Doctor Wine

Gualto 2016 not only reflects the extremely aristocratic exceptional vintage, but is also one of the best Riservas from 2016. On the nose, very clear and straightforward after cherry, herbs and crushed rock. Full and supple on the palate, its texture is elegant and fine, the tannins only come to the fore in the second step and are excellently balanced. This wine will only reveal its true greatness in a few years, but it already offers an extremely tasty and engaging character. For a Riserva, it has a surprising amount of fruit and an elegance that makes it one of the most charming representatives of its kind. This wine (no more than 4,000 bottles were bottled) should not be missing in any well-stocked wine cellar! SUPERIORE.DE

Some wines bear the name of their creator and thus a silent commitment. Gualto is Gualtiero Ghezzi's personal signature: a strict selection of the best exposed Sangiovese Grosso plots near the Castello, at an altitude of over 300 metres, from sandy limestone marl soils with fossil inclusions. Matured for 36 months in oak barrels and a further two years in the bottle – the fact that this Riserva is being released while 2020s are already on the shelves elsewhere is not an oversight, but an attitude. 2019 was the year that rewarded such patience. Spring rains created the water reserves for a warm but never excessive summer. A radiant September with large day-night fluctuations brought full phenolic ripeness – slowly and without haste. International critics are celebrating the 2019 Brunello vintage as one of the most important since 2010 and 2016.

The name was no coincidence. "Habemus" – we have it. The phrase that falls from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica when the cardinals have reached an agreement. Emanuele Pangrazi chose it deliberately: Viterbo, the capital of Tuscia, was itself a papal residence in the 13th century when Rome was too dangerous – when Rome was too dangerous. The same city, the same history, only the wine was different back then. Pangrazi set out to change that in 2006. The vineyards are located at 300 to 400 metres in Blera, on heavy, stony clay soils with southern exposure. No artificial fertilisers, no chemicals – only spring water and plant-based products. All vines are trained as Alberello, the bushy single vine training of the Mediterranean region, with 11,000 plants per hectare. The yield remains at 25 quintals – two small, loose grapes per vine, with thick skins and little pulp. Concentration as a natural principle.

The Rosso di Montalcino comes from slightly younger Brunello vines and is matured for 12 months in large oak barrels. It undoubtedly bears the signature of the top winery Biondi Santi: delicately sweet, open flavours of red berries, flowers and cloves. Like all of the winery's other wines, the Rosso is classic and firm in style, with a bombastic structure and a brilliant, long finish. True to the house, it also has a long ageing and maturation potential and can compete with some of the Brunello wines of the appellation today and in the future. SUPERIORE.DE

An exceptional milestone in the art of Franciacorta: Palazzo Lana Extrême is masterfully composed and matured on the lees for 84 months before being bottled without dosage. 100% Pinot Noir from old, optimally exposed parcels, rigorously selected and with historic expressiveness. In the glass, it presents itself with bright gold and amber reflections, supported by a very fine-pored perlage. The bouquet is complex and brooding: candied citrus notes, brioche, almond cream, dried apricot, hay ground and a present salty minerality. The palate shows great Franciacorta style: precise acidity, creamy texture, elegant fruit and cool minerality. The finish is long, spicy and shows flavours of toasted almonds, jasmine and Sicilian sea salt in perfect balance. A solitaire that combines origin, depth and style in timeless harmony – serious, generous and with a lasting effect. SUPERIORE.DE

Within the walls of history. The Castello di Bolgheri, built in 1796 and thus the oldest winery in Bolgheri, sits enthroned in the heart of the medieval village like a stone witness to great wine culture. While the world of wine underwent its revolutionary transformation around the Castello – sassicaia and Ornellaia wrote their legendary stories –a treasure lay dormant here that only awoke to its true destiny under Count Federico Zileri Dal Verme. The blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Merlot not only represents the art of blending, but also the philosophy of the house: finesse over power, elegance over opulence. While the best parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon underwent an exceptionally long maceration of 30 days – only possible in exceptional vintages –the wine matured for 20 months in traditional Italian vats and Liters barrels. This choice of large wooden barrels, a deliberate departure from the small barriques of its neighbours, gives the wine the crystalline purity and mineral depth that makes the Castello the "Château Margaux of Bolgheri".

Deep, dark ruby red colour. Floral nose with lots of red, warm fruit and delicate herbal notes. Smooth and elegant on the palate with wonderful depth and complexity with notes of black cherry, herbs, violets, plums and a hint of tar and leather. Saffredi literally sneaks up on you until it fades into a very long and harmonious finish with an impressive presence and finesse. One of Italy's great wines, full of elegance! SUPERIORE.DE

Sauvignon Bianco Rachtl comes from a small micro-location of just 0.4 hectares. It gets its fine flint and graphite nose from the porphyry soils near Unteraicha in the municipality of Völs. Very subtle on the palate with fine saline acidity, fresh fruit and a long-lasting finish. If you can call one of the 2,000 bottles of this vintage your own, you can count yourself lucky! SUPERIORE.DE

This is the top wine from Il Poggione, and it is a must for anyone who collects wines from this famous vineyard. The estate's oldest parcel, Vigna Paganelli, is a 12-hectare vineyard that was planted back in 1964. It boasts a rich variety of old Sangiovese clones, which are used for the newer plantings.

Sauvignon Bianco Rachtl comes from a small micro-location of just 0.4 hectares. It gets its fine flint and graphite nose from the porphyry soils near Unteraicha in the municipality of Völs. Very subtle on the palate with fine saline acidity, fresh fruit and a long-lasting finish. If you can call one of the 2,000 bottles of this vintage your own, you can count yourself lucky! SUPERIORE.DE

White wines from Etna are always special and are in a league of their own due to the generally very old vines, the extreme altitude and the usually minimal yield per hectare. The area around the small town of Milo is the only vineyard site on Etna where an Etna Bianco can be bottled as Superiore - and for good reason: only Carricante can be planted on the steep vineyard, which consists of dozens of small terraces. When the origin of the Carricante grapes is the small parcel (Contrada) Caselle with mostly 100-year-old ungrafted bush vines (Alberelli), even connoisseurs can be excited. The soil, which was formed by centuries of volcanic activity, has numerous layers of minerals and salts, pumice, lapilli, fine and light ash. This extremely rare terroir is particularly fertile and produces late-ripening, healthy, fresh and very flavourful grapes despite the generally high thermal excesses during the summer. Less than 1,000 bottles of this exceptional wine are produced in good years, so you can imagine that we consider ourselves lucky to be able to offer a few cases of this rare wine.

A story of renaissance in the truest sense of the word: after more than twenty years of silence, Le Caggiole recently shone in new splendour. What Federico Carletti describes as an "importante lavoro di recupero" is akin to oenological archaeology – the systematic rediscovery of a 14-hectare site that had once been forgotten. At an altitude of 350 metres, on the road from Montepulciano to Gracciano, intensive research revealed the true potential of this east-facing slope: soils of marine origin, decidedly sandy, of a completely different geological character to the famous Asinone just one kilometre away. Through meticulous selection of Sangiovese rootstocks and clones, precise planting and a deep understanding of the soil and microclimate, this 100 per cent Prugnolo Gentile emerged from its decades-long hiatus.

Querciabella's Riserva, with an annual production of 10,000 bottles, is a selection of the best lots. It blends fruit from Greve, where the vineyards lie between 350 and 550 metres above sea level, with grapes from the stony high altitudes of Radda and the chalky soils of Gaiole. Tantalising aromas of spring flowers, cranberries and potting soil are accompanied by vanilla and smoke. On the palate, it is polished and pure, with a delicious, tangy acidity and sinewy tannins. As every year, one of the most refined wines of the appellation. SUPERIORE.DE

Vernaccia di Oristano Antico Gregori Riserva was not only named dessert wine of the year in Gambero Rosso 2021 (1976 vintage), but was also bottled in this 1979 vintage edition. As it was possible to bottle a little more this year than in other years, the usual assemblage of the best vintages of the last century was dispensed with this year. Nonetheless, or perhaps precisely because of this, it is, as always, a breathtaking wine that leaves nothing to be desired in terms of intensity, maturity and depth! SUPERIORE.DE

Hardly any Brunello is as authentic as the wines from Le Potazzine - they reveal the whole truth of the Sangiovese grape. The result is neither completely polished, nor is it boring or predictable. The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino achieves a degree of extreme authenticity and originality that you don't find on every corner in the appellation. It is a wine full of understatement and equally great personality, for which one must take time and leisure to discover every last nuance. On the nose, it reveals a subtle and well-composed bouquet of red roses, spices, earth and wild mushrooms. As always with Le Potazzine, there is also a wild hint of rusticity. On the palate, this Brunello reveals its powerful fruit and perfectly integrated tannins. Like a friend you can rely on, this Brunello is both a role model and a lovable buddy. SUPERIORE.DE

Crosara Breganze 2017 is a textbook Merlot: full of ripe dark fruits, blackberry pie, liquorice, chocolate, toasted oak and grilled herbs. Offering superb inner sweetness, it is both powerful and elegant, with a lush, super-soft mouthfeel. Pleasingly, a wonderfully focused mineral component saves the wine from ever being overdone. SUPERIORE.DE

Troy is no ordinary Chardonnay. Rather, it is the archetype of a Chardonnay, as Wolfgang Klotz, managing director of what is probably the most successful winegrowers' cooperative in South Tyrol, sees it. The grapes come from two selected vineyards in Söll, near Tramin. The climate there is not only Mediterranean, but the vegetation is also characterised by rather cold downdraughts at night. Both factors guarantee optimal development of the plants and fruit. The berries are hand-picked one by one, so it is clear to any wine connoisseur that this is an absolutely prestigious project for the co-operative. It is therefore not surprising that only 3,000 bottles of this grape variety are sold in selected specialist shops and top restaurants.

In 1969, Rino Sottimano acquired a vineyard that was to become the foundation of his winery: The Cru Cottà, 2.8 hectares located between the municipalities of Neive and Barbaresco, where south-westerly exposures and sandy soils give the Nebbiolo the fullness and structure that make this Barbaresco so special. The vines, now 80 years old, are spaced unusually far apart, a relic from times when vegetables and artichokes were still cultivated between the rows of vines. A historical planting method that gives the roots room to penetrate deep into the calcareous clay soil. Cottà has always been the most fruit-orientated of the five Sottimano crus, a wine of concentrated power that combines the fleshy polyphenols of the Neive vineyards with the distinctive tannin structure of Barbaresco.

Troy – in the language of the South Tyrolean ancestors it means "path", the path that Cantina Tramin has travelled for decades to create one of the most extraordinary Chardonnays in Italy. A path of research, experimentation and patience. Because complex Chardonnays from Alpine altitudes are a rarity – that's where the appeal lies, that's where the challenge begins. At an altitude of 500 to 550 metres, where Mediterranean daytime heat and cold downdraughts from the mountains meet in extreme contrast, 25-year-old Chardonnay vines are rooted in calcareous gravel and clay over porphyry. South-east exposure, Guyot and pergola training, only 38 hectolitres per hectare – each berry is individually inspected during the hand harvest in October. This is followed by whole bunch pressing: the grapes are gently pressed together with stems and stalks, an archaic process that lends structure and depth. Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation take place in French barriques. The wine rests for eleven months on the fine lees in wood before being transferred to small stainless steel tanks, where it spends a further 22 months on the lees – the wine is matured for a total of 33 months before being bottled for four months.

Some wines carry the history of an entire movement within them. Camartina belongs to the handful of Tuscan icons who changed everything in the early 1980s – those rebellious Super Tuscans who did not care about the narrow rules of Chianti Classico and instead pursued their own vision of greatness. 1981 was the birth year of Camartina, and with this wine Querciabella not only laid the foundations for its own success, but also wrote Italian wine history. The name itself is the programme: a fusion of "Casaocci" – the first office on the first hectare of vineyard – and "Martina", the younger daughter of Giuseppe Castiglioni, the visionary founder. What originally began as a Sangiovese-dominated cuvée has undergone a fascinating evolution over the decades. Today, Cabernet Sauvignon is the clear protagonist with seventy per cent, while Sangiovese contributes thirty per cent, the elegant Tuscan linearity that distinguishes Camartina from other Super Tuscans. The reason for this lies in the Ruffoli vineyards near Greve in Chianti, where Cabernet has found a home on the arid sandstone soils, giving it an unusual finesse – lighter, more sophisticated, more refined than elsewhere.

The grapes for this remarkably Burgundian Gran Selezione come from the single vineyard of the same name in a 2.25-hectare Chianti Classico vineyard, which was planted in 1971 with a density of 3,400 vines per hectare and is south-facing on old terraces. Riecine has leased these plots since the 1980s, and in the 2019 debut vintage, the winery succeeded in acquiring this site, which is one of the best terroirs in the Chianti Classico region. The bottles are numbered and around 4,000 bottles and 50 magnums are bottled each year.

Pajana - most modern wine of the entire Clerico range - presents itself closed, compressed and with great potential. Rich ruby with a light garnet rim. Compact nose, showing rich notes of blackberry, dark cherries, a little cinchona bark in the background. Explodes literally on the palate, lots of ripe, present fruit, then opens up with lots of fine-meshed tannin, salty depth, rich pressure. SUPERIORE.DE