“50 Great Sparkling Wines of the World” 2025: Italy’s sparkling wines at the top of quality

According to all studies and observers, in a wine market that is not in the best of health, sparkling wines have been the best performing category, for years, thanks to their characteristics: freshness, lightness, less alcohol than most still wines, and those bubbles that always make a party. And Italy, with its many expressions, from the most famous appellations, such as those of the Prosecco galaxy, Franciacorta, Asti, Alta Langa, Trentodoc, and Oltrepò Pavese, but also with territorial declinations more linked to native grape varieties, or to younger appellations and projects, such as those of Garda Doc or of “Trabocco”, a collective brand of sparkling wine from Abruzzo, to give a few examples, has a lot to say on the subject, as also confirmed by the growth of Italian exports, with Italian sparkling wines at €1.4 billion in the first 8 months of 2024, at +8.4% over the same period in 2023 (better than the +4.1% of wine exports overall, and of which sparkling wines now account for 28.3% of the total), according to Istat data analyzed by WineNews.
And a confirmation of the growing quality of Italian sparkling wine, already widely celebrated by the “Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships”, also comes from the results of the “50 Great Sparkling Wines of the World” 2025, edition No. 15 of the competition signed by “Wine Pleasures”, staged in recent days in Penedes, the region of Cava, the iconic sparkling wine of Spain. In the category dedicated to Metodo Classico, out of a total of 14 golds, as many as 4 are made in Italy, including two signed by La Scolca led by Chiara Soldati, granddaughter of the great Mario Soldati, namely the Blanc de Blancs Brut Millesimato D’Antan 2012, and the Soldati Pas Dosé, both 100% from Cortese grapes. Coming from Marchesi Frescobaldi’s historic Tuscan estate, Castello di Pomino, however, is Leonia Brut 2021, while heading to Friuli Venezia Giulia is Kremäun Brut from the Produttori di Cormons winery. Italy is also golden among the Charmats: one of the two wines that won the top category award, in fact, is the Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Extra Dry 2023 from Bacio della Luna, the winery in Vidor of the Schenk Italian Wineries group, part of the Schenk Family.