One of Decanter’s most important contributing editors is Michaela Morris is one of the first certified Italian Wine Experts through Vinitaly International Academy in 2015, who co-created the curriculum for VIA’s Italian Wine Maestro course. She holds the WSET Diploma and is the Regional Chair for Piedmont at Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).
And so, none other than Morris herself presented a very unique masterclass of six exclusively Best in Show wines, all from Italy, at Navy Pier, along the shore of Lake Michigan, in perfect Chicago weather.
The 2025 competition, which took place in May, featured more than 17,00 wines from 57 countries judged by leading international experts.
Only 50 Best in Show wines are selected each year.
Scroll down to see the Best in Show wines presented at the masterclass
Morris shared that the 2025 Judges come from around the world and are excited to participate in the world’s finest wine competition. The 248 experts include 71 Masters of Wine and 23 Master Sommeliers. It’s a collaborative process, and judges take a positivity-first approach to looking at the wines.’
Morris pointed out that while people become enamoured with high-scoring wines. The wines scoring in the high 80-point range are, in fact, very well-made wines. ‘These are wines that you should be happy to drink a glass of,’ she stated.
Morris also explained the new concept of DWWA’s Value Gold, which aims to recognise excellence in wines priced under $20.
DWWA Regional Chair for Piedmont, Michaela Morris led the masterclass at Vinitaly USA in Chicago. Credit: Alex Callejo
DWWA is committed to celebrating excellence in winemaking while reflecting real-world market conditions. The competition is renowned for its rigorous judging process.
Wines are organised for tasting by country, region, colour, grape, style, vintage, as well as price.
Italy: Always at the top
With a total 2,195 medals, Italy trailed only France in the 2025 DWWA.
Tuscany took away the most medals, with 421, followed by Piedmont, just behind it at 417. Both of these numbers are up from the 2024 DWWA.
‘In Barolo, the 2019, 2020 and 2021 vintages were being tasted, and these wines were exceptional. We couldn’t stop ourselves from giving Gold Medals to these excellent wines,’ Morris recalled with enthusiasm.
‘The great Italian whites certainly weren’t left out,’ Morris recalled. ‘We saw a first-ever gold to an Erbaluce, and a wonderful Gold medal-winning Timorasso.’
‘Notions of typicity, sense of place and the regional traditions all play a role in how these wines, from some of the world’s iconic regions, are evaluated,’ said Morris.
The six DWWA 2025 Best in Show winners presented at the masterclass. Producers from left to right: Cantina Terlano, Diego Morra, Fratelli Serio & Battista Borgogno, Donnachiara, Tenuta Meraviglia, Donnafugata. Credit: Alex Callejo
As she presented the six wines, Morris pointed out what judges found particularly motivating in these selections.
Morris pointed out that Barolo has received 10 Best in Show awards over the time of DWWA. Speaking to the Diego Morra Del Commune di Verduno 2021. ‘This was a selection about championing elegance,’ said Morris. ‘This Barolo was not muscling its way across our palate.’
For the Fratelli Serio & Battista Borgogno, Cannubi Barolo Riserva, 2019. ‘The wines for Riserva must be aged longer,’ said Morris, ‘and you can see that this wine has benefited from the longer ageing, with a refinement and harmony that emerged with a few more years. The warm conditions, the well-draining, sandy soils and the wind, Cannubi does well almost no matter the vintage.’
Donnachiara, Taurasi, 2021 – The judges were seduced by the deep, dark character of this wine; this was the first ever Best in Show for a Taurasi. In the mid-priced tier, this wine was recognised in early judging for over-delivering for its price. A mother to daughter, second generation.
Tenuta Meraviglia, Maestro di Cava Bolgheri Superiore – A Bolgheri Superiore from the 2020 vintage, the co-chairs were seduced by the length and finish. There was great freshness and classic character of this 100% Cabernet Franc, with savoury and peppery tones. This particular winery has hung its hat on Cabernet Franc.
The six masterclass wines
Cantina Terlano, Lunare Gewürztraminer, Alto Adige / Südtirol, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol 2023
Best in Show, 97 points
100% Gewürztraminer
Two years in a row for a Best in Show Gewurztraminer 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 Gewurztraminer 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. It’s 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%
Diego Morra, Del Comune Di Verduno, Barolo, Piedmont 2021
Best in Show, 97 points
100% Nebbiolo
Few wine zones have been more successful in Decanter Best in Show selections than the rumpled hills of Barolo: no fewer than 10 appearances since 2017, with a further two this year. Piedmont’s fine recent vintages have been on our side, and this year’s choice of a 2021 Barolo and a 2019 Barolo Riserva will surprise no one who follows the progress of the region. This 2021 is a classic translucent garnet red, and disarmingly fragrant on the nose: floating strata of dessert apple, pomegranate, earth, mushroom and forest draw you into the glass. On the palate, the wine is concentrated and authoritative. Those apple and pomegranate fruits seem almost stern at first but gather sweetness as they bide on the tongue; there’s an incense-like complexity apparent by the end. The tannins are ample but fine, and will grow silkier with time. No hurry to drink here. Alcohol 14.5%
Fratelli Serio & Battista Borgogno, Cannubi, Barolo Riserva, Piedmont 2019
Best in Show, 97 points
100% Nebbiolo
A recurrent question with amply aged Italian classic reds like Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino is whether or not the extra ageing stipulations in place for the Riserva categories are truly necessary; it can often seem as if younger versions have the edge on older, ‘grander’ wines, since they show brighter fruit structures. This 2019 Riserva illustrates the benefits of extra age. It’s pale, now, with some gentle bricking at the meniscus; the aromas are refined and harmonious, packed not just with red fruits but with autumnal warmth and oak-copse charm, as if the wine was evoking the landscape in which it came into being. On the tongue, it’s still quite grandly structured and clearly has further development ahead; look behind those succulent if ample tannins, though, and you’ll find beautifully articulated fruit supported by deft redcurrant acidity. Grand Barolo from this outstanding vintage. Alcohol 14.5%
Donnachiara, Taurasi, Campania 2021
Best in Show, 97 points
100% Aglianico
It’s always exciting to welcome a new PDO to our Best in Show selection, so our judges were delighted to uncover this outstanding 2021 Taurasi from Campania’s province of Irpinia, better known for its whites such as Fiano d’Avellino and Greco di Tufo. Taurasi, made from Aglianco, is a key link in the chain of ‘serious’ reds that runs from Barolo and Barbaresco in the north of the country down to Etna in Sicily, via Tuscany’s portfolio of classics and newcomers – and not forgetting Umbria’s formidable Sagrantino di Montefalco. This Taurasi from the fine 2021 vintage is a dense red-black in colour, with dark, brooding black fruits and scents of worked earth and forest undergrowth. On the palate, it is deep and close-textured with almost clenched fruits at this stage. The tannins are generous and firm, and there is a promising hinterland of savoury flavour behind the fruit, ready for revelation in the years ahead. Definitely a winter wine; definitely a food wine – and it’s one that you don’t have to hurry over, either. Alcohol 13.5%
Tenuta Meraviglia, Maestro Di Cava, Bolgheri Superiore, Tuscany 2020
Best in Show, 97 points
100% Cabernet Franc
The adventure of Cabernet Franc in Bolgheri is an exciting one, since this is one of relatively few zones around the world where this much-courted variety not only flourishes and gives wine with greater poise than Cabernet Sauvignon and more freshness and lift than Merlot, but more importantly retains flesh and succulence as it does so. This dark, opaque black-red wine from the 2020 vintage tells the story well: brisk and alluring on the nose, with soft leather poise behind the svelte fruits; then intense, deep and long on the palate, with mellow tannins, watchful acidity and ample inner energy. It is a luxurious glassful of red, but it contrives to be fresh and appetising, too. This formerly despised and mosquito-ridden coastal zone of Tuscany continues to surprise. Alcohol 14%
Donnafugata, Ben Ryé, Passito di Pantelleria, Sicily 2023
Best in Show, 97 points
100% Zibibbo
Strange to say, no Passito di Pantelleria has yet featured in our Best in Show selection, so we’re delighted to rectify the omission this year with this 2023 wine. It’s made, of course, with Muscat of Alexandria grapes (locally called Zibibbo) which are laid out on mats in the sun after harvest to dessicate and dry for about four weeks. The wine is a rich golden sunset orange. Oranges, too, set the tone for its astonishing, perfume-like aromas: once smelled, never forgotten. On the palate it is thick, liquorous and unctuous, though still bright with that intense orange fruit. In some sweet wines, sheer intensity of sugar substitutes for complexity. Not here. It’s almost as if the force of Pantelleria’s near-African sunlight has engraved the wine with layers and lessons of its own. Alcohol 14.5%
