Vinalità:

The Wines:

Our Guide to the Italian wine guides

The business of wine guides in Italy has reached huge proportions. Which of these many wine bibles to follow, is the question and also where doubts and diverse opinions begin. We will mention 6 that undoubtedly have the advantage of being the most discussed.

"Il Gambero Rosso Vini d'Italia 2004" has a 16 year long history, and is difficult to ignore both because of its fame and its yearly scoops. The guide is in the continuous search of the smaller producers, but also awards the bigger producers that are able pay the fee of fame. The winners, being mentioned in this important guide, have no problem in changing their price politics because of the simple fact...that they are in this guide. Thanks to this guide, some wines become the missing pieces in everyone's wine cellar and that people will seek for, sometimes in vain. The Gambero Rosso is known throughout the world being one of the few that are translated to English.

"Guida dei vini italiani 2004" by Luca Maroni is an immense and accurate work that contrary to the Gambero Rosso, is unselective guide to all types of wine labels. The classification is an index of pleasantness that identifies the products with the fruits with which they are made. Furthermore, the guide supplies accurate information on the wineries, including the conditions of visiting and purchasing at the wineries. The author is a recognized wine taster that single-handedly, with skill and intelligence, initiated this respected guide. One can only question the personalized manner with which this work has come about, which implicates a good dose of suggestive preferences.

"I Vini di Veronelli 2004" by Veronelli himself, who started as a publisher in 1956. A long career took him to establish Veronelli Editore in 1990 that now publishes a series of guides to wine, restaurants and travelling. The wine guide is generally thought to be fair and serious and another advantage is definitely the fact that all reviews of the wines can be viewed on-line.

"Duemilavini 2004" by AIBES (the Italian organization of professional sommelier). This guide is undoubtedly the most efficient guide for those who work in the business, even though there still is some evidence of emotional judgments.

"Guida Vini d'Italia 2004 de l'Espresso" is also a very accurate and objective wine guide that rates an enormous number of wines and wine producers. It is devided into two sections, the first dedicated to wine ratings that go from 18 to 0 (best - worst), the second dedicated to the wine producers, giving a short description of each of these.

"Vini buoni d'Italia" is a new entry this year. This guide samples the wines of each region in Italy that are made of autochthonic grapes and that reflect the typical characteristics. An essential guide to sommelier who want to value the specificity of wine regions.