Gaja (6 labels), Barolo and Tuscany: the top for “Vitae” 2025, the guide by Ais sommeliers

Gaja, the only single winery with 6 awarded wines; Barolo, the most celebrated denomination with over 60 labels; Tuscany, the most awarded region with 135 wines, ahead of Piedmont with 120, following on the podium, but with a great distance from Veneto counting 128 recognitions: these are the champions amongst the 452 “Gems”, the wines expressing the best of the best of the Italy of wine (all evaluated with a score of at least 94/100), according to “Vitae” 2025, the guide of Italian Sommelier Association – Ais led by Sandro Camilli, which will be presented on November, 16 in Florence, together with masterclass and wine tastings of selected excellences (here the program). With the “Gem”, already symbol of wines awarded with the best scores, which, since this edition, symbolizes all those labels deserving 94 or more points out of 100, i.e. the excellence category. It is an increasingly digital guide, rich in figures, contents and quality: almost three thousand companies on the app (2,951), 2,350 on the paper edition, 452 “Gems”, 2,326 wines with a score over 90/100, 169 “Cupido” wines, 204 recommended wines due to their value price ratio, 159 passe-partout, and, overall, almost 20,000 tasted and evaluated.
“The Mediterranean Sea, the cradle of civilizations, and crossroads of cultures - observed Ais vice president Marco Aldegheri - is the pulsating heart of the new edition of “Vitae”, celebrating the excellence of Italian wine. This year, we chose the suggestive setting of Stazione Leopolda in Florence in order to unveil the wine treasures of our peninsula, a mosaic of different terroirs facing this extraordinary sea. I invite you to leaf through this guide with the curiosity of an explorer, and to taste with us to the Mediterranean, to Italy and to wine”.
“Vitae”, explained the representative of the 2025 edition Nicola Bonera, “is updated for the eleventh time, and with great satisfaction, the number of companies is increasing believing in the project, and getting out there year by year, by proposing their wines to local tasting commissions. The figure that will be published on the app brushes against 3,000 units, whilst the sent samples overcome 20,000 labels heavily. In 2003, the formation area of Italian Sommelier Association completed a colossal work, granting release the new analytic-descriptive sheet for wine tasting, with new evaluation sheets allowing to update of the modality of the assignment of the various recognitions. The “Gem”, already symbol of wines with the best scores, since this edition, symbolizes all those labels deserving 94 points or more, i.e. the excellence category. The app is constantly updated, and since this year, with geolocalization function, it allows to always look at the beautiful world that we are so passionate about closely, and attentively.”
The translation of the wines reviewed in the guide, still another time, is up to evaluation categories, identified from a vine graphically, and its multiples, which, since many years, identifies the guide edited by Ais. In “Vitae”, there are four symbols to identify the labels which stood out for a particular characteristic: “Tastevin”, “Gem”, “Heart” e “Scale”.
In the guide – available on the app also in English – the indication of a score category (ranking) appears before the name of the producing company, identifying the medium value of the company, elaborated based on the historical importance of the production, the obtained recognitions, and the qualitative consistency expressed from the wines in time. Also, other two symbols refer to the company: the green project, identified from the icon of the leaf, focuses on companies, that in addition to standing out for a declared sustainable profile, invest resources on a well-defined and noteworthy initiative; and “Virtus loci”, identified from the icon of the tower, signaling places or sites with a historical, artistic or environmental value in which the wine company is located, or that the same company represents or testifies to.
With this edition, an editorial course will finish, and it will see the light of a new project the next year, focusing particularly on the narrative style typical of Ais sommeliers, and not least, on sustainability.