The usual suspects indeed.
A quick scan of most of the guides shows a numbing uniformity and predictability, whether from guide to guide or from year to year. Giampiero Nadali has published his compilation of many of the major guides - such as have made their best-of lists available - and you can catch his "public service" post here.
I have to tell you that, reviewing these lists, I realize how sick I am of Italians bitching about the pernicious influence of Robert Parker, the Wine Spectator, etc. The fact is that the tasting panels consistently select the biggest, oakiest reds of the producers. That these are the most expensive shouldn't be much of a surprise; the guide publishers are eager to sell books and the producers to get their best return on investment, and somehow their needs always mesh tidily.
What impresses me most is the relative independence (or is it contrariness?) of L'Espresso's guide. God knows my taste is to the less big, less oaky, the fresher, the more varietally distinctive. Massive amounts of wood don't allow that to come out, and God also knows all that oak masks a heap of defects and short cuts. the editor and tasters of L'Espresso must share some of my preferences because when it comes to the more "tipico" versions of a winery's bottles, they select those over the big barriqued ones. Case in point: L'Espresso awarded Aurora's Rosso Piceno its highest rating while Veronelli picked the Barricadiero (obvious what that is). The Rosso Piceno is delicious and distinctive; the Barricadiero is, well, New World.
Well, at least Veronelli selected Aurora for something. Though this guide was implicated in a pay-to-play scandal in recent years, they did break out of the rut and went deeper into regions where Gambero Rosso scarcely deigns to tread.
Still, for me, the L'Espresso guide is far more credibile and adventuresome.
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