Tre Bicchieri 2019. Italy’s best wines and the grand tasting

It's finally happened: the countdown is over and with it come the previews of the "Tre Bicchieri" events that for more than a month have accompanied the release of the 2019 Guide of Italian Wines (soon to be published in English). Releasing edition number 32 and at the dawn of the great tasting of wines awarded with Tre Bicchieri recognition held in Rome, as the first of a series of events, as many as 50 in Italy and abroad, which will touch 30 cities worldwide. The grand tastings begin in Rome, at Sheraton Rome Hotel, Saturday 27 October, tasting over 400 labels, all awarded with Tre Bicchieri recognition. What's next? The following events will be in Naples, on October 28th at Eurostars Excelsior Caracciolo, Turin on October 30th at Palao Copernico Garibaldi, and on November 26th at Torre del Parco in Lecce.

Vini d’Italia

The guide is now at its thirty-second edition. The first, dated 1988, was drawn up by a handful of enthusiasts during the summer of 1987, in a very difficult moment in the recent history of Italian wine, but also rich in those innovative "ferments" that characterized the Eighties, the decade of Italian wine renaissance.

In this period of time we went from reviewing 500 wineries and 1500 wines to over 2500 producers and almost 23 thousand wines.

The thandful of enthusiasts has become a fabulous team of more than 70 motivated and competent wine tasters, that we have selected over the years and that help us to evaluate more than 40 thousand wines in every Italian region and even in Swiss Ticino Canton. An ever richer outlook, made up of a thousand different terroirs, of a thousand and more traditional and international grapes; where you can find both wines made with the most advanced winemaking techniques as well as the extraordinary expressions of a multi-millennial tradition, vinified in stone tanks or in terracotta amphorae like 2,500 years ago.

Scoring

How is scoring structured? What are the canons according to which we decide if a wine is good, very good or excellent (respectively classified with one, two or three Bicchieri)? There is no single answer, a word that summarizes the complexity of our method of judgment and of the fascinating Italian oenological outlook, the land of diversity (today it's fashionable to call this bio-diversity). These are, probably, simultaneously hedonistic, humanistic and cultural criteria. We taste in the blind, pouring from covered bottles, but the purpose of our tastings is not to express a number, but to tell those who read the pleasure that we experienced while drinking the wine. A hedonistic criterion, in short, where the maturity of tannin and acidity are as good as the story of the winemaker behind the wine.

Stories, poems, emotions. And hundreds of thousands of wines tasted

We tell the story, rather, the endless stories of Italian wine, which is the most complex and difficult to communicate in this beautiful blue planet. Where at the end palate wins over technique, poetry on reason, where there is room for the craftsman who makes 30 thousand bottles as well as for the large company that exports to all the markets of the world. Why do we reward a wine of a certain vintage and a certain vineyard, and that of the neighboring grape that has the same grapes and the same exposure makes it, let's say, only to our final tastings but not to the Tre Bicchieri? According to us, the technical and scientific explanations don't lead to a complete definition of what happens in a vineyard and in a cellar; the success of a wine and the difference between a good wine and what (according to us) is a great wine sometimes - or often - is rather put up against a thousand complex variables that are difficult to quantify. And then, once again, what holds true is our immediate perception, our emotion in that precise moment. Needless to say, an experiential baggage of over thirty years of tastings and hundreds of thousands of wines represents an unrepeatable know-how, which makes us unique and allows us to intercept the news, trends, new territories, and tell all this to the world at the time it happens.

Add to this that we are not slaves to a univocal vision, but we are fascinated by the complexity and the multiplicity of ways and styles in which our terroirs and our grapes, thanks to the talent of our winemakers, are able to express the thousand faces of Italy's wine, providing a clearer idea of how the team of wine tasters of the Wine Guide works...

The guide in the world

Thirty-two editions, for a Guide that is annually translated in English, German, Chinese and Japanese, bearing witness to our commitment in Italy and in the world, which is perhaps unparalleled. Being present on the Gambero Rosso Guide, having Tre Bicchieri recognition is now a universal "benchmark", an obligatory reference, which continue to favor the affirmation of Italian wine on the international scene. Add to this that every year we are present with over fifty events in the most important cities worldwide, on established and emerging markets, to talk about small and great Italian wines, their creators, to meet consumers, the niche press, sommeliers, importers and distributors. The merit of our team is to have built an important work tool for a fundamental sector of our economy, which has gained an undisputed credibility and consensus worldwide. We are really proud of this. There are 54 producers who make their debut with the Tre Bicchieri in this year's guide. You will then find the indication of the Tre Bicchieri Verdi, those produced by certified organic or biodynamic wineries, which this year are 102. Finally we also point out the award-winning wines available in the wine shop in the 15 euro range, which are 92, more than 20% of the awarded wines.

The guide in numbers

40000 wines tasted

70 wine tasters

2530 producers (129 new entries)

22100 wines

447 Tre Bicchieri

1643 Due Bicchieri Rossi

6254 Due Bicchieri

3199 Un Bicchiere

The Tre Bicchieri winners

92 Tre Bicchieri under 15 euro

102 Tre Bicchieri Verdi

11 Special Awards

11 Tre Bicchieri over 150 euro

54 Tre Bicchieri firstimers

1 Spumante Rosé

3 Rosé Wines

6 Dessert Wines

33 Spumanti Whites

139 White Wines

265 Red Wines

An Oldest Vintage: 2007. Sannio Taburno Falanghina Libero – Fontanavecchia

Vintages of Tre Bicchieri

2017 – 83 Tre Bicchieri

2016 – 130 Tre Bicchieri

2015 – 107 Tre Bicchieri

2014 – 40 Tre Bicchieri

2013 – 44 Tre Bicchieri

2012 – 17 Tre Bicchieri

2011 – 12 Tre Bicchieri

2010 – 3 Tre Bicchieri

2009 – 3 Tre Bicchieri

2008 – 3 Tre Bicchieri

No vintage – 4 Tre Bicchieri

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