The six 100/100s of “The best 100 wines and winemakers in Italy”, the guide of “Corriere della Sera”

Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2015 by Bertani, historical winery of the territory belonging to Angelini Wines & Estates Group; Brunello di Montalcino Giovanni Neri 2019 by Casanova di Neri, a symbol of Montalcino, and Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Montosoli 2019 by Valdicava, amongst the pearls of wisdom of the territory; Terlaner Primo Alto Adige 2021 by Terlano, a winery which symbolizes the enduring great white wines of South Tyrol; Valdarno di Sopra Galatrona 2022 by Petrolo, a guiding company of the little Tuscan denomination; Toscana Colore 2022 by Bibi Graetz, the most famous wine of one of the most creative artists in Italy: these are the 100/100 wines (that WineNews can anticipate) of “The best 100 wines and winemakers in Italy”, the guide of “Corriere della Sera”, edition No. 11, signed by Luciano Ferraro, vice director of the newspaper of Solferino Street, and by James Suckling, one of the most well-known and trustworthy wine critic in the world, and founder of JamesSuckling.com website. This guide will be presented on Friday, October 25, in Milan, in Sala Buzzati (and in live streaming on corriere.it), and, since October 26, it will be in kiosks for two months, with “Corriere della Sera” (at the cost of 12,90 euros, in addition to the cost of the newspaper).
The main theme of this Guide edition is how winemakers are coping with the effects of climate change. “We are facing an agricultural scenario, which is different from the past. It is necessary to implement old practices and new technologies in order to limit the damages of the effects of climate change – Luciano Ferraro affirms – a fundamental theme, which is still rarely discussed. For this reason, we wanted to dedicate the 2025 Guide to all those winemakers who found new ways to fight against global warming, protecting the quality and the variety of Italian wine”. And, therefore, in “The best 100 wines and winemakers in Italy” guide, there will be their report about the interventions in vineyards, from the method of farming to ensure major semidarkness to the choice of soils at ever higher altitudes, and an important and unpublished study on how the “Italian Vineyard” is coping with the global warming.
In the traditional layout of the guide, two sections will be showcased: the report of the experience of 100 winemakers and the ranking of the Top 100, formulated for the second consecutive year and with the introduction of new criteria for the score by James Suckling, who explains: “We have selected the best 100 wines after having tasted more than 9.000 Italian wines and more than 50.000 wines at a global level, over the last 12 months. This ranking includes many distinctive and fascinating wines, coming from various Italian regions. For every taste and all budgets”. An appendix is entirely dedicated to the best ten Italian vineyards, for their history, resilience and beauty, signed by vine pruning guru Marco Simonit. Also the speech of Federico Rampini, the columnist of “Corriere della Sera”, “Uno Sguardo all’America” (“A look from America”) is presented in the volume. It illustrates how wine has become a “powerful weapon in the armory of Italian “soft power” in the USA”, also demonstrated by the significant growth of wine-tasting tourism of Americans in Italy.
During the presentation that will be held tomorrow in Milan, and introduced by “Corriere della Sera” newspaper deputy editor Barbara Stefanelli, Luciano Ferraro and James Suckling will dialogue with the award-winning winemakers of the 2025 edition in the four categories (enologists: consortia; specialists; wineries); this will be followed by speeches of singer-songwriters Michele Bravi e Maurizio Carucci (frontman of Ex-Otago band), and founder of Cascina Barbàn, an organization located in Piedmont dealing with the promotion of biodiversity, rural culture and territorial development, interviewed by journalist and music critic of “Corriere della Sera “Andrea Laffranchi.