James tastes with Pio Boffa of Pio Cesare in the JamesSuckling.com tasting room in Italy.

If you are reading this you probably aren’t surprised that our Italian Wine of the Year 2018 is the Antinori Solaia 2015. Some of you might find it predictable, even boring. But I believe that when something is amazing quality and is a historical game-changing-icon wine from Italy, it deserves the honor.

Think for a moment what Italy would be without Solaia. It is a wine that revolutionized the world of Italian wine forever when it was created in 1978. Of course, it was launched seven years after its sibling Super Tuscan red, Tignanello. However, I argue that it became the icon for modern winemaking in Tuscany and a symbol for the new spirit of wine in Italy.

The 2015 Solaia is the best Solaia ever.

Over the years, I have heard the patriarch of the Antinori clan, Piero Antinori, say that he made Solaia to show the world that Italy could make world-class wines that could compete with the best in the world from Bordeaux to Barossa to Napa Valley. He certainly succeeded. Solaia is compared to the best in the world. It’s even now sold in the Bordeaux market, which is the equivalent of Dow or Nasdaq for wine, and home to many of the greatest wines of the world including such first growths as Mouton and Lafite. 

The 2015 Solaia is the best Solaia ever. Not so much for his sheer power or structure, but for its harmony and character that shows an incredible depth and strength. It’s a wine that makes your mind race with subtle thoughts and passion for its great quality. It is emotionally charged with all of its provenance and pedigree. This is why I rated it 100 points and why we choose it as our Italian Wine of the Year 2018.

Solaia’s sublime quality highlights how Tuscany shined so, so brightly in the 2015 vintage, which is why five of the Top 10 Italian Wines of the Year came from Italy’s premier wine region from that year. We also chose an amazing Barbaresco from a challenging year, a legendary red from Campania, and a magnificent old-vine white from Collio. I personally want to taste (or I should say, drink!) them all again.

“The 2015 Solaia is the best Solaia ever. It’s a wine that makes your mind race with subtle thoughts and passion for its great quality.”

Our no. 2 wine, Argentiera Bolgheri Superiore 2015, may be a wine that many of you have never heard of or considered. This will stop you in your tracks. The Bordeaux blend from the Tuscan Coast of Bolgheri is fabulous quality and shows impressive generosity as well as refinement. It’s vineyards, located on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean toward Corsica, are in a unique location and the 2015 highlights the vineyards’ proximity  to the sea and the subtle loam soils with stone. It also sells for about $80 a bottle.

Le Macchiole Bolgheri Scrio 2015 is made in a winery about  a 10-minute drive from Argentiera and no. 3 on our list. A relatively small production, sassy syrah. It too shows a special character from its maritime home with a sea-salt, rosemary character to the normal spice and fruit flavors one expects from the grape. It’s a perfect wine.  

Podere Poggio Scalette Alta Valle della Greve Il Carbonaione at no. 4 at  is a longtime favorite of ours from Chianti Classico and the 2015 shows the richness and intensity of the vintage but an underlying power and structure. It’s made from a special clone of sangiovese from the area and the Fiore family have a wonderful lineage for modern winemaking, with the patriarch of the clan, Vitorrio, being one of the gurus in the 1980s and 1990s.

Oreno at no. 5 continues to improve with just about every vintage since its inception in 1999. The 2016 from Tenuta Sette Ponti  is the best ever with beautiful precision and balance. Everything is in the right place. The Bordeaux blend has moved away from over extraction and high levels of new wood into a new world of harmony, subtlety and complexity.  

Castello di Ama Chianti Classico Vigneto Bellavista Gran Selezione 2015 follows at no. 6 and represents one of the benchmark wines of Tuscany’s famous subregion. The single vineyard red shows great power and depth with incredible flavors. It’s just a baby now, requiring at least a half of decade of bottle age.

I first started drinking the no. 7 wine in the 1990s and was always in love with its precision and depth for wine from Campania. It’s a blend of cabernet sauvignon, aglianico and merlot. The Montevetrano Colli di Salerno 2016 is one of its best ever with an ever persistent depth of fruit and power on the palate and its unique flavors of loamy soils from the area.

One of the best white wines of Italy in 2018.

I had to include a wine from one of the masters of Italy, the late Bruno Giacosa. His Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili Riserva 2014, our no. 8 wine, shows his family’s true winemaking prowess when the quality is so incredibly outstanding despite the difficulties of the vintage. Their step vineyard of Asili always delivers the best quality.

At no. 9, Castello di Bossi Chianti Classico Berardo Riserva 2015 is another homage to a great vintage for the region of Chianti Classico. The reserve red is amazing value and top class for a retail price of about $40. 

Finally, the no. 10 wine is an amazing white and a nod to all the wonderful whites being produced in Italy at the moment. Schiopetto Friulano Collio M 2017 is produced from vines planted in the early 1950s and shows both incredible density at freshness at the same time.

I tried to put together a Top 100 list that represents my unbridled enthusiasm and love for the wines of Italy after 35 years visiting and tasting wines in the country. Tuscany and Piedmont still dominate the super-premium wine scene for me, but the rest of Italy is on a roll, particularly Southern Italy. And whites in general are more and more exciting from Friuli to Sicily. The wines below are ranked primarily by rating but then other reasons such as WoW factor and a statement about a type or area (Italian whites or Campania) were also important for the order.

My team and I, including my son Jack, tasted more than 5,400 Italian wines in a single calendar year, and we loved just about every minute of it. We can’t wait to taste even more Italian wines in 2019. — James Suckling, Editor & CEO