. I'm talking about the Campo di Sasso Insolio del Cingale Toscana IGT. This wine has been a consistent performer that's been well received by critics for the past few vintages. It's a blend that consists primarily of Syrah and Merlot, but it can also include some Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. This wine is already extremely approachable with tannins that are very well integrated. You can enjoy it immediately on a pop-in pour, and you don't need to age it at all. I was extremely impressed with this wine, and I actually enjoyed it more than the second wine from Becerno, which cost more than twice as much. Located in Piedmont, Italy, Massolino is a historic producer that dates back to 1896. The winery is located high atop Serralunga d'Alba and features stunning views of the vineyards below, even when it's foggy, like on the day that I visited. This is a traditional producer that matures its Nebbiolo in large Slavonian oak casks. The winery was substantially renovated in 2016, and so now it features state-of-the-art winemaking equipment. While Massolino has a number of top single vineyard wines, the next top wine for $60 per bottle is the 2019 Massolino Barolo, which is their classic blend that contains Nebbiolo from a number of different villages. 2019 was a very strong classic vintage for Barolo, and this is definitely an outstanding effort from Massolino, and one that was well received by critics. Unfortunately, the price of Sassicaia has skyrocketed in recent years and now sells for around $300 per bottle, but fortunately Tenuto Sanguito also has an impressive second wine called Guidoberto that sells for closer to $60 per bottle. Better still, the 2021 vintage is on store shelves now, and that may arguably be the best vintage of Guidoberto to date. This is so according to the director of winemaking for Tenuto Sanguito. In fact, the 2021 vintage was so strong that they actually use less Merlot in that vintage than they do for most years. As such, this wine is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. This is definitely a wine that will continue to gain complexity and to improve with some additional bottle age, but in a pinch you can definitely enjoy it when it's young if you give it a healthy decant and preferably with a meal. Inspired by the red wines of Burgundy, Roberto Vorazio started his own winery back in 1986. Just a few years later, he received a perfect 100 point score from Robert Parker, and he is now widely regarded as one of the very best producers in all of Barolo. Roberto Vorazio's winemaking philosophy emphasizes high density planting and restriction of yields. This results in wines with tremendous concentration. While Roberto Vorazio's Barolos are extremely hard to locate and have very hefty price tags, he also does a tremendous job with Barbera. It may surprise you to learn that there's actually three times more Barbera produced in Barolo than there is in Abiolo. Barbera is capable of producing very high yields. As such, there can be a lot of thin and uninspiring Barbera as well, so it's extremely important to choose only top producers who treat this wine with respect. In addition to Vorazio, Giacomo Conterno and Michele Chiarlo also do an excellent job with Barbera. By restricting yields and giving this wine more concentration, it results in a very, very impressive expression of Barbera. Barbera has high acid, but it also has medium tannin levels, and so it doesn't have the same grippy tannins that Barolo has when it's young. As such, it's a wine that you can enjoy on release, but it's certainly capable of aging for a few years as well. It's a very food-friendly wine due to the high acidity, and it's one that I often choose at an Italian restaurant. This is a smart choice because it's a wine that's not only more cost-effective than Barolo, but it's also ready to enjoy on a pop and pour, so you don't have to wait around for an hour or two for your Barolo to open up. But because it has only medium tannins, and it has some impressive fruit as well, it's also a wine that does not require food, and you can also just enjoy it sitting on the patio. In Europe, this impressive wine can be had for closer to 30 euros, but in the United States, I did see several different vintages selling for right around 50 dollars, and some were as low as 40 or 45 dollars. I know many of you are upset about the extreme and dramatic price increases for wines like Sassicaia and Ornelia. Indeed, those wines were about one-third of the current price point just 10 years ago. I'm not that excited about those price hikes either, but rather than getting mad and complaining, what you can do is just buy Guatemaco instead. Guatemaco is a super Tuscan wine that's absolutely outstanding. I featured the 2019 vintage of this wine in my underrated video a while back, but at TechSum, they were also pouring the 2020 vintage, and that one was outstanding as well. In fact, one major critic actually scores the 2020 Guatemaco a little bit higher than even the Sassicaia wine, and yet it sells for around one-third the price. You'll definitely want to shop around though, as I saw prices that were quite a bit higher as well, but I did find this one for as little as 105 dollars, and I would definitely keep an eye out for the 2019 vintage as well, as that one might be a few dollars cheaper, and it was definitely an outstanding vintage too. This wine is a blend that consists of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 15% Sangiovese. I really like the addition of the Sangiovese, as it adds some refreshness and acidity to this blend. This is definitely a well-balanced wine. In an emergency, you could definitely enjoy it with a multiple hour decant and a meal, but it's going to be much better with another five to six years of age on it, and will certainly age for much longer than that as well. While prices on this wine have not kept up and increased the way that the Sassicaia and Ornelia have, I fully expect that prices will begin to head north within the next few years, and so you'll definitely want to stock up on this wine while you can. You'll definitely be glad that you did. If you're interested in wine recommendations, wine collecting strategies, and learning more about wine, please do subscribe to my channel. I've been collecting wine for more than 15 years, and also have a level 4 diploma from the WSET, so I have both formal certification as well as substantial practical knowledge from the School of Hard Knocks. Olivio Feluga Terrialte from the Ragazzo DOCG, which is located in Friuli, Venezia Giulia, is widely considered to be one of the very best white wines in all of Italy. This impressive wine was first produced in 1981. Terrialte is a historic vineyard in Ragazzo. This is a perfect area for producing outstanding white grapes, as there's a long growing season. This is made possible by the cooling and moderating influences from the Adriatic Sea, and also due to the beneficial impact of the Alps, which helps to shield the vineyards from some cool winds that would come from the north. This wine is a white blend that consists of three different grapes, Friulano, Sauvignon, and Pinot Bianco. This is a mineral-driven wine, with ample acidity and even some texture that I enjoy. Flavors and aromas include a mix of fruit, including stone fruit, tropical fruit, and citrus fruit, and there's also some intriguing floral aromatics and flavors that I enjoy. The next intriguing Italian white wine was first produced in 1995. It comes from southern Italy, and along with the Terrialte discussed earlier, is widely regarded as one of the very best white wines in all of Italy. Somewhat surprisingly, this wine comes from the Amalfi Coast DOC. I'm talking about the Marisa Cuomo Fiorore Bianco Fiorduva. I first discovered this impressive wine when I was dining in Rome last fall, and a sommelier suggested it. It was a brilliant wine that paired perfectly with a seafood sampler, with cod, and with scallops. Fiorduva is a blend of three obscure and indigenous Italian white grapes. These grapes are grown in vines that average 80 years of age on south-facing coastal terraces at elevations ranging from 200 meters to 550 meters above sea level. While you might think that the Amalfi Coast is too warm to produce high quality white wine, in fact it's an absolutely magical place to produce white wine. This is so because the elevation provides some cooling influences, and they also use pergola training for the grapes, which helps to shade them from the afternoon sun. There's a couple different ways that you can tell if a wine is particularly complex. One of them is the length of the finish, and this one had an extraordinarily long finish. The other is if you're able to readily identify numerous discrete descriptors, and here there were almost too many different discrete descriptors to recount. But the readily identifiable flavors and aromas for this wine included grapefruit, apricot, pineapple, mango, citron, peach, honey, almonds, jasmine, and wet rock. This wine was bone dry with impressive minerality and abundant acidity. Really an impressive wine with an extraordinarily long finish. Definitely one that I would seek out and make sure you get a chance to taste it. With champagne prices continuing to explode in price, it's always nice to have some less costly alternatives. This next wine is an excellent which is also produced using the traditional method where the secondary fermentation takes place in bottle. Broni Pizzini was founded way back in 1870 and is one of the first producers in Franciacorta. Broni Pizzini emphasizes natural farming and low intervention winemaking. For example, with this excellent Franciacorta, they used only 5% malolactic fermentation. So the next top wine for around $30 a bottle is the Broni Pizzini Anamonte Franciacorta Extra Brut. This impressive Franciacorta is a blend that consists of 78% Chardonnay, 18% Pinot Nero, and 4% Pinot Bianco. The fruit for this wine is sourced from 25 different estate vineyards that are located all over Franciacorta and the vines for which average around 20 years of age or so. Descriptors included citrus, stone fruit, toast, smokiness, and a minerality that I enjoyed. Definitely shop around for this wine, however, as I saw prices ranging wildly anywhere from a low of $25 a bottle to way over $70 a bottle or more. But I did see many establishments that sold it for around $30. Ornelai is one of my favorite Super Tuscan wines, but unfortunately the price has gone up dramatically and it now sells for over $250 per bottle. Fortunately, however, Ornelai also has a third wine that's called La Volta de Ornelai that they've been selling and producing since the 1991 vintage. This wine is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sangiovese. I find that the Sangiovese gives it some refreshing acidity. This wine matures for about 10 months, partially in barriques that were previously used for Ornelai, and partially in concrete tanks. This wine comes in at about 14% alcohol by volume. While the 2021 vintage is on shelves now, this wine is a consistently excellent option, so my recommendation is not vintage-specific. This wine also improves with some additional bottle age. I found the 2015 vintage on a wine list in London a few months ago, and that wine was showing extremely well. This is a wine that you can enjoy young in a pinch, with a healthy decant, and preferably with food. And in that regard, this wine is making good inroads on restaurant wine lists, and I've seen it offered by the glass at a number of steakhouses in the United States as well. So even if you don't buy it by the bottle, definitely keep an eye out for it by the glass at restaurants. If you'd like to learn more about Italian wines, I've published numerous videos on various Italian wine subjects, including Super Tuscan wines, Barolo, Brunello, Chianti Classico, and many more. So if you'd like to check those out, be sure to check out the playlist that's linked above.