Ian D’Agata’s Best Italian Wines of 2021

This specific list of wines was compiled through tastings of wines supplied by producers directly to me or through their importers. A number of wines on this list were assessed by two of my long time collaborators, Emily Huang in Taiwan and Michele Longo in Italy, with whom I have been tasting with for years and who I am proud to say I have trained, at least to the degree that I am comfortable in knowing how they will think, evaluate and score wines. The former is one of my better students who has progressively devoted herself to wine more and more. 

Le Ragose 2010 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico                                                       94

Concentrated and deep, but most importantly not jammy, boasting very deep ripe fruit but it’s the suave texture that is most impressive in such a powerful wine that manages to come across as a ballerina, rather than the howitzer it is.