Verona – OperaWine 2026

OperaWine – The Best Italian Wines 2026: the elite of Italian wine opens the week of Vinitaly

The 2026 edition of OperaWine, to be heldApril 11 in Verona, promises to be particularly significant. A celebration of Italian winemaking excellence that looks simultaneously at tradition and new generations of producers.

A unique event in the wine scene

OperaWine was born in 2012 from the collaboration between Veronafiere and the American magazine Wine Spectator, one of the world’s most influential publications in the wine industry.

OperaWine is the exclusive event that offers specialized operators from all over the world the chance to learn about the best Italian wines. The rankings are compiled by experts from Wine Spectator, a publication that is an internationally recognized authority in the wine industry. Each year, the judges subject the selected Italian wines to careful visual and taste-olfactory scrutiny and assign each a score based on several criteria. Out of this scrutiny comes the excellence of Italian producers: wineries from all over the peninsula that, despite their differences in terroir, production style and company size, are united by the very high quality of the wines they produce. OperaWine gives journalists, operators and key industry personalities exclusive access to this Finest Italian Wines Selection by Wine Spectator.

The true protagonist of the event is the ability to tell the great diversity of Italian wine, both in tradition and in the new frontiers of enology. However it is declined, this richness deserves to be communicated and promoted all over the world: OperaWine is in fact also a kermesse with an international scope, a showcase that projects the best Italian wines towards exports to the major foreign markets.

However, selected Italian wines are not solely a commodity. On the contrary, they are true ambassadors of Made in Italy, an interweaving of emotionality and culture that goes beyond the simple bottle. They are products that, on the occasion of this elite tasting, create the valuable opportunity to discuss Communication, e-Commerce and Marketing related to a commercial sphere that, in these fields, still has a long way to go.

This is not just a tasting, but a true showcase of contemporary Italian wine, capable of recounting territories, styles and production histories that have built Italy’s reputation on the world wine scene.

The 150 wineries featured in the 2026 edition

The format is simple but extremely selective: a large invitation-only tasting where producers chosen by Wine Spectator present their wines to an international audience of professionals.

The big news of OperaWine 2026 is the expanded selection: 150 Italian wineries chosen by the experts of Wine Spectator.

To better tell the richness and complexity of Italian wine, the selection was divided into three categories:

• Legacy Icons – 31 historic wineries featured in all editions of OperaWine
• Classic – 69 established producers representative of their territories
• New Voices – 50 wineries founded from 1990 onward, symbolizing the new generation of Italian wine

An effective way to show how Italian wine is built on a continuity between history and innovation, where tradition and new energies coexist and reinforce each other.

As always, OperaWine also offers a snapshot of Italy’s wine geography. Traditional territories that have contributed greatly to the international reputation of Italian wine for decades, but coexist alongside emerging appellations and new interpreters of contemporary wine.

Vinitaly’s most prestigious preview

OperaWine is the premiere event of Vinitaly, the most elegant way to declare open the dances of the most important International Wine and Spirits Exhibition. All of these elements make OperaWine one of the most fascinating and most anticipated wine events on the entire Verona and Italian calendar.

Over the course of a few hours, OperaWine allows industry professionals to taste 150 iconic wines, each representative of a winery and a region.

This is why the event has become over time the most prestigious preview of Vinitaly week, a moment that anticipates trends, celebrates excellence and tells the world about the extraordinary diversity of Italian wine.

A collective toast that, year after year, continues to demonstrate how Italian wine is not only a product, but a living cultural heritage.

Useful information

The event is staged on Saturday, April 11, 2026

Admission is by invitation only