Top Italian sparkling wines awarded by “Sparkle 2024”: 91 labels with “Five Spheres”

From Ca’ del Bosco to Uberti in Franciacorta to Cesarini Sforza, Ferrari and Maso Martis for Trentodoc: these are the multi-award winners of Italian sparkling wine, the wineries that have been awarded the most “Five Spheres”, three each, in “Sparkle 2024”, edition No. 22 of the guide dedicated to the best Italian dry sparkling wines published by the historic food and wine magazine “Cucina & Vini”. As many as 91 labels (as opposed to 89 in the past edition) received the coveted recognition, among the 870 in the guide (and which will be featured in the event/award ceremony on December 2, at the Parco dei Principi Grand Hotel & Spa in Rome). The most represented region is Lombardy, thanks to the 32 awards received, 28 belonging to the Franciacorta Docg appellation, 4 to the Oltrepò Pavese area; it is followed, at 22, by Trentino, all with Trentodoc. Also on the podium is Veneto with 17, all Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Docg, except for one Lessini Durello. Next come Piedmont (7, with Alta Langa on the shields), Alto Adige (4), Abruzzo (2), Lazio (2), Puglia (2) and Sicily (2).
“We are staging, as we do every year, a day dedicated to the best of the art of Italian sparkling wine”, stresses Francesco D’Agostino, director of Cucina & Vini and head of the guide, “after a truly exciting tasting season that confirms the extreme quality of our country’s sparkling wines, supported by an equally positive production in numbers. The dry sparkling wine sector has been growing relentlessly for the past 20 years, almost vertiginously, establishing itself as one of the most surprising phenomena in the current wine market. In terms of production, Icqrf (Central Inspectorate for the Protection of Quality and Fraud Repression of Agri-food Products, ed.) notes, in the last year, from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2023, there were 1.1 billion bottles, with a loss of only 35 million, just over 3% reduction. If we look at exports, the consolidated data from January to August 2023 (Istat) show an increase in value of 3.8% and a reduction in volume of 2%, which brought the average bottle price from 5.5 euros to 6 euros. We are, therefore, in a sector that still has much to offer, starting with the value of the territories and the savoir faire of the companies, elements that sanction the quality of tricolor bubbles in the world”.