2012 Picks: *51* Top Italian Wines for Under $20

Michael starts the New Year off with his go-to list of the best Italian wines of 2012 for under 20 bucks.  This is the first in a series of posts on Italian wines awarded the prestigious 3 Bicchieri (three glasses) rating by Gambero Rosso for 2012.

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Italy’s best wines on the cheap.

Looking for great Italian wines for under 20 bucks?  There’s no need to spend $50+ to find a great bottle of wine if you’re willing to get off the beaten path and try some smaller producers in regions outside of the classic biggies of Barolo, Chianti, and Brunello.

Most Americans are looking for good wine value these days, shunning the expensive stuff and focusing on wines under $20.  The good news is that for Italian wine lovers, there’s an emerging sweet spot for delicious and interesting Italian wines in the $14 to $20 range.

Gambero Rosso, the Italian foodie club, recently released their annual Vini d’Italia wine reference guidebook (and the translated-to-English version Italian Wines in mid-2012).  Their trusted panel of Vino Italiano experts tasted over 20,000 wines from 2,350 producers (yes, that many) and awarded just 375 wines with their prestigious 3 bicchieri (“three glasses”) rating for 2012.

What do many of these lucky Italian wine producers do when they find out their wines have won a 3 bicchieri rating?  Well, they raise their prices, of course!  Unfortunately, this puts many of these stellar wines out of reach of most lovers of Vino Italiano.

Here’s the good news: not all of the winning Italian wine producers instantly raise their prices, and there are many delicious 3 bicchieri wines that stay around the $20 price point (“sotto €15” as they say in the guidebook).  For 2012, there are exactly *51* of these 3 bicchieri winners that are well within reach of Italian wine lovers like us.

Over 50 remarkable vini you’ve gotta try.

I’ve listed below all 51 of the 3 bicchieri winners of 2012 that go for $20 or less, organized by region with a link to wine-searcher.com so you can find them online.  Here are a few highlights (and personal favorites):

• For Chianti fans, Tenuta di Lilliano outside of Castellina in Chianti makes a top quality Chianti Classico 2009 for just $16 (only $14 by the case at Saratoga Wine Exchange).  This Chianti is a great value, check it out.
• The fresh, bright fruit in the Soave Classico Monte Alto 2009 by Ca’ Rugate (just west of Verona in Montecchia di Crosara) goes great with fish and fowl.  It’s a little tougher to find,  but worth the hunt (a wee bit higher at $22 as of this writing from Zachy’s).  Ca’ Rugate makes some great wines at reasonable prices, and this gem is no exception.
• How about a little Lambrusco?  Forget that super sweet, headache-inducing plonk you drank in the 80’s (ok, that was me) and try this fantastic Lambrusco Vecchia Modena Premium 2010 by the proud folks at Chiarli 1860 in the outskirts of Modena.  This little gem has wonderful, rich fruit with floral and spicy notes on the nose and palate – and only $14 a bottle at the Ultimate Wineshop.

Finding these 3 bicchieri winning wines.

Importers come and go, and some of these celebrated wines are produced in small quantities, but you should still be able to find many of them online or in shops that carry a decent selection of Italian wines.  Here are a couple of ways you can hunt down these search-worthy wines:

• Ask your local wine shop if they can get it in from the distributor or importer.  Your wine shop may not be familiar with some of these producers, and they’ll have to do some research – but if they want your business, they’ll put in the effort.
• Check wine-searcher.com, which is probably the most comprehensive search engine for wine globally.  I’ve enabled wine-searcher.com search links below to get you started, but since retailers often do not list full (proper) wine names on their websites, you’ll have to play around with the search phrase to find all retailers that carry it.
  • Example: searching for Ca’ Rugate Soave Classico Monte Alto 2009 only turns up 1 retailer (Zachy’s), but searching for Rugate Soave Monte Alto 2009 turns up 2 retailers.  To find the most options (and best prices) when searching on wine-searcher.com, use the fewest words necessary such as the producer name (Rugate), the wine name (Soave Monte Alto), and the year (2009).
  • Consider the Pro Version: If you’re like me and buy a lot of wine online, I highly recommend subscribing to the Pro Version of wine-searcher.com.  It’s $39 a year and lists 2 to 3 times more retailers than the standard (free) version – well worth the money.
• If you have trouble finding a wine, leave a comment below and I’ll try and help you find it.  If you really want to try a wine listed and it’s not imported into the US yet, I may be able to place a special order for you straight from the wine producer’s cantina.

And the winners are…

Here’s the Gambero Rosso Vini d’Italia 2012 list of 3 Bicchieri winners that retail for under $20 (“sotto €15”).

If you’d like to get your very own personal copy of the Vini d’Italia 2012 Guidebook,
click here to contact me.

Note: The wines are listed by region, from North to South, with the producer name in bold followed by the full official wine name.

Survey:
What’s your 2012 New Years resolution on vino?

It’s that time of year – did you make a New Year’s resolution about your vino drinking?  Looking to move your wine habits to a better neighborhood, so to speak?  Check out what others are doing for 2012 in our Facebook survey on New Year wine drinking resolutions.

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Ciao!
Michael