The selection of the best wines

Why participate in 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls?

The wines that qualify with a score equal to or higher than 90/100 earn the right to be published, with the respective score, in the international guide 5StarWines – the Book and in the digital Catalogue of the Selection. The selected wines benefit from constant promotional support on a national and international scale. The initiatives include:

  • Marketing opportunities: events, grand tastings, showcases, social media, educational initiatives, events with buyers and wine lovers organized by Veronafiere.
  • Inclusion of the selected wines, with tasting notes and scores, in the Vinitaly Catalogue, Vinitaly Plus, which will allow all exhibitors to be located by the most important foreign buyers present at the Fair.
  • Publication in 5StarWines – the Book including the evaluation of the experts, who, in addition to giving feedback on each individual participating wine, write a tasting note in English dedicated to wines with a score of at least 90/100.
  • Insertion of selected wines in the digital catalogue sent to over 10,000 high-profile professionals.
  • Insertion on winesearcher.com, the powerful search engine that enables users to identify the price and availability of a wine all over the world.
  • Social media promotion of each selected wine, with score received and tasting notes written by the judges (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn).
  • Free Marketing Toolkit with sticker, tasting note and diploma.
  • Presentation of diplomas at Vinitaly stand with photos, interviews and social media posts and awarding of Trophies, with tasting of top performing wines reserved for buyers and the press.
  • Interviews and Podcasts with the producers, authentic “testimonials”, with a specific focus on the winning wines, promoted on official social media channels.
  • Option to download stickers corresponding to the score achieved.


EVALUATION

All the wines participating in the 5StarWines selection are evaluated by a jury during three days of blind tasting. Each wine is assigned a score by each judge making up the Panel, based on a careful visual and taste-olfactory analysis. It is the responsibility of the Panel Chair to confirm the score, attribute the judgment and formulate the final tasting note. The wines which, on the basis of this preliminary evaluation, are suitable for obtaining a score of 90 or more, are subject to a subsequent judgment – tasting by the Scientific Committee of the General Chairs – where they receive a final score.

At the end of the three days, the wines that achieve a rating of at least 90/100 are destined for publication in the international guide 5StarWines – the Book, in print and digital format, accompanied by tasting notes written by the expert judges.

At the end of the event, each participating winery receives – on their account – the evaluation feedback referring to the candidate wines. For participating wine producers, this represents important feedback on their wines from an expert panel of professionals.


TROPHIES

Among the wines selected for publication in the guide, the jury also provides official recognition through several special Trophies.

  • WINERY OF THE YEAR – GRAND VINITALY
    Awarded to the producer who receives the highest score from the sum of the scores of the first three wines selected for inclusion in the Guide in at least two different categories.
  • BEST ITALIAN WINE – BANCO BPM
    Italian wine selected for inclusion in the Guide which achieves the highest score.
  • BEST WHITE WINE
    Wine that achieves the highest score in this category.
  • BEST ROSÉ WINE
    Wine that achieves the highest score in this category.
  • BEST RED WINE
    Wine that achieves the highest score in this category.
  • BEST SEMI-SPARKLING WINE
    Wine that achieves the highest score in this category.
  • BEST SPARKLING WINE
    Wine that achieves the highest score in this category.
  • BEST SWEET WINE
    Wine that achieves the highest score in this category.
  • BEST FORTIFIED WINE
    Wine that achieves the highest score in this category.
  • BEST WINE DISTRIBUTED BY
    Wine that achieved the highest score among those presented by a distributor partner of the event.


THE DIPLOMA

All wineries whose wines achieve a score of at least 90/100 receive an official diploma in print and digital format, with the respective score.


THE CERTIFICATE

All wineries whose wines achieve a score of between 85 and 89/100 receive an official certificate of participation in digital format, with the respective score.

 

Categories of wines allowed

Wines with denomination of origin (for European Union countries, DOP), geographical indication (for European Union countries, IGP), generic wines with indication of vintage and/or grape variety (art. 55 of EC Regulation No. 607/2009) and quality sparkling wines and, for non-EU countries, those regulated by the OIV international standards.


STILL WINES

  • still white wines with residual sugar up to 20 grams/liter
  • still rosé wines with residual sugar up to 20 grams/liter
  • still red wines with residual sugar up to 20 grams/liter

Within these three groups we distinguish between still wines aged in steel, wood or other containers for oenological.


SEMI-SPARKLING WINES

  1. semi-sparkling white wines with residual sugar up to 20 grams/liter
  2. semi-sparkling rosé wines with residual sugar up to 20 grams/liter
  3. semi-sparkling red wines with residual sugar up to 20 grams/liter


SPARKLING WINES

  1. sparkling white wines with a residual sugar content of up to 32 grams/litter
  2. sparkling rosé wines with a residual sugar content of up to 32 grams/liter
  3. sparkling red wines with a residual sugar content of up to 32 grams/liter

Within the three groups we distinguish between sparkling wines produced with fermentation in autoclave (Charmat method) or in the bottle (classic method, ancestral, col fondo).


SWEET WINES

  1. still and semi-sparkling sweet white wines with a residual sugar content of more than 20 grams/litre and sparkling wines with a residual sugar content of more than 32 grams/litre
  2. still and semi-sparkling sweet rosé wines with a residual sugar content of more than 20 grams/litre and sparkling wines with a residual sugar content of more than 32 grams/litre
  3. still and semi-sparkling sweet red wines with a residual sugar content of more than 20 grams/litre and sparkling wines with a residual sugar content of more than 32 grams/litre


FORTIFIED WINES

Of an actual alcoholic strength by volume of 15% vol. or more, but not exceeding 22% vol.

  1. Fortified white wines
  2. Fortified rosé wines
  3. Fortified red wines


HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR WINES: CONSULT THE FAQ