5-star Wines 2019 guide goes online

Vinitaly’s wine guide 5 Star Wines — The Book 2019 has just been made available to download online.

The annual guide — which was first launched by Vinitaly in 2017 — now features a shortlist of 601 wines, out of the 2733 submitted for last year’ 5StarWines Grand Tasting event.

In addition, 24 wines have been included from Wine Without Walls — a section dedicated to assessing the quality of natural, organic and biodynamic wines, made either without added sulphites or with a sulphite level no higher than 50mg/l.

5StarWines is a three day blind tasting where wineries received feedback from a panel of 95 wine professionals, including Vinitaly’s Ian D’Agata and Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, British wine critic Robert Joseph, and French columnist Bernard Burtschy. 

Cantine del Notaio in southern Italy was awarded Winery of the Year, while the judges named the Vernaccia di Oristano Doc Riserva 2004 by Sardinia’s Silvio Carta the best Italian wine of 2018.

A print version of the guide will be released in September 2018, followed by the opening of registrations for the next edition of 5StarWines Grand Tasting. The online edition can be downloaded here.