The 57th edition of Vinitaly saw a huge success with a total attendance of 97,000 including more than 32,000 international professionals from over 130 countries.
On Sunday 6 April, a sold-out crowd gathered for one of the fair’s most talked-about sessions – a Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) masterclass led by DWWA Regional Chair for Tuscany and Italian wine expert Michelle Cherutti-Kowal MW.
A room full of trade professionals, buyers and wine enthusiasts tuned in for outstanding wines and for insight into what makes a wine great by DWWA standards.
At the masterclass, guests could learn more about DWWA, the judging process and the wines tasted – with all the information available in the DWWA masterclass booklet. Credits: Decanter.
At the sold-out masterclass, Cherutti-Kowal presented a curated flight of DWWA 2024 Gold, Platinum and Best in Show awarded wines from across Italy: from the windswept volcanic slopes of Etna, to the marly hills of Barolo, the noble heart of Montepulciano and the sun-drenched vineyards of Veneto.
From bold Nebbiolo to iconic Amarone, this 95+ point selection highlighted the exceptional quality and unique character of Italy’s reds, cementing the country’s reputation as a global leader in winemaking.
Guests at the sold-out masterclass. Credits: Decanter
See below to discover the line-up of 95-97-point wines which were presented on the day (in tasting order).
Tenute Nicosia, Vulkà, Etna, Sicily 2021
Gold, 95 points
Entrancing sweet cherry and fleshy red berry fruit characters are tempered by a savoury framework of gentle tannins and striking acidity. Energising, juicy and long. Alcohol 13%
Tenute Nicosia, Monte Gorna Vecchie Viti Riserva, Etna, Sicily 2017
Gold, 96 points
Bright and buoyant with oodles of plums, dark cherries and violet florals which tumble over the tactile tannins and supple underbelly of fine vanilla oak. Alc 13.5%
Azienda Agricola Monchiero Fratelli, Montanello, Barolo, Piedmont 2020
Best in Show, 97 points
Double success for Barolo in this year’s DWWA Best In Show selection – and both wines, significantly, hail from the ‘lock-down’ vintage of 2020. It was a propitious one, especially for those drinkers who enjoy classicism, delicacy and proportion in their bottles of Barolo. This limpid, translucent, rose-red wine sums up that style admirably. It is genuinely fragrant on the nose, with scent layers of strawberry, pomegranate, rose and rosehip. On the palate, the wine fills the mouth with a flood of intense fruit and floral flavours. They then transform as you grow aware of the wine’s defining tannins and curranty acidity; that transformation takes the spectrum of analogy down towards earth, humus and wild mushroom. Remarkable force of personality, yet sketched out in an impressively gentle and tender style. Alc 14%
Broccardo, Bricco San Pietro, Barolo, Piedmont 2020
Best in Show, 97 points
Although a little deeper than its fellow laureate, this 2020 Barolo is relatively pale in colour: a translucent garnet. You can read the steady, tempered heat of the summer in its vibrant, clearly defined fruits – plum, raspberry, pomegranate – lifting effortlessly from the glass. That heat was then followed, in 2022, by cool Alpine air in September which ensured the crop spent the necessary time on the vine, gently maturing, before an October harvest. The signature of that hang time in this wine is the clean, firm lines of soft tannin and supple acidity which marble the fruits on the back palate. It’s not a wine which needs further ageing (though it won’t object if you do), and it would make the perfect wine to show any Pinot-loving friends who have still to be won over to the joys of Nebbiolo in its marly home soils. Alc 14.5%
Icario, Rosso di Montepulciano, Tuscany 2022
Platinum, 97 points
Awash with lively black cherry and simmering menthol character; beautifully pure and concentrated. Full-bodied and opulent with supple, juicy tannins and a glorious fragrant acidity which ebbs and flows its way to the end. Magical. Alc 14%
Carpineto, Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, Tuscany 2018
Best in Show, 97 points
The 2018 vintage in Brunello di Montalcino didn’t echo the baroque warmth experienced in many of Europe’s other fine-wine regions. Here in southern central Tuscany it was a slightly cooler vintage than normal, and summer rain punctuated the growing season – a relief for the vines, in fact, after the fierce ‘Lucifer’ heat of 2017. The Riserva category in Brunello enables producers to select their very best wines, in any case, and to skip vintages if they feel the quality doesn’t merit a Riserva. This wine clearly justified selection, and the additional ageing it implies. It’s relatively dark in colour, and generously aromatic – great breadth of fruit in ripe style, though now well beyond the primary phase of direct allusiveness; instead your nose bathes in a glowing orchestral wealth – fruits and nuts eaten outside on a scent breathing summer evening. On the palate, the wine is firmly structured and again amply proportioned, almost driving in style, with a long, resonant finish. A confident example of most masterful of all Tuscany’s great Sangiovese-based wines. Alc 14.5%
Castello Di Albola, Acciaiolo, Toscana, Tuscany 2020
Gold, 95 points
Inviting blackcurrants, berries and damsons abound with subtle notes of clove, wood smoke and pencil shavings. Densely structured and bold with a nurturing seam of acidity. Alc 14%
Tenuta Meraviglia, Maestro Di Cava, Bolgheri Superiore, Tuscany 2019
Platinum, 97 points
Captivating fresh herbs and inky blackcurrant fruit aromatics overlay the enticing chocolate swirls. Beautifully refi ned and expressive on the palate with well-knit oak tannins and a stunning saline acidity to temper. Very long and profound. Alc 14%
Cà Dei Maghi, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva, Veneto 2016
Gold, 95 points
Dried cherries, plums and blackberries weave their way through the earthy, structured palate, with powerful, absorbing tannins, a slick acidity and lavish ending. A traditional style. Alc 16.5%
Cesari, Bosan, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva, Veneto 2015
Best in Show, 97 points
This is the fi ft h Amarone to feature in our Best In Show selection, and the second Amarone from the excellent vintage of 2015. Not far off its 10th birthday, then – yet still opaque, with ample aromatic notes of maturity evident in the glass, as well as the burnishing attentions of three years in oak. The fruits (plum, prune, fi g) seems almost roasted, which is one reason why the oak seems to meld so well with them, but there’s plenty else in the aroma, too, including tar, liquorice and citrus zest. It’s large-scaled in the mouth and secondary in style, so look to enjoy the spiced chocolate complexities and dark, brooding, dried-fruit asperities of this wine before too long. As always with Amarone, it’s complex and unpredictable; this is one wine style for which no two tasting notes are ever quite alike. A delicious tale of the unexpected. Alc 15.5%
