The top-rated Alto Adige wines for 2023

The Italian wine guides select their favourites

The wines of Alto Adige continue to hold top spot in Italy’s wine guides, as demonstrated by the recently published ratings for the coming year. The most successful producers were the Terlan and Tramin wineries, while the most highly rated wine was the 2019 Pinot Noir Riserva Trattmann from the Girlan winery, given top marks by six of the nine wine guides.

There were thus 23 “Tre Bicchieri” awards from Gambero Rosso, 36 “Top Wine” awards from Slow Wine and 35 “Quattro Viti” awards from Vitae; Veronelli awarded 24 “Tre Stelle Oro” for wines from Alto Adige, while Vinibuoni made 33 awards of “Le Corone” or “Le Golden Star”, and Bibenda granted 36 “Cinque Grappoli”. In all, 44 wines from Alto Adige were ranked in Doctor Wine’s highest category, “I Faccini 95+”, while Sparkle gave five of its “Cinque Sfere”, with The Wine Hunter giving 61 wines a “Golden Award” or a “Platinum Award.”

Bibenda

The “Fondazione Italiana Sommelier”, the Italian sommelier foundation, also publishes its own wine guide each year under the name “Bibenda”. The best rating from the Bibenda sommeliers is the “Cinque Grappoli”, i.e. five grape bunches. It also selects its ten best Italian wines each year.

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The Results in Detail

Doctor Wine

Daniele Cernilli, the “Pope of Italian wine”, is behind the launch of the online platform Doctor Wine, which not only provides news about wine in Italy, but also publishes its own wine guide. Wines are rated with “faccini” (“little faces”), with a maximum score of 100: the top wines are rated at 95+.

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Gambero Rosso

The “Vini d’Italia” wine guide, published by Gambero Rosso, is considered THE guide to Italian wines. First appearing in 1988 and issued each year ever since, it is Italy’s best-known wine guide. The highest mark awarded by the Gambero Rosso is the “Tre Bicchieri”, the “three wine glasses” that indicate an “exceptional wine”.

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I Vini di Veronelli

The Seminario Permanente Luigi Veronelli publishes its guide “I Vini di Veronelli” (the “Guida Veronelli” for short) each year. This wine guide too has a special reputation – not least thanks to its size. Thus, for the 2023 edition, 16,625 wines from 2,104 producers were sampled: 436 of them merited its highest rating, the three gold stars or “Tre Stelle Oro”.

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Slow Wine

Slow Wine originated as an offshoot of Italy’s Slow Food gourmet movement. The association focuses on enjoyment, sustainability and regionality and produces a comprehensive directory of Italian wines and wineries. It publishes an annual pocketbook containing current ratings, with the highest listing being that of “Top Wine”.

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Sparkle

The Sparkle guide, published annually for the last two decades, is dedicated solely to sparkling wines. Products in this category are given a maximum of “Cinque Sfere”, i.e. five spheres.

The Results in Detail

The WineHunter

Launched by Helmuth Köcher, organiser of the Merano Wine Festival, “The WineHunter” is a local product of Alto Adige. Each year, “The Wine Hunter” too evaluates Italy’s best wines and presents its “Platinum Award” and “Golden Award” for the highest in its categories.

The Results in Detail

Vinibuoni d’Italia

The “Vinibuoni d’Italia” guide is the only one in Italy to focus on native grape varieties, i.e. those that can claim a history of at least 300 years in Italy. Its highest awards – namely “Le Corone” (the “crowns”) and “Le Golden Star” – are bestowed at a public wine guide event.

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Vitae

Vitae is the wine guide of AIS, the Italian association of sommeliers, which boasts an impressive range of figures. For example, no fewer than 900 tasters are used to evaluate over 10,000 wines from 2,000 selected producers. Vitae’s best wines are awarded “Quattro Viti”, i.e. four vines.

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The Results in detail

One final curious fact

Although Alto Adige is Italy’s white wine region par excellence, it is a red wine from Alto Adige – namely the Girlan winery’s Pinot Noir Riserva Trattmann 2019 – that has garnered the most awards for 2023 and is the only wine from the region to be receive top marks from six of the nine guides.
Of Italy’s leading wine guides, that published by “L’Espresso” is missing from this article for a very simple reason: while all the other guides are published in autumn, that of “L’Espresso” is only published in spring.
However, this does not diminish our joy at the excellent results achieved by the wines of Alto Adige. So our congratulations go to all the producers of top wines!

Overview Awards Italian Wine Guides