Formats

Terre Brune: A monument to the art of Sardinian viticulture, borne by the year 2020, which wonderfully captured the essence of the island in its balance between heat and night-time equalisation. For Terre Brune, this meant a late harvest accompanied by cool nights. The result: maturity in harmony with freshness, expressive and enriching. Incidentally, the 2020 vintage was a gift of ripeness everywhere in southern Sardinia. Warm spells were balanced out by Atlantic breezes and the grapes remained healthy and aromatic. The late harvest ensured a rich, but never overripe concentration – ideal conditions for a wine with lively acidity and body in harmony.

Terlano I (pronounced Primo) Grande Cuvée is the name of the white flagship of Cantina Terlano. In recent years, the winery has made a name for itself worldwide with its long-lasting, mineral white wines. Even years later, the wines still present themselves with top freshness and great complexity. With this long history of white wines, since the 2011 vintage there is now a wine in which the essence of Terlan is expressed in an even more focussed way. Terlaner I Grande Cuvée combines the Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon grape varieties from the Winkl, Kreuth and Vorberg vineyards to create a masterpiece which, due to its limited and exclusive nature, will only be available from hand-picked retailers and in selected top restaurants.

The essence of chance. There are wines that are only created when the stars are right – and Essenza from Fattoria Kappa is one of them. In the language of physics, kappa means constant, but at this extraordinary winery on the border between Bolgheri and Maremma, chance rules. Only in exceptional years, when the Cabernet Franc grapes reach their fullest maturity and complexity, is this rare cru produced – a gamble that only a few winegrowers in Tuscany dare to take. 2016 was such a year of perfection. After a cool, damp winter and spring, July finally brought the longed-for heat and dryness. A welcome rain shower in mid-August cooled things down and paved the way for a textbook September: warm days, cool nights and the dramatic temperature fluctuations that allow Cabernet Franc to reach its peak. While other producers opted for tried and tested Bordeaux blends, Andrea Di Maio – the agronomist from Livorno and one of the three souls of Fattoria Kappa – went it alone with this capricious grape variety.

Bricco di Treiso 2021 comes from the single vineyard of the same name, one of the highest parcels in the appellation, where the vines are rooted on calcareous marl soils in a cool microclimate. The 2021 vintage brought ideal conditions: a cool spring, followed by a balanced summer and a long, dry autumn – perfect for the slow ripening of the Nebbiolo. After a long maceration period, the wine matured in large oak barrels and a small proportion of barriques. In the glass, it is garnet-red in colour with delicate orange reflections and notes of rose, sour cherry, liquorice and light spice on the nose. On the palate, it is powerful yet finely characterised, with precise acidity, cool fruit and saline depth. The tannins are present but silky and interwoven – a Barbaresco of austere beauty, great transparency and with long ageing potential. SUPERIORE.DE

First bottled in 1967, Roncaglie (formerly Barbaresco Masseria) comes from a vineyard in Bricco di Neive and is essentially vinified and aged like a Barolo. Since the 2018 vintage, it now comes from a small parcel that used to belong to the Socré Barbaresco winery and is now deliberately released a year later to ensure greater harmony and balance. Floral and spicy notes merge with a core of rich, generous fruit in a generous Barbaresco based on pure resonance. Barbaresco Roncaglie is vinified and matured in the same way as Vietti's single-vineyard Barolos. This means long fermentation, six months in French oak and more than two years in barrique. This, together with the broad shoulders of Neive, results in a noble Nebbiolo with clear hints of Barolo and impressive depth. SUPERIORE.DE

In 1994, Rita Tua and Virgilio Bisti set aside two barrels of Merlot without realising that they were creating a cult wine that would catapult the winery onto the world stage. The name comes from a small stream that flows close to the vineyards, as inconspicuous as the beginnings of the project itself. Then in 2000 came the sensation: Robert Parker awarded one hundred points, the first ever for an Italian red wine. The Redigaffi became a legend, the epitome of Tuscan Merlot mastery, compared to Pétrus and Masseto – and yet independent, characterised by the metal-rich hills of the Maremma, by loam and clay, by its proximity to the sea ... The vines grow in the centre of the vineyard, where the clay content is highest – where Merlot finds its greatest density. Hand-selected in three passes, only fully ripe grapes. Vinification with long maceration, then eighteen to twenty months in new French barriques, followed by months in the bottle before the wine leaves the estate.

A name that breathes history: since 2011, the grapes for Marchese Antinori have come exclusively from the vineyards of Tenuta Tignanello – the legendary location that lies at the heart of the Chianti Classico between the gentle hills of the Greve and Pesa valleys. Here, where the Medici once walked and where the Antinori family has been realising its visionary wine philosophy since 1850, one of the purest interpretations of Sangiovese thrives on stony limestone soils. The 2022 vintage tells of a summer of extremes – little rain until August, hot spells in June and July. But the old vines proved resilient: even budding, regular flowering, perfectly ripe grapes for the harvest. In the winery's cellars, winemaking was carried out with classic precision: gentle destemming, gentle pressing, one week of fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Ten days of maceration using gentle methods – an extraction that combines intensity with elegant, supple tannins. Natural acid degradation until the end of the year, then twelve months of ageing in French and Hungarian oak barrels, followed by a further twelve months of bottle ageing before release.

Three years after the Annata, Romano and his sons launch a small edition of the same vintage in large formats. The 2015 Valpolicella Superiore Monte Lodoletta is a particularly elegant, pretty and typical expression of the Dal Forno style. Black cherries dipped in rum, plum sauce, brown spices and a hint of cocoa rise from the glass. Silky and polished, it seamlessly washes over the palate with ripe red and blackcurrants, while leaving minerals and a fine layer of tannins behind. Spicy acids add tension as the wine tapers off in a structured way, with notes of mocha and mentholated herbs that linger. SUPERIORE.DE

Cellar master Rudi Kofler once put it like this: "He was looking for the wine that embodied the innermost, authentic essence of the Cantina Terlan. A wine that unites the greatness of the best vines and vineyard sites. The result is the Terlaner I Grande Cuvée – the silent flagship of a co-operative since 1893, which has proven that depth and time are not a question of ownership. Terlan lies in the Adige Valley, sheltered in the shadow of the Tschöggelberg, at the southern foothills of the Alps. What distinguishes the soil beneath the vines from all other soils in South Tyrol is a geological phenomenon: beneath Terlan lies a sub-volcanic body of rock that differs fundamentally in its composition from classic volcanic rock. Over millions of years, a unique crystal conglomerate has formed in its interior – an unusually high concentration of minerals, which the soil passes on to the roots. No calcium carbonate, slightly acidic pH, sandy porphyry weathered soils: stress mineralisation as a principle, saltiness as a result.

Ornato 2021 comes from the single vineyard of the same name in Serralunga d'Alba, exposed to the south – a cru with a distinctive altitude and calcareous soils that captures the depth and power of the Barolo region like no other. The 2021 vintage was characterised by a cool spring, a stable summer without extreme heat and a long, dry autumn. These conditions allowed the Nebbiolo to ripen slowly and evenly, giving the grapes aromatic complexity with full phenolic ripeness. The wine was fermented traditionally after a long maceration period and then matured for around 30 months in French oak – partly in tonneau and partly in barrique.

This vintage has become the flagship of the region – precise, powerful and at the same time polished. The aromatic depth contrasts with the lively freshness that makes the wine so contemporary. Terre Brune 2019 has a deep ruby red colour in the glass. The nose reveals nuanced aromas: blueberry, a mix of ripe black berries, accompanied by cinnamon, tobacco, liquorice and delicately smoky herbs – an olfactory complexity that arouses curiosity. Opulent on the palate, with dense fruit but never loud, carried by noble, ripe tannins. The finish is long, spicy and characterised by minerals – a confident expression of southern elegance and immense potential. SUPERIORE.DE

A name carries weight when it is the programme. Stilèma – derived from "Stile" and the name Mastroberardino – is not a marketing term, but a commitment. It was Antonio Mastroberardino, known as the "archaeologist of vineyards", who began digging in the early 2000s: experimental projects, selection of pre-phylloxeric clones, revision of all protocols in the vineyard and cellar. His goal was not a new style – it was a return to a lost one. The great white wines of Irpinia from the 1970s and 1980s had a density, a texture, a depth that later decades could not match. Stilèma was not intended to preserve this memory, but to translate it into the present.

In the upper areas of the historic Contrada Rovittello – at an altitude of around 700 metres, on volcanic rock with a high basalt content – the old Nerello Mascalese vines of Il Musmeci take root. Some of them are even over 100 years old, their roots penetrating deep into the barren, mineral-rich soil. The north-eastern flank of Mount Etna provides a cool microclimate with a strong contrast between day and night – decisive for the aromatic precision. The name Il Musmeci is a tribute to the former owner of the parcel, Cav. Santi Musmeci, whose respect for terroir and tradition became the legacy of this wine.

The "Fracia" vineyard has belonged to Nino Negri since it was founded in 1897. It lies at the confluence of several alpine valleys and the vegetation in this area is almost Mediterranean with lavender and rosemary. The result is a wine that is flavoursome and flowery with a characteristic, spicy aroma.

Montalcino and Cabernet Sauvignon – at first sounds like a marriage against nature. Sangiovese reigns here, Brunello grows here, the grape variety has found its expression here for centuries. The fact that Count Alberto Marone Cinzano nevertheless planted Cabernet Sauvignon on the hills of his estate in the early 1980s was neither a coincidence nor an experiment – it was a conviction. The conviction that this terroir, these soils, this altitude are capable of more than just one wine. Today, Olmaia is a monument to this vision. The vineyard – 365 metres above sea level, planted in 2005 – bears his name. The DOC Sant'Antimo, founded in 1996, created the legal framework for just such wines: international grape varieties, grown in Montalcino's chalky soil, with the ambition not to imitate, but to interpret.