Italian white wines are grabbing more of the international spotlight alongside the country’s famous reds, as shown by the diversity of styles winning top medals at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2025.
DWWA is the world’s largest wine competition and its rigorous judging process, involving leading experts in their field, offers an unparalleled mark of quality for wine lovers, as well as a benchmark for wineries.
After medal success last year, Italy’s Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol region showed again why it should be on every white wine lover’s travel bucket list.
Cantina Terlano’s ‘Lunare’ Gewürztraminer 2023 won one of 50 Best in Show medals at DWWA 2025. These coveted prizes were given to just 0.3% of all wines blind-tasted by judges.
Soft acidity married with gentle orchard fruits give this wine a ‘midweight rather than unctuous’ texture, said judges. ‘You can sense the mountains and the fresh air all about,’ they added, enjoying the wine’s ‘commanding but harmonious aromas’.
Scroll down to see full tasting notes on Best in Show and Platinum medal winners
Try pairing it with sweet and sour Asian-style cuisine, grilled swordfish or roasted pigeon breast served pink, said Cantina Terlano, a growers’ cooperative founded in 1893.
This group also won Platinum for its Nova Domus Terlaner Riserva 2022 – combining Pinot Blanc (Bianco) with Chardonnay and a small amount of Sauvignon Blanc – plus four Gold medals.
Italian dry white wines saw five Platinum medals in total at DWWA 2025. Similar to Best in Show, the Platinum tier represents Gold medal winners that have been elevated following an intense second round of judging by senior experts.
Cooperative winery Cantina Kurtatsch scooped Platinum for its Freienfeld Chardonnay, Alto Adige / Südtirol Riserva 2022, sourced from top Chardonnay vineyards around the village of Kurtatsch.
‘Oozing poise and charisma,’ said DWWA judges. The group also won two Golds, including for its Brenntal, Gewürztraminer Riserva 2022.
Staying in the north-east, Muzic winery won Platinum for its Valeris Friulano 2023, from a 0.5-hectare plot of 60-to-80-year-old vines in Collio, Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
‘Magnificent layers of smoky-toned golden fruit and delicate floral hints which swirl and disperse over the creamy, juicy texture and voluptuous structure,’ said judges.
It’s the second consecutive Platinum for this wine, after the 2022 vintage won at DWWA 2024.
Other Platinum winners showcased Sardinia and Le Marche. From Sardinia, judges enjoyed the rich texture and ‘salivating beam of acidity’ in Siddùra’s Maìa, Vermentino di Gallura Superiore DOCG 2023, made with 100% Vermentino.
In Le Marche, judges described Cantine Belisario, Cambrugiano, Verdicchio di Matelica Riserva DOCG 2021 as ‘very long and accomplished’.
White wines from this eastern part of central Italy also saw four Golds at DWWA 2025, including La Canosa, Viridis, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico 2024. ‘A classic style: bitter almonds over ripe stone fruits which liaise nicely with the creamy texture and firm grip of acidity,’ said judges.
Michael Garner, Italian wine expert and Regional Chair for Northern Italy (excluding Piedmont and Veneto) at DWWA 2025, said Italy’s white wine scene has developed strongly.
‘It’s easy to forget that legendary winemakers like Edoardo Valentini, Silvio Jermann and Nino Pieropan were producing great white wines 50 years ago and more.
‘But it’s no longer about a few individuals and we have seen a huge leap forward in quality throughout Italy over the last few decades. Every region has its own specialities, each one of them individual and distinctive.’
A total of 36 Golds for Italian dry white wines at DWWA 2025 offers plenty of scope for discovery and exploration.
Alto Adige / Südtirol was again well-represented. ‘It’s great to see some of the lesser-known varieties doing so well,’ said Garner, offering some of his personal highlights.
‘I’m a big fan of Sylvaner from the Valle Isarco. It’s a really under-rated grape, so to see two Gold medals in this category was very gratifying.’
Those Golds went to Abbazia di Novacella, Praepositus Sylvaner 2023 and Cantina Valle Isarco, Aristos Sylvaner 2023.
Garner added, ‘Thanks to the wonderful growing conditions there, a bevy of gold medals for Gewürztraminer and Sauvignon from the Alto Adige also showed the area’s massive potential for producing different types of fine white wine.’
Beyond regions already mentioned, there were Golds for wines emanating from parts of Lombardy, Veneto and Piedmont, plus Tuscany and Sicily.
In Veneto, Vignaioli Contra’ Soarda scooped Gold for its Vignasilan 2017, a 100% Vespaiola wine sourced from a single vineyard on volcanic soils. ‘A stunning evolution of dried orange blossom, candied lemon zest and honeyed peach,’ said DWWA judges.
Sticking with the volcanic theme, Gold medal winners in Sicily included Carricante-driven Tornatore, Pietrarizzo 2022 in the Etna Bianco DOC.
Judges said, ‘Deeply expressive preserved lemon and apple blossom aromas garnish the nose with an amazing concentration of chalky, volcanic minerals sweeping over the textured, super-fresh palate.’
There was also Gold for Piedmont’s Cantine Volpi, Derthona La Zerba Timorasso, Colli Tortonesi DOC 2023, plus a 100% Tuscan Chardonnay wine: Frescobaldi, Benefizio, Pomino Bianco Riserva DOC 2023.
While this article focuses on dry styles, readers may also wish to explore several top medals for Italian sweet wines, led by a first Best in Show medal for Passito di Pantelleria. Judges described the Donnafugata, Ben Ryé 2023 as ‘thick, liquorous and unctuous, though still bright with that intense orange fruit’.
Search all Italian medal winners at DWWA 2025
DWWA 2025: Six top-scoring Italian white wines
Cantina Terlano, Lunare Gewürztraminer, Alto Adige / Südtirol DOC, Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol 2023
97 points | Best in Show
DWWA judges said: Two years in a row for a Best in Show Gewürztraminer from Italy’s Alto Adige – but in contrast to last year’s succulent passito laureate, this year’s pick is a dry wine. The secret to great Gewürztraminer is giving it plenty of ripening time; this is not a wine in which acidity need necessarily play a significant role, as its balance is going to be supplied by texture, perfume, unction, sometimes tannin and ‘noble’ bitterness. Acidity does, as it happens, feature as a part of this wine’s make up, though in soft style, fully bonded with the wine’s gentle orchard fruits; that means that its texture is midweight rather than unctuous, and you can sense the mountains and the fresh air all about. Its commanding but harmonious aromas make as much allusion to flowers as they do to gingery spices, and the wine is more vinous than tannic. That soft-falling bitterness is there on the finish, sweeping up after the fruit and keeping the wine’s passage through the mouth clean, neat and tidy. Alcohol 15% abv.
Cantine Belisario, Cambrugiano, Verdicchio di Matelica Riserva DOCG, Le Marche 2021
97 points | Platinum
DWWA judges said: Exemplary aromas of honeyed nuts, lemon, lime and fennel with a supreme drive of freshness and purity which ebbs and flows alongside the stylish mineral structure and zingy nettle acidity. Very long and accomplished. Alc 13.5%.
Cantina Kurtatsch, Freienfeld Chardonnay, Alto Adige / Südtirol Riserva DOC, Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol 2022
97 points | Platinum
DWWA judges said: Spectacular nutmeg, vanilla and crème brûlée characters pervaded with flashes of zesty citrus peel and fresh cut grass. Honeyed and rich on the palate with an intense mineral backbone and lithe acidity. Oozing poise and charisma. Alc 14%.
Cantina Terlano, Nova Domus Terlaner Riserva, Alto Adige Terlano DOC, Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol 2022
97 points | Platinum
DWWA judges said: A joyous sotto voce nose of spring meadow flowers sprinkled over the unbridled purity of ripe pineapple, Meyer lemon and green apple fruit. Saline elements infuse the structure and acidity and proceed towards the lengthy finish. Alc 14%.
Muzic, Valeris Friulano, Collio DOC, Friuli-Venezia Giulia 2023
97 points | Platinum
DWWA judges said: Outstanding splendour, evoking fennel and tarragon herbs, jasmine florals and ripe red apple fruit, all of which carry through to the refined palate. Salivating and vibrant with a velvety texture, finely-beaded acidity and visceral gravelly length. Alc 13.5%.
Siddùra, Maìa, Vermentino di Gallura Superiore DOCG, Sardinia 2023
97 points | Platinum
DWWA judges said: Beguiling granitic austerity meets sumptuous yellow stone fruit with a sultry citrus backing. Richly textured from the enhancing layers of creamy oak which melt into the salivating beam of acidity that surges towards the finish. Alc 13.5%.
