Wine & Spirits - April 2020 - 67

MOST POPULAR ITALIAN WINES
Rank Brand

ITALIAN WINES
In the last couple of years we saw a gravitational pull away from
Super Tuscans and toward Italy's native varieties, and that continues this year with the majority of Italian wines on respondents' lists
coming from native varieties like sangiovese, nebbiolo and barbera.
Fèlsina, a historic Chianti Classico producer that has hovered
mid-list the past few years, finally broke through with the top placement, perhaps on the strength of Chianti Classico's back-to-back
excellent vintages in 2015 and 2016. That may also have driven a
significant uptick in the overall share of sangiovese-based wines in
our varietal tracking. Also supporting sangiovese's strength was the
performance of Mocali, a traditional Brunello di Montalcino producer that took the #5 spot.
Nebbiolo producers didn't place as highly as sangiovese brands
this year but the variety claimed more mentions, spreading those
among the appellations of Barolo, Barbaresco, Langhe Nebbiolo
and Gattinara-the latter a nod toward continued sommelier interest in the wines of Alto Piemonte. Barolo's star continues to rise as
other sommeliers find themselves priced out of prestige categories
like Burgundy.
Sommeliers have expressed growing enthusiasm about wines
from Sicily for the last several years; this year marks the highest
placement ever for a Sicilian winery: Arianna Occhipinti's natural
wines from the southeastern region of Vittoria have become sommelier favorites, capturing the #2 spot on the list. "Sicily has grown
so much," says Shelley Lindgren at A16 in San Francisco. "When
we opened in 2004, we had three Etna Rossos available to us. Now
there are 150 we can get. Sicily has grown so much that we separate
out Eastern, Southern and Western Sicily on the list, as well as the
wines of Etna and Faro."
Barbera, the everyday go-to wine in Piedmont, fills that role in
this year's poll with five mentions. And while one pinot grigio made
the list, that variety continues to fade as sommeliers experiment
with Italy's myriad of native white varieties; this year, pinot grigio's
share of all varieties represented in the poll dropped to less than
one percent for the first time ever.

$61

Occhipinti

Sicilia SP68 Rosso
Sicilia Il Frappato

$55
$77

Marchesi Antinori

Umbria Cervaro della Sala
Bolgheri Il Bruciato
Toscana Tenuta Tignanello

Mocali

Brunello di Montalcino
Rosso di Montalcino

$90
$46

La Stoppa

Emilia-Romagna Barbera Stoppa
Emilia-Romagna Trebbiolo

$87
$56

G.D. Vajra

Barolo Albe
Barbera d'Alba Superiore

$105
$45

Tenuta San Guido

Bolgheri Guidalberto
Bolgheri Sassicaia

$153
$525

Venica & Venica

Collio Merlot
Collio Jesera Pinot Grigio

Zenato

Valpolicella Ripasso Ripassa
Amarone della Valpolicella Classico

$55
$200

Benanti

Etna Rosso
Etna Rosso Rovittello

$61
$135

Aldo Conterno

Barbera d'Alba Conca Tre Pile
Langhe Il Favot Nebbiolo

$85
$130

Marco Petterino

Gattinara

$83

Elisabetta Foradori

Trentino Teroldego

$65

Produttori del Barbaresco

Langhe Nebbiolo
Barbaresco Riserva Pora

Fattoria La Valentina

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Spelt

$48

Bruno Giacosa

Nebbiolo d'Alba
Barbera d'Alba

$84
$60

Fèlsina

B OULDER, C O

PHOTO OF A16 BY DI DESMOND

Avg.
Price

Chianti Classico Riserva Berardenga

CARLIN KARR
Frasca Food
and Wine

A16, SAN
FRANCISCO, CA

Bottling

$145
$52
$335

$44
$48

$42
$132

Our hearts lie with nebbiolo,
sangiovese and Burgundy, but
Burgundy is getting so expensive
that Barolo has become even more
important. Barolos from producers
like Vietti still offer a great
quality-price ratio. The wines are
becoming more approachable, and
they're more available than Grand
Cru Burgundy from comparable top
line producers. You absolutely can't
get the same value in Burgundy.

Sicily is a very dynamic place;
there's lots of things going
on. I could sell 15 cases of
Arianna Occhipinti's SP68 Rosso
a year if I wanted to, but I don't
because there's not enough to go
around-everybody wants that
wine. She just does everything
right, so it's easy to like the wines.
WINE & SPIRITS

PETER NELSON
Puritan & Co.
C AM BRI D GE , M A

APRIL 2020

Wine & Spirits - April 2020

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