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Best Italian wines: A selection of the greatest

Italy is home to myriad wine styles and thousands of native grape varieties, as well as top estates that often produce several different bottlings. Below is a selection of the best Italian wines, based on reviews by our experts, with full tasting notes on each wine available exclusively to Premium members.

If you’ve ever wondered what the best Italian wines are then take a look at our list below, drawn from our ever-growing database of wine reviews.

This list of some of the greatest wines tasted and reviewed recently by Decanter’s experts includes top names from well-known regions as well wines from some less well known – but equally worthy – areas.

Predictably Tuscany and Piedmont feature heavily with all four 100-point wines coming from Tuscany – three Brunellos followed by a world-beating SuperTuscan. A smattering of Barolo and Langhe wines fly the flag for Piedmont, while the Veneto is in the mix too thanks to a single-vineyard Amarone della Valpolicella from one of the region’s best-known producers.

In total there are three SuperTuscans here – wines with the simple IGT designation but they are far from simple wines. Due to the grape varieties used, the location of the vineyards and/or the processes used to make the wine they cannot be labelled as DOC or DOGC wines but are among the most sought after and revered wines from Tuscany.

It’s not all red though, there are four white wines featured, including a ‘bracing and expansive’ Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc blend from the Cantina Terlano co-operative in Alto Adige, a ‘textured and creamy’ no-added sulphites Vernaccia di San Gimignano and a ‘focused and mineral’ Trebbiano d’Abruzzo.

There’s even an ‘exquisite’ dessert wine – again from the Alto Adige, and again from a co-op – that’s made from late-harvest Gewürztraminer which has been aged for four years in a cellar 4,ooo metres below ground.

We have kept it limited to just one wine from each producer featured, and all wines below have scored 98 points and above.

The best Italian wines:


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Future wine legends: Decanter 100-point wines

Piedmont new releases: Full report

Comparing Tignanello and Solaia

Tasting Amarone history: Six vintages of Bertani back to 1958

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