Tre Bicchieri 2026, the best wines of Calabria awarded by Gambero Rosso

Sep 23 2025, 13:21 | by Gambero Rosso

The ugly duckling has now become a splendid swan that majestically flies towards new horizons. Beyond the metaphor, this is the year that definitively consolidates the renaissance of Calabrian wine

Our tastings for the Vini d’Italia 2026 guide by Gambero Rosso depict Calabria as a region in great ferment and in continuous qualitative growth from north to south and, in more detail, the strengthening of Cirò, the historic Calabrian denomination (and the one with the highest numbers), which this year achieved a full house of labels awarded with Tre Bicchieri.

Calabria’s wine between confirmations and new entries

Winning the highest recognition for the first time is the historic winery Caparra & Siciliani, a virtuous example of a family-run cooperative that, with the generational change, has shown its ability to quickly adapt to the times. Credit for this goes to the work of Carlo Siciliani, its manager, as well as the newly elected president of the Docg consortium. But great praise must also go to historic companies such as those of the Librandi and Ippolito families, among the first in the region to invest in the territory; and it is no coincidence that, alongside a classic wine such as Duca Sanfelice ’23 by Librandi, for the first time a Cirò Bianco has won Tre Bicchieri, namely Mare Chiaro ’24 by Ippolito, a wine with an extraordinary price/quality ratio.

And while the historic wineries are confirmed, the young ones are no less remarkable. Tre Bicchieri also goes to Christian Vumbaca, a young winemaker who returned to Cirò to follow the profession of his ancestors, leaving behind a promising – and more comfortable – career outside Calabria.

But there is another novelty: for the first time Tre Bicchieri is awarded for a red wine, the Petraro ’22, by the Ceraudo winery of Strongoli, confirming the ferment on several fronts of which we spoke at the beginning.