Tedeschi’s Amarone 2019 enters James Suckling’s Top 100 Wines of Italy 2026

Italian winery Tedeschi said Monday that its Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Classico Riserva Capitel Monte Olmi 2019 has been included in James Suckling’s Top 100 Wines of Italy 2026, after receiving a score of 97 points in the critic’s annual review of Italian wines.

The recognition places the wine on a list that Suckling dedicated this year to “Pride of Place,” a theme centered on bottles that reflect a clear link to their vineyard and local territory. Tedeschi, which is based in Pedemonte di Valpolicella near Verona, said the selection is significant because it highlights wines whose identity is closely tied to origin rather than style alone.

Capitel Monte Olmi is one of the best-known wines in Tedeschi’s portfolio and comes from the Monte Olmi vineyard in the hills above Pedemonte, in the heart of the Valpolicella Classica area. The winery has long presented that site as central to its work on single-vineyard expression in Valpolicella, an area in northeastern Italy best known for Amarone, a full-bodied red made from partially dried grapes.

According to Tedeschi, the 2019 vintage was one of only three Amarone wines included in the Top 100. The winery also said the list featured one other Valpolicella wine and two Soave wines from the Verona area, for a total of six wines from the broader Veneto region.

Suckling’s published notes on the 2019 Capitel Monte Olmi describe a wine with a balance of richness, purity, and freshness, with flavors and aromas that include mandarin orange, orange blossom, cherry, and chocolate. He described the wine as deep and precise, with mineral freshness and a long finish.

Tedeschi tied the award to a long-running effort to study the differences among vineyard sites in Valpolicella. The winery said Monte Olmi has been at the center of that work for decades and that it has invested in research focused on the relationship between territory, microclimate, and the expression of individual crus, or named vineyard sites.

The family traces its connection to Monte Olmi to 1964, when Lorenzo Tedeschi decided to vinify grapes from the vineyard separately. The winery says that decision created the first Amarone cru, a move it presents as an early step in treating Amarone not only as a regional style but also as a wine capable of expressing a distinct site. That approach, now more common in fine wine production, has become part of the broader market language around terroir, provenance, and single-vineyard bottlings.

In a statement released by the winery, Sabrina Tedeschi said the placement carried added weight because the list’s focus matched the family’s long-held approach to winegrowing. She said the producer viewed the recognition as validation not just of one bottle but of its decision to emphasize the differences, origin, and personality of individual vineyards in Valpolicella. Sabrina Tedeschi runs the company with her siblings, Antonietta and Riccardo.

James Suckling is one of the most visible wine critics in the international market, and his annual Italian rankings are widely used by producers and importers in export-focused promotion. Scores and year-end lists from major critics can influence buying decisions by retailers, restaurants, collectors, and consumers, especially in premium categories such as Amarone, Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino, and top Tuscan reds.

For Amarone producers, placement in a Top 100 list can be especially valuable because the category competes in a crowded field of highly rated Italian wines. Amarone is typically marketed as a wine for aging and special occasions, and producers often rely on critical reviews to support pricing and visibility in foreign markets, particularly in the United States, northern Europe, and Asia.

Tedeschi is a long-established Valpolicella producer and is known for both Amarone and other wines from the area, including Valpolicella and Ripasso. The Capitel Monte Olmi label has for years been one of the winery’s flagship bottlings and is regularly positioned as an expression of a historic site rather than a blend built from multiple vineyards across the appellation.

The winery said the 2026 Top 100 selection drew from 7,000 Italian wines. That figure was cited by Tedeschi in connection with the ranking and not independently verified in the statement. James Suckling’s annual Italian reports typically cover a broad range of regions and appellations, from large-volume production zones to small, site-specific wines aimed at collectors.

The recognition comes at a time when Italian producers are increasingly emphasizing origin at a more detailed level, including individual vineyards, village distinctions, and microclimates. In regions such as Valpolicella, where Amarone has often been discussed in terms of method and power, that shift has helped move attention toward site-specific differences in altitude, exposure, soils, and growing conditions. Tedeschi’s statement placed Monte Olmi within that trend and said the wine’s inclusion in this year’s “Pride of Place” list reflected growing interest in bottles that speak directly to where they were grown.