Italy

98 Points! The captivating Baricci 2019 Brunello is another gorgeous wine from this storied producer. It offers enticing scents of woodland berry, new leather, camphor, pipe tobacco and dog rose while the full-bodied, elegantly structured palate delivers juicy Morello cherry, red plum, licorice and cake spice before a flinty mineral finish. A backbone of tight, refined tannins and fresh acidity provide support and racy tension. While it’s still youthfully austere, it already shows great balance and precision. - Kerin O' Keefe

97 Points! The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino is youthfully inward and darkly floral with an herbal tinge and hints of crushed ashen stone that give way to vivid black raspberry and exotic spice. This is juicy and spry, with racy cherry-berry fruit and stimulating acidity that creates a sensation of boundless energy, even as a saturation of primary concentration settles in toward the close. The 2019 finishes with incredible length and youthful tension, leaving balsamic spice, sage and licorice notes lingering over a bed of dusty tannins. - Eric Guido, Viinous Media

97 Points! Baricci shines with this stunning 2019, from the estate’s south- to southeast-facing plots at 300 metres on the Montosoli hill. It is still far too young, but everything is in place for a long and gratifying life. Preliminary cedar and vanillin nuances melt into sumptuous cherry, and there's a pronounced stony, mineral edge along with juicy blood orange to impart further intricacy. Refined and graceful with layered substance, it has long, chalky, perfectly ‘al dente’ tannins and sappy, mouthwatering acidity. - Decanter Magazine

95 Points! Lots of fresh flowers, limes, sliced apples and honeysuckle on the nose with candied lemon and heather notes. Full-bodied with a light phenolic tension, rich with lots of citrus peel and minerals in the finish. Concentration with freshness. Pinot bianco, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. Drink or hold. - James Suckling

98 Points! The 2019 Brunello Di Montalcino pours a bright red color and shows more aromatic restraint than the 2021. The nose shows wild raspberries, darker berries, and dried floral tones, with a more muted, understated frame. Medium to full-bodied, it offers ripe tannins, balanced acidity, and solid length, although it feels a touch less polished than the 2021 at this stage. It should drink well over the next 12 to 15 years. Drink 2026-2041. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

95 Points! The La Spinetta 2019 Barolo Campè Vürsù is balanced and bright with a little more heft and overall fruit concentration. Dried cherry, blackberry, spice and black licorice all appear on the bouquet. This is smooth in consistency but shows a long, polished mouthfeel that is especially tight and elegant in this vintage. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

100 Points! Complex aromas of walnut, dark fruit, stone, oyster shell, chalk and dried fruits. This shows fabulous intensity and balance with layer upon layer of fruit and polished tannins. Builds on the palate. It goes on for minutes. - JamesSuckling.com

95+ Points! Made from the estate's oldest vines, the 2010 Brunello di Montalcino is a bold and powerful wine that shows enormous precision and grit. On the Brunello scale, this expression from Siro Pacenti offers more dark fruit, plum, spice, tar and smoke. The wine reveals beautiful density and an important mouthfeel that hits the palate with seductive determination. This wine is holding up beautifully since I tasted it last and has even improved in terms of its complexity and overall elegance. It still has a long way to go. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com, 2019

95 Points! Beautifully ripe and intense, the 2010 Brunello di Montalcino never feels overdone or too heavy. In fact, it treads with the lightest of footprints imparting delicate tones of rose petal, forest berry, white cherry, balsam herb and sweet almond as it flutters over the senses. The main message here is elegance and this wine is profoundly eloquent on the subject. The mouthfeel is tight silky and enduring. Delicate mineral notes give focus and definition to the finish. This is a classic Brunello from an iconic vintage. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

98 Points! I really appreciate the dark-berry and burnt-orange aromas that follow through to a full body, very integrated tannins and a ripe, juicy fruit character. Savory, succulent and salty. Hints of chocolate and salted nuts. So juicy and gorgeous. A fabulous red. - JamesSuckling.com

100 Points! The 2010 Brunello di Montalcino is every bit as thrilling as it was on the many occasions I tasted it from barrel. Black cherry, hard candy, plum, rose petal, menthol and lavender saturate the palate in a sumptuous, racy Brunello endowed with magnificent depth and pedigree. An utterly stunning, sensual wine, the 2010 constantly changes in the glass as it conquers all the senses with an exotic kaleidoscope of aromas, flavors and textures. I remember tasting the 2010 from cask a few years ago when Diego Molinari was too unwell to go down to the cellar. Nora Molinari tasked me with essentially serving myself as we went from vintage to vintage and cask to cask. For days after, I was mortified that I might not have closed some of the spigots tightly enough. Fortunately, that was not the case. In all of my years tasting the wines of Montalcino, I have only come across two wines with this level of textural unctuosity and sweetness; Gianfranco Soldera's 1983 Brunello and 1990 Riserva. Cerbaiona's 2010 Brunello di Montalcino will leave readers weak at the knees. It is every bit that profound. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

95 Points! A wine with purity and integration, offering black-cherry, blueberry and orange-peel aromas and flavors. Hot stone, too. Full-bodied and very tight with integrated tannins that go on. Needs time to show it all. - JamesSuckling.com

94 Points! This red is opulent and bursting with cherry, raspberry, rose and earth flavors, and an underlying spiciness from the new oak. Harmonious and long, refined tannins detail the finish. Best from 2023 through 2043. - Wine Spectator

96 Points! With fruit from Castiglione Falletto, the 2019 Barolo Villero is graceful and light with a beautifully silky approach to the palate. It is pleasing to the eye, thanks to the shiny ruby color that is characteristic of this vintage, and to the nose, thanks to a graceful bouquet with redcurrant, spice and blue flower. It shows similar traits to the mouth, thanks to a very sharp or linear element. Oddero's Villero knocks it out of the park across this portfolio of new releases. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

96 Points! The Domenico Clerico 2019 Barolo Ginestra Ciabot Mentin (with 5,500 bottles made with fruit from vines planted in 1978) is a bit closed initially. This is a trait I found across a vintage that gives us good reason to bet on long bottle-aging potential. There is dark fruit and spice with licorice and grilled herb. Rusty mineral nuances also emerge slowly from the bouquet. This wine needs a double decant if consumed on the young side, but you're better off waiting. I came back to my open sample 24 hours later, and the wine was singing beautifully. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

96 Points! Aromas of raspberries, cherries and orange peel follow through to a medium to full body, with firm and very fine tannins that are chewy but fine grained. Bright acidity, too. Try after 2027. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! The front of this bottle now lists its MGA provenance, Ginestra. The Domenico Clerico 2019 Barolo Ginestra Pajana shows a more open initial impression (next to the Ciabot Mentin) with soft black fruit. The wine makes a bigger impact in terms of texture with firm structure and silky tannins. It is just a little more open-knit and accessible. Some 5,000 bottles were released, and for the first time, Pajana is aged only in large oak casks (measuring 5,000 liters). - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

95 Points! These village-specific wines are growing in popularity, and among the various expressions on the market today, this wine from Verduno is really quite special thanks to its highly distinctive floral aromas and its delicate sense of inner balance. A new project being inaugurated with this vintage, the Fratelli Alessandria 2019 Barolo del Comune di Verduno shows a fine, streamlined mouthfeel with polished tones of river stone, crushed rose and licorice root. The aromas are refined and fragile. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

98 Points! Subtle and beautiful on the nose with currants, flowers and light sage aromas that follow through to a full body with ultra-fine tannins and a long and flavorful finish. Extremely polished and poised. Classy. - James Suckling

97 Points! The 2020 Solaia is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple in color, it needs a little coaxing to bring out notes of warm cassis, black cherry compote, and black raspberries, followed by hints of cedar chest, unsmoked cigars, violets, and cardamom. The full-bodied palate is densely laden with rich, bold black fruits, supported by a firm backbone of ripe, grainy tannins and jaw-dropping tension, finishing long and lifted. - The Wine Independent

97 Points! The 2020 Solaia is an infant. I expected a more exuberant wine, but the 2020 is built along more classic lines. Black cherry, plum, gravel, incense, smoke, pencil shavings and spice all open effortlessly. As always, Solaia is a Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine, but it is a Cabernet that is distinctly Italian, with plenty of Tuscan acid and structure driving through the mid-palate and into the finish. The 2020 is a terrific example of the recent stylistic shift at Antinori. In the past, richness and opulence were qualities of a vintage that would have been amplified in the vineyard and cellar. Today, the aim is to capture a more balanced expression of these kinds of vintages, and that very much comes through. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

95 Points! Monteraponi follows a Burgundy-adjacent farming philosophy that seeks to carve out distinct identities for strong red and white wines. The top-shelf red from the estate is the organic 2018 Baron'Ugo, a blend of 90% Sangiovese with smaller parts Canaiolo and Colorino for more color and vibrant fruit flavors. This vintage delivers a very clean and polished execution, and there is plenty of freshness, thanks to vineyard positioning at a cool and breezy 560 meters in elevation on limestone alberese soils. The oak is woven in a delicate manner in this wine. Production is 6,600 bottles. This is a little treasure from Tuscany. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

95 Points! The effusive sliced-pear and white-peach aromas introduce you to this extraordinary, contemporary interpretation of this grape, which is so often dismissed as old-fashioned. The abundant fine tannins remind me of natural wines, but there’s a level of brightness here that’s totally Alpine and gives it remarkable drive at the very long wet-stone finish. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! Delicate and perfumed, with floral hints of white pepper and raspberry, then on to a palate of refined red fruit and spice. - Decanter World Wine Awards

96 Points! With vines planted in 1992 in a cozy and protected position within the folds of hills above Gattinara at 400 meters in elevation, the Molsino vineyard is known to produce extra fruit weight, concentration and power. This is definitely the case with the Conterno Nervi 2018 Gattinara Vigna Molsino. Of the two single-vineyard wines made at this estate (the other being the Vigna Valferana), I'm giving the aging edge to this bottle and have extended the drinking window as a result. During my tasting with Roberto Conterno, he described this wine as having "broader shoulders" and "more bite to the mouthfeel." Those are exact descriptions, and I would add that Molsino shows special dimension, in terms of both width and depth, with red and purple fruits that spread evenly over the palate. The wine's finish is powered by tarry smoke and campfire ash that add vertical lift and length. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

98 Points! Not made since the 2011 vintage to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the winery and before that not since 1964, the Paolo Scavino 2016 Barolo Riserva is gorgeous. Made with a selection of the best grapes from the estate’s historic vineyards, it’s intensely fragrant, boasting multifaceted aromas of forest floor, iris, ripe woodland berry, camphor and brown exotic spice. Combining power and finesse, the delicious palate offers cherry marinated in spirits, raspberry compote, licorice and tobacco set against a backbone of firm, fine-grained tannins. Fresh acidity keeps it balanced and energized. Still primary and youthfully austere, it needs a few more years to unwind and develop. Drink 2028–2046. - Kerin O’Keefe

98 Points! Dark red/magenta in color, the 2016 Barolo Riserva is remarkable, offering loads of kirsch, polished leather, balsamic, dark chocolate, and crushed violets. The list goes on and on as it opens and begins to show more mineral aromas of graphite and truffle. Medium to full-bodied, it’s an exquisite red, with ripe, polished tannins, a seamless structure, and a long finish. It retains wonderful purity and ripeness and leaves a haunting sensation as it tapers ever so slowly. This stunning wine from the Scavino family is built for the long haul. Drink 2026-2056.-Audrey Frick, JebDunnuck.com

98 Points! Though still a bit shy in aroma, this red offers a deep well of ripe cherry, strawberry, raspberry, mint, mineral and tobacco flavors. Intense and vibrant, combining finesse and power, with terrific tension and a long, complex aftertaste. Drink now through 2042. - Wine Spectator

95 Points! Vietti is one of a handful of estates to bring the Ravera MGA of Novello to the current popularity it enjoys now. Their 2018 Barolo Ravera has a smoky personality with crushed stone and pencil shavings. There is plenty of dark fruit at the back, ripe cherry and blackberry mostly, and the wine is tonic and firm in terms of its structure and tannins. The Ravera is a wine of enormous length and a finely tuned texture. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com