It’s not all about Tuscany anymore with our Top 100 Wines of Italy list. Although the region continues to dominate the list this year, other areas are pushing through with plenty of top-quality wines from Piedmont, Sicily, Alto Adige and other parts of the country. And even if a large part of our list of the best Italian wines of 2022 comes from Tuscany, it’s not just Brunello di Montalcino that stands out, with many Super Tuscans listed and even a few whites, such as a barrel-fermented trebbiano of Petrolo and blends made on the island of Gorgona.
The diversity and consistency in quality in the bottle from the best names in Italy impressed us this year. And this was quite an accomplishment considering producers released wines from less good vintages than in the recent past. It was tough to follow such extraordinary years as 2015 and 2016. For example, we found a number of excellent 2018 Brunellos in our recent tastings, and they were more balanced and fresher than the richer and denser 2017s, but the wines are a step down from the great 2015s and 2016s. It was the same with 2018 Barolos, which are wines for early drinking and do not have the ageworthiness of great years such as 2017, 2016, and 2015.
The best of the nearly 200 Barbarescos we rated in 2022 matched the number of top Barolos on our list – nine each – and highlighted how Barbaresco is making wines clearly equal in quality to Barolo, even though some may think otherwise. “We see no difference in the interest of our great Barbarescos and Barolos,” Bruna Giacosa said this summer during a trip to the Langhe. In fact, her two beautiful single-vineyard Barbarescos from the 2019 vintage, Rabaja and Asili, are part of our top 100 list below.
READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF THE WORLD 2022 AND OUR WINE OF THE YEAR
Overall, JamesSuckling.com rated more than 7,400 Italian wines out of the more than 32,000 wines we tasted in total this year. It was a record for me personally as a wine critic covering Italy for more than four decades. That’s a lot of wine tasted, and it was mostly done during the summer when I was in Italy in our office in Tuscany or on the road visiting regions and wineries with a number of my editors, including Claire Nesbitt, Andrii Stetsiuk and Kevin Davy.
One of the highlights of the year was traveling with my team to Sicily, specifically Etna. The volcanic region on the southeastern tip of the island is out of this world. We were walking the dusty vineyards with wine producers and living the unique microclimate of the region. I believe that some of the special sub-appellations, contradas in Italian, are now some of the best places in Italy to make distinctive wines, including such names as San Lorenzo, Calderara Sottana, Santo Spirito, Moganazzi, Guardiola and Feudo di Mezzo. Although there’s still a lot of upside and improvement to be made in viticulture and winemaking, we chose eight wines from the region for this list of the top 100 from Italy.
“We haven’t been making outstanding quality wines for that long,” said Marco de Grazia, who began making wine under his label, Tenuta delle Terre Nere, in the early 2000s. “There’s so much more to do.”
Another region to think about from this list is Alto Adige. The cool, mountainous area makes bright and precise wines, both white and red. The crystal clear nature of the wines, whether a minerally pinot grigio or slatey lagrein, make them so fresh and appealing to drink. Check out the documentary we shot four years ago to better understand the area. The wine producers of Alto Adige are some of the best in viticulture and low-intervention winemaking in Italy.
FORMIDABLE BAROLO
Our No. 1 Italian wine of the Year is a formidable bottle – the Paolo Scavino Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata Riserva 2016. It is one of the best young Barolos I have ever encountered. The Paolo Scavino family has been making structured and polished Barolos for decades and the winery is now run by two sisters, Enrica and Elisa. The latter is the winemaker, and she has brought a subtle hand to the winemaking, giving the wines even more sophistication and polish. The Rocche dell’Annunziata Riserva 2016 is most certainly her best wine ever.
Tuscany’s Francesco Ricasoli and team’s best wine ever was last year’s Italian Wine of the Year, the Barone Ricasoli Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Ceniprimo 2018, which received a rating of 100 points. This year the same wine came in at 99 points and is our No. 2 Italian wine. The single-vineyard pure sangiovese continues to be a benchmark for Chianti Classico and Italy overall.
The Bertinga Toscana Volta di Bertinga 2019, at No. 3, is a neighbor to Ricasoli, and the pure merlot is exceptional by all standards. It was first made in 2015, originally from a small parcel of vineyards at Castello di Ama in Chianti Classico. I attended a blind tasting this summer of recent top merlots from around the world, including such legends as Petrus and Le Pin, and the 2019 Volta di Bertinga was voted the top wine by the 20 or so tasters, including myself.
If there was a similar blind comparative tasting for great syrahs of the world, I think that Duemani would come out top. The wine comes from biodynamically farmed vineyards on hillsides north of Bolgheri, and it shows a depth and intensity of spicy, blue fruits with tension and focused tannins. The Duemani Syrah Costa Toscana Suisassi 2019 is our No. 4 Italian wine of 2022.
By comparison, the Foradori Teroldego Vigneti delle Dolomiti Granato 2019, our No. 5 wine, is incomparable to any other wine made and it comes from the finicky teroldego grape. It’s also 100 percent biodynamically farmed in an area better known for high production, agro-industrial wines. It shows that the Foradori family are remarkable vineyardists and winemakers.
No. 6 is the legendary merlot and sangiovese blend from the Frescobaldi family, the Luce della Vite Toscana Luce 2019. It originated as a joint venture with Napa Valley’s Mondavi family, but the Florentine clan took 100 percent of the project in the early 2000s. A new winery and fine-tuning of the vineyards have taken both the Luce Super Tuscan and Brunello di Montalcino to new levels.
READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF ITALY 2021
The terrific quality white from Tuscany at No. 7, the Petrolo Trebbiano Toscana Bòggina B 2020, brings a new level of quality to the region. Petrolo owner Luca Sanjust has worked with close friends in Burgundy to perfect his white wine making, which may be why this trebbiano takes on the depth and intensity of a grand cru from the region. Think Chevalier-Montrachet. Yet it’s made with a grape that is often forgotten in the vineyards of Tuscany. Try it if you can find it.
Most people know the Tuscan winery of Tua Rita, but they often only think about its merlot. The Tua Rita Syrah Toscana Per Sempre 2020 should change their minds, and it’s our No. 8 wine. It’s made from vineyards on the Tuscan coast near the town of Suvereto, and the wine shows an uncanny intensity and balance in 2020, compared with past years, which were richer and more powerful bottles.
The No. 9 Manincor Pinot Nero Alto Adige Mason di Mason 2019 is also a beautifully balanced and refined red, yet it shows intensity and depth for an alpine pinot noir. Manincor has been making beautifully exact and focused wines for years. Most expect their best wines to be a white like sauvignon blanc or chardonnay, but the 2019 pinot noir is truly exceptional and it highlights how Alto Adige is making the most exciting pinots in Italy.
Finally, we have a classic collectible Bordeaux as our No. 10, and all of us should have at least one bottle in our cellar. It’s the benchmark Bordeaux blend from the Tuscany coast, the Tenuta San Guido Bolgheri-Sassicaia Sassicaia 2019. The wine’s purity and fine structure reminds me of the great Sassicaias of the 1980s, particularly the perfect 1988. I can’t wait to taste it again!
In fact, I can’t wait to taste all the wines from this year’s list of our Top 100 Wines of Italy 2022. They are all unique in their own way and very, very drinkable even at this young stage in their evolution.
– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman
Note: You can sort the wines below by vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.
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