Three premium Italian wines made it to the top 10 list of The Business Times Wine Challenge 2014 - CEOs' Choice.

They are Le Potazzine Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2009; Produttori del Barbaresco, Barbaresco DOCG 2009; and Allegrini Valpolicella Classico DOC 2013.

The other seven wines are from France and Germany, with single entries from Spain and Austria.

The award ceremony for the winning wines was held at the UBS AG office at One Raffles Quay on Thursday night.

The judging panel included international wine specialist Lim Hwee Peng, sommelier Maximilien Fedkiw of Le Sommelier Consulting, and Les Amis Group's director of wines Timothy Goh.

They led a panel of 10 chief executive officers who picked the top 10 wines from a shortlist of 30 wines through a blind tasting. The CEOs on the panel included Mr Richard Eu of Eu Yan Sang, Mr Gerald Lee of Far East Hospitality Trust, and Mr Michael Su of Pontiac Land.

The shortlist covered both red and white wines from various countries such as France, Australia, New Zealand and Germany.

This is the second edition of The Business Times Wine Challenge organised by the financial daily, in partnership with Swiss banking group, UBS AG.

On the results, Mr Lim, who was also a judge last year, says: "The quality of the wines this year is much higher. We had to do a lot of retasting to get the judges to agree. Italian wines are sometimes under the radar and I'm happy that they stand out this year."