Italiano
Special Prizes in the Essential Guide 2021
These awards focus on certain aspects of vine growing and the world of Italian wine and are awarded to particular wines, wineries, people and projects.
Drawing attention to certain wines, above all, as well as estates, people and projects that particularly impressed us year after year is the motivation for the special prizes that we award in the Essential Guide and which contribute to highlighting the state of winemaking in Italy. The following are the best wines by category.
The Red Wine of the Year, aside from being a very great wine (with a 100/100 rating), is also a homage to a great person who passed away a few years ago and who played a key role in making this territory so exceptional: Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2012 Biondi Santi, the last vintage supervised by the great Franco Biondi Santi. The White Wine of the Year is Alto Adige Müller Thurgau Feldmarshall von Fenner 2018 Tiefenbrunner, a wine that for the past 40 years has been one of the lead players on the Alto Adige winemaking scene and the wine that made the varietal Müller Thurgau known outside the region. The Sparkling Wine of the Year (a term we use to not offend those who do not like “spumante” or “bubbly” and not without reason) is Trentodoc Letrari 976 Riserva del Fondatore 2009 Letrari, a great classic that we also gave a prize to in the 2016 edition for their vintage 2005 and which with vintage 2009 has again reached the top of its category. The Rosé of the Year is a true surprise, a wine made in Lazio and that made its debut this year: Soré 2019 Famiglia Cotarella. It is made from Merlot with an addition of Aleatico that gave it a particular aromatic complexity.
We return to Tuscany for the Sweet Wine of the Year, Vin Santo del Chianti Classico 2009 Rocca di Montegrossi, a wine in the most exquisite Chianti tradition that matures for eight years in casks then age in the bottle before offering us extraordinary, wrapping and velvety sensations.
Next is the prize for Winning Debut, dedicated to a wine that has come on the market for the first time and achieved an extraordinary result. This year it went to Trentodoc Altemasi Blanc de Noirs 2016 Cavit, a truly surprising Trentino Traditional Method sparkling wine made from only Pinot Noir that has a truly affordable price. This leads us to our next prize: Wine with the Best Quality/Price Ratio. This year the winner is from Campania, Sannio Falanghina Janare 2019 La Guardiense, an enjoyable and drinkable white produced by one of Italy’s largest wine cooperatives and which costs only 7.50 euros. From Umbria comes the winner of our Quantity/Quality Prize, which is given each year to a wine that can unite quality with a significant number of bottles produced, which means they can easily be found in supermarkets. The wine is Torgiano Rosso Rubesco 2018 Lungarotti, which since the 1960s has shown the world that even the green heart of Italy produces excellent wines.
We continue with the prize for Estate of the Year, dedicated to a winery that particular stood out for its performance and the winner this year is in Piedmonte, Vietti, which with its branch Enrico Serafino offered a truly fantastic line of wines. The Emerging Producer prize, awarded to a debutant or little-known estate that has made giant steps, is Montecappone – Mirizzi from the Marche. To be more precise, Mirizzi is the novelty, the second estate the family has in the Marchigane Hills outside Jesi, which produces wines that are different from its “sister” estate Montecappone thanks to its totally different soils, while the quality is, as always, impressive.
We then have two prizes that this year took on special meaning, given that they are collective prizes and underscored, above all in a year like this one, how there is strength in union. The first, the Cooperative Prize, is dedicated to wine cooperatives and it went to the Alleanza delle Cooperative, the national coordinating group composed of the most representative Italian wine cooperatives. The Enologist of the Year award, on the other hand, goes to Assoenologi, the National Association of Italian Enologists.
With the prize for Sustainable Winemaking, which goes to those committed to ecosustainable methods in all phases of winemaking, we wanted to underscore how Sicily was the region that was most committed to this and the award went to one of the key producers on the island: Donnafugata, which since 2011 has adopted eco-sustainable farming methods adhering to Misura 10.1b of the Rural Development Program of the Region of Sicily. The Quality Project prize was given to the Tuscan estate Castello Banfi (to be more precise to Fondazione Banfi) for its Sanguis Jovis - Alta Scuola del Sangiovese project. Sanguis Jovis is the first permanent research center for Sangiovese and the project seeks to enhance the knowledge of the most cultivated varietal in Italy through scientific research, communication and advanced training.
The final and perhaps the most touching prize is A Life for Wine, which seeks to underscore the role and commitment of a lead player on the Italian wine scene, one dedicated to the efforts of a lifetime. For this edition, we wanted to give it to Sandro Boscaini, the president of Masi Agricola since 1978, who is known abroad as Mr. Amarone. He is a man who, after taking control of his family estate, was able to lift its production to levels of the utmost prestige, highly prized at home and abroad.
all’estero come Mr. Amarone. Un uomo che, presa in mano l’azienda di famiglia, ha saputo portarla a livelli di assoluto prestigio anche a livello internazionale.
