James Suckling

The spectacular "Vendemmia d'Artista" artists' edition has been running since 2006. Every year, renowned artists are invited to design a small series of individual and large bottles of the world-famous Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore and create an artistic world around this fine wine. It is not a matter of course that we are once again able to offer you some examples of the rare 16th edition of the Ornellaia Vendemmia d'Artista 2021 in the 0.75-litre bottle this year. As usual, this special edition is rare and sought-after, as there is only one bottle of this limited collector's item in each 6-bottle wooden crate.

Rabajà is one of the great vineyards of Barbaresco – a gently sloping south-west-facing slope between the Asili and Martinenga crus, whose calcareous and clayey soils produce wines with unmistakable depth. The 2021 vintage is considered outstanding in Piedmont: a balanced vegetation cycle with warm days, cool nights and ideal harvest conditions produced Nebbiolo grapes of rare aromatic purity and perfect phenolic ripeness. Intense garnet red in the glass with sparkling ruby-coloured reflections. The nose opens with a precise, almost crystalline fruit of sour cherry, ripe raspberry and sloe, surrounded by violets, dried rose petals, fine cedar wood and a minerality reminiscent of graphite. On the palate, the wine is both powerful and silky, with fine, ripe tannins and a present, perfectly integrated acidity that lends freshness and tension. The finish is long, elegant and carried by a saline note that impressively reflects the character of the vineyard. A Barbaresco with great development potential and the typical noblesse of Rabajà. SUPERIORE.DE

With this single-vineyard Sangiovese, the Mazzei family pursues no less a goal than to make the best wine in the Chianti Classico appellation. Seven different Sangiovese clones, four of them from their own 50 years of research, form the basis for a Gran Selezione that is produced at an altitude of up to 350 m in the single vineyard Il Caggio not far from Castellina (and only in the best vintages).

With this single-vineyard Sangiovese, the Mazzei family is pursuing no less a goal than making the best wine in the Chianti Classico appellation. Seven different Sangiovese clones, four of them from the family's own 50-year research, form the basis for a Gran Selezione, which is produced at an altitude of up to 350 metres in the single vineyard Il Caggio not far from Castellina (and only in the best vintages).

San Polo's top Brunello comes from the estate's oldest vines, the 2-hectare single vineyard Vignavecchia. Intense ruby red in colour. The nose is enveloped by ripe red berries, violets, some forest floor and a subtle woody spice. The palate is breathtakingly deep, complex and with a terrifictexture. The warm tannins and well-balanced acidity make every sip unforgettable and the endlessly long final lingers for a long time. SUPERIORE.DE

Vignavecchia lies remote, steep, a little hidden on the western slope of Podernovi – two hectares of Sangiovese, planted in 1988, when Montalcino had not yet entered the world stage it occupies today. The soils here are older than most people remember: Cretaceous-Eocene, the first layers to emerge from the primordial sea, interspersed with marl and limestone, poor in nutrients, rich in minerals. Vines rooted in such soil struggle – and from this struggle comes concentration. 2020 was the year in which the world stood still – and the winegrowers had time like they hadn't had for generations. Marilisa Allegrini says that her daughters Carlotta and Caterina tended the vineyard as if it were a garden: vine by vine, grape by grape. The summer brought heat, up to forty degrees in August, but the nights cooled down to twenty-six degrees – enough to preserve the freshness of the Sangiovese. Isolated rains at the end of August gave the vines a rest before the harvest began.

Frost fell over Montalcino on 7 April 2021. And again on 15 April. In some vineyards, it destroyed a third of the harvest. In Vignavecchia, on its steep western slope at an altitude of 420 metres, it hit the vines differently: not as destruction, but as selection. What survived were the strongest shoots, the best protected grapes – a natural yield limitation, more radical than any human intervention. Nature cut what the winegrower would never have dared. What followed was a summer of extremes and an autumn of perfection. The months up to August were hot and dry, followed by sporadic rainfall that gave the vines a rest. September brought what Sangiovese needs: warm days, cool nights, those temperature amplitudes that preserve flavour and acidity while phenolic ripeness progresses. The harvest began almost two weeks earlier than was usual just a few years ago – a sign of climate change, but this year also a sign of good fortune: the grapes reached perfection before the autumn rains set in.

It was Eugenio Campolmi who, in 1989, plucked up the courage to give his flagship the name of a wild herb that grows on the Tuscan coast. Eugenio Campolmi (†2002) was not originally from the world of wine. He came from a family of restaurateurs and was supposed to take over his parents' restaurant and trading business. Instead, he and his wife Cinzia Merli took a bold leap into the unknown in 1983. Paleo – a name that stands for unbending identity and the will to achieve any goal. What began as a classic Bordeaux blend found its true destiny in 2001: 100% Cabernet Franc, a revolution in the still young Bolgheri.

Very individualistic and quite extraordinary cuvée from Colorino, Canaiolo and Sangiovese. The bouquet is full of dark berries and the scent of elderflowers. Dense and powerful on the palate, yet slender, very clear, pithy, polished tannins and a long, full finish. SUPERIORE.DE

Barolo Castiglione 2018 is bright, fresh and clearly defined. Crushed red berry fruit, white pepper, chalk, mint and rose petals run through this beautifully shaped Barolo. The purity of the fruit and overall energy are captivating. Castiglione is Vietti's entry-level Barolo and is always the most approachable in the bottle range, but this vintage shows a higher level of intensity, complexity and freshness. The silky tannins are accompanied by a lovely mentholated brightness into a beautiful finish. A very down-to-earth drop that unmistakably shows off its charm. SUPERIORE.DE

Two hands, one dream: when Elena Celli and Luca D'Attoma discovered the wild hills of Riparbella in 2000 – unploughed, stony, overgrown with maquis –they recognised the potential of this rugged terroir between 250 and 300 metres above sea level. Here, where the salty breeze of the Tyrrhenian Sea meets the Mediterranean wilderness, one of Italy's most extraordinary Cabernet Francs has been produced for over two decades. Luca D'Attoma, legendary Oenologist and creator of iconic wines such as Le Macchioles Messorio, focuses on radical purity: biodynamic cultivation according to Demeter guidelines, spontaneous fermentation in conical oak barrels, 20 months maturation in barriques with 80 per cent new wood.

There are situations that don't need to be explained – you just have to name them. Romirasco is one of them. The highest parcel in the Bussia Soprana, 395 metres above sea level, less steep than the Cicala, but more exposed, cooler, more dramatic. The oldest vines on the entire estate are here – 65 to 70 years old, Nebbiolo Lampia on Rupestris du Lot rootstock, rooted in a soil of calcareous clay with exceptional amounts of manganese and magnesium. It is these minerals that give Romirasco its characteristic flavour – the unmistakable fingerprint that distinguishes it from Cicala and Colonnello even in blind tastings. Only 4,000 bottles are produced per vintage from 3.8 hectares – the lowest yield of all Conterno wines. Romirasco was first produced in the legendary 2004 vintage, when hail damage made it impossible to bottle the other crus separately. The result was so overwhelming that the Conternos decided to vinify this vineyard separately from then on. Today, Romirasco is considered the best wine of the house.

It all began with friendship and a love of experimentation: in the mid-1980s, when a group of wine lovers led by photographer Silvia Imparato started their first experiments on the family vineyard in the Campania hinterland. One of these friends was Riccardo Cotarella, now one of Italy's most famous Oenologist. In 1991, the first bottle of a wine was produced that would soon go down in history as the "Sassicaia of the South" – a title that Robert Parker awarded it in 1995 and which still resonates today. The winery is located in the Monti Picentini Regional Park near San Cipriano Picentino, just a few kilometres from Salerno. The five hectares of vineyards lie at an altitude of 100 metres in the shadow of a medieval castle, surrounded by oak, chestnut and citrus groves. The medium-textured soil with a high proportion of skeleton, the south-west exposure and the protection of the Picentini mountains create a microclimate in which Mediterranean mildness meets cool nights.

"Sassicaia really was our house wine back then," says Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta, daughter of the president of San Guido, Marquis Nicolò Incisa della Rocchetta. "It was more of a wine experiment that was only tested within the family and among friends, until we went on the market for the first time with the 1968 vintage. Today, this wine is all about elegance and balance. We like this style, which is not so much about the body. Sassicaia is a good representative of what we want to convey as a style."

There are stories that take time. This Amarone rested for ten years in a single 30-hectolitre Slavonian oak barrel – a decade of patient ageing, of slow metamorphosis, of quiet perfection. Only 2,500 numbered bottles and 200 magnums were bottled from the 2013 vintage, each in its own wooden crate, a monument to the philosophy that Carla Prospero Zenato formulates as follows: "Ci sono storie che richiedono il loro tempo" – there are stories that demand their time.

The single vineyard Falletto in Serralunga d'Alba is one of the centrepieces of the Barolo region. On steep, south-facing slopes, whose marl and sandstone soils store heat and contribute minerality, Nebbiolo matures here into wines of great structure and depth. The 2021 vintage is considered one of the best of the last decade: a stable summer with cool nights and sunny days allowed for long, even ripening and produced grapes of rare balance.

In Andrea Cortonesi's own words, 2019 was the first vintage since the legendary 1990 that gave him the feeling that everything was in balance. A slow start to vegetation after a rainy winter, a summer without heat peaks, even ripening until September. Harvest from 25 September – clean, healthy, concentrated. Already a stroke of luck for the Annata. For the Riserva: a perfect invitation. But not every vintage becomes a Riserva. And not every grape in the best vintage. Cortonesi only uses the oldest vines for the Riserva – planted in 1975, back when the word Brunello was hardly known outside Montalcino. Seven hectares, spread over sites between 150 and 350 metres in Castelnuovo dell'Abate, calcareous-clayey soils with marl and mineral structure. What grows here has decades of life in it.

There are wines that have made history. And then there is Sassicaia – the wine that started a revolution and changed Italy forever. The first commercial bottle saw the light of day in 1968, at that time still classified as a modest Vino da Tavola, today the only wine in Italy to be honoured with its own DOC. What began as an experiment by a visionary marchese became a legend. The name says it all: "Sassi" – stones. An idea that Mario Incisa della Rocchetta had in the 1940s is rooted in the stony, calcareous soils of the Bolgheri hills, between 100 and 400 metres above sea level. Inspired by the great wines of Bordeaux, he dared to do the unthinkable: to plant Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in Tuscany, where only Sangiovese had reigned for centuries.

Since the first vintage in 1988, there has been no other wine in the world made from the mysterious Caberlot grape variety, a natural cross between Cabernet Franc and Merlot, which the agronomist Remigio Bordini discovered in an overgrown vineyard near Padua at the end of the 1960s. What began with a superstitious gesture – wolf and Bettina Rogosky buried a bottle of Sassicaia under the first Caberlot vine in 1986 – developed into a cult icon of the Tuscan wine world. Only 3,900 magnum bottles of the 2020 Il Caberlot are produced annually in the barren heights of Mercatale Valdarno, where iron-rich sandstone soils over limestone bedrock create a rarity that collectors in 24 countries covet. Each bottle is personally numbered by Bettina Rogosky and recorded in a small notebook – a ritual that emphasises the exclusivity of this wine dream come true.

A farewell and a new beginning at the same time. Cepparello 2021 marks Paolo De Marchi's final vintage as master of his life's work before the winery was transferred to the French EPI Group. After more than four decades of tireless work, the maestro from Piedmont completed his testament with this wine – a Sangiovese of paradoxical brilliance that retains an astonishing freshness and elegance despite its powerful fifteen per cent alcohol. The name Cepparello, which originates from the small stream at the highest point of the vineyards, has carried the revolutionary vision of one hundred per cent Sangiovese since 1980. What began as a rebellion against the Chianti Classico regulations – the absurd rule of adding white grapes – developed into an icon of pure Sangiovese expression.

Badia a Passignano is always one of the many highlights in the Antinori range and is probably the estate's most refined and elegant Sangiovese. Its character is medium-bodied and supple, but with plenty of fruit intensity, which is typical of the vineyard of the same name. It skilfully strikes a balance between richness and finesse, captivating from the very first sip. Lavender, mint, blue-purple fruit and liquorice are beautifully brought out. It is a very traditional and noble expression of the Tuscan grape that is hard to resist. SUPERIORE.DE

Powerful, very attractive wine. Smells of strawberry and cherry, spices and a hint of leather. Tastes juicy, very special and impresses with firm tannin and persistent length. SUPERIORE.DE