Wines of the Year 2024: Italy
Italy Regional Editor, James Button, collates the top 10 Italian wines of the year, including the sparkling wines of Trentino all the way to a 'balletic' red from Sicily.
Decanter’s expert writers and contributors awarded 95-points or more to almost 3,000 wines in the 12 months to October 2024.
While they have all appeared in the pages of Decanter magazine and online on Decanter Premium and in our decanter.com database, there were too many to reproduce here for a seasonal wrap-up.
So, in a somewhat unfair and very challenging task, we asked each of our Regional Editors to select just five wines from each of their key areas of expertise to highlight the bounty and diversity on offer across the world wine map.
Scroll down for notes and scores of the Italian Wines of the Year 2024
Tuscany to Sicily
Tuscany has enjoyed a golden year of excellent vintage releases in 2024, so it has been a difficult task to pick out just a handful of deserving candidates.
Conti Costanti’s 2019 Brunello received a perfect score from Michaela Morris in her vintage report (April 2024 issue).
In his profile of the producer on Decanter Premium (31 July 2024), Stephen Brook singled out Poggio di Sotto’s 2019 Brunello.
He wrote: ‘For me… quintessential Brunello. The [producer’s] wines aren’t blockbusters, they don’t hammer the drinker with extraction and alcohol, and their elegance and freshness are almost mouthwatering. They are indisputably in the very top ranks of great Brunello.’
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Meanwhile, Tenuta San Guido’s 2021 Bolgheri is a future great, translating the vintage beautifully in a remarkably precise, breezy and saline fashion.
In the south, on the island of Sicily, Cantine Florio in Marsala is taking a fresh direction with its ‘barrel terroir’ approach, which is yielding some complex and divergent fortified wines.
At the opposite end of the island, Girolamo Russo makes some of Etna’s finest wines, and its Feudo 2022 red was top of the heap in my Sicily report on Decanter Premium online (20 November 2024) for its combination of sapid dark fruits and balletic poise.
Piedmont & the north
It has been a strong year for wines from Valpolicella in northern Italy’s Veneto region.
During a masterclass involving Bertani wines at the Decanter Italy Experience in London, late last February, Michelle Cherutti-Kowal MW awarded the winery’s 2005 Amarone 100-points.
However, it’s the producer’s Ognisanti di Novare – a single-vineyard Valpolicella Classico Superiore – that punches above its weight with tension and concentration, and therefore receives recognition here.
Allegrini’s Amarone Classico 2019, from a cooler year, impressed last autumn, with the extra freshness and leafiness endowed by the vintage enhancing its intrinsic concentration. Others in the running included Romano Dal Forno’s Amarone 2016 and Rubinelli Vajol’s Amarone 2016.
Moving north to Trentino, Tenuta San Leonardo has produced a truly stunning 2019, which I noted is ‘among its finest vintages so far’.
Continue north and you’ll arrive in Trento, home to sparkling house Ferrari Trento, which has this year received its first-ever 100-point score, awarded to the Riserva Lunelli 2009, a pure Chardonnay that spends an impressive 80 months on the lees!
In Piedmont, GB Burlotto’s ever-consistent Monvigliero Barolo 2020 impressed with its aromatic intensity, combined with filigree elegance.
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Wines of the Year 2024: Italy
Wines are listed white then red, in score order
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James Button is Decanter’s regional editor for Italy, responsible for all of Decanter's Italian content in print and online.
Like many others, he started his wine career at Majestic Wine, giving him a strong grounding in the subject before successfully completing the WSET Level 4 Diploma in 2010. From 2014 to 2016 he managed the fine wine department of a startup wine company in London, before joining Decanter as digital sub-editor.
Outside of wine, James enjoys cooking, skiing, playing guitar and cycling.