Now in its 23rd edition, the Oscar del Vino awarded by the Fondazione Italiana Sommelier and Bibenda once again honoured a number of Italian wines this year, following a tasting of the candidate wines in seven categories.
Let’s turn to the white wines in our online wine shop, now over 450 and constantly growing: first and second place went respectively to Furore Bianco Fiorduva and Vintage Tunina. Two whites made at opposite ends of the peninsula, one from Campania and the other from Friuli, both long admired for their great organoleptic qualities and already celebrated with important previous awards.
Fiorduva Furore Bianco Marisa Cuomo
A gold medal for the heroic winemaking of the Amalfi Coast: Fiorduva Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco is the best white wine of 2023. An accolade that joins an already rich collection, which also includes international awards such as the Gold Medal at the Concours Femmes et Vins du Monde in France and the Best of Class Award Limited Production in the USA.
Marisa Cuomo’s Fiorduva is an extraordinary white, supple and persistent, made from overripe Fenile, Ginestra and Ripoli grapes in a land as unique as the Furore coast.
It has a deep yellow colour with golden reflections, and scents reminiscent of apricot and broom flowers along with hints of exotic fruit. It is dense on the palate, where it reveals a remarkable aromatic persistence of dried apricot, raisins and candied fruit.
This is not Fiorduva’s first Oscar as best white wine. As early as 2006, Marisa Cuomo’s wine received the same award, marking a major turning point for the winery: an unprecedented award for a wine from southern Italy.
The estate covers 10 hectares, with vines clinging to the distinctive Furore rock, a magical, evocative corner of the Amalfi Coast. It is the rock itself that guards the wines. The Marisa Cuomo cellars sit 500 metres above the sea, overlooking much of the Furore coast; an old cellar carved into the rock houses the French oak barriques used for ageing.
Everything happens in balance, between nature and people, and between the old secrets of local winemakers and cutting-edge production techniques: this is how Marisa Cuomo makes wines of the very highest quality, including the multi-award-winning Fiorduva Furore Bianco.
Vintage Tunina Jermann
Already hailed by Veronelli in 1979 as “the Mennea of Italian wines”, Vintage Tunina from the Jermann winery took second place, winning silver at the Oscar del Vino.
An intense, full-bodied wine with exceptional persistence, Vintage Tunina has been awarded prizes in a number of industry competitions over the years. Almost half a century has passed since the first vintage went on sale, and since then the wine has never lost the spirit and idea with which it was born. It starts as a blend of the best grapes – mainly Chardonnay and Sauvignon – harvested late, about two weeks after the normal harvest.
A top wine, to put it in Pillon’s words. This is how the wine journalist describes Jermann’s white: “Full-bodied and very pleasant, with an important nose and significant complexity, with notes of tomato leaf and fruit. Broad and fruity in its bouquet and of incredible elegance”.
Vintage Tunina has a bright straw-yellow colour with golden reflections. It has a broad scent, and is elegant and persistent. Its harmonious, supple flavour makes this wine a perfect match for fish dishes, especially baked or in sauce, white meats and pasta or risotto with truffle.
The driving force behind its production, and that of all the winery’s exceptional wines, is Silvio Jermann, a visionary entrepreneur who, in a land as magnificent as Collio, has managed to combine sustainability, architecture and the ability to go beyond the classic idea of a winery.
Two whites united by the uniqueness of their origins, two extraordinary showcases for Italian wine around the world.
