VINOUS

From the highest corner of the Vigna Istine (the name 550 refers to the metres above sea level), surrounded by cool forests, this balanced Merlot is vinified in concrete before spending around 15 months in lightly toasted tonneaux. Due to the cool location, it is – unusually – harvested after the Sangiovese so that it has more time to mature on the vine. The result is a wine with a fine tannic structure and juicy, ripe blue fruit, with a hint of red fruit and some coffee notes leading to a long, graceful finish. Production is 2,600 bottles per vintage. SUPERIORE.DE

The harvested Malvasia grapes remain in shaded drying chambers for several weeks under good ventilation. Without moisture and hot sun, the grapes dry slowly and thus retain their acidity and very moderate alcohol levels. Capofaro is an impressive dessert wine that comes from vines that once belonged to the late winemaker Carlo Hauner, who made Malvasia from the island of Salina famous.

The name Deimassi comes from the large stone blocks that make up the terrace wall that supports the vineyard. These were dug out of the ground during the preparatory work for the planting in 2008. The large stones and the friable clay still mark this small parcel of land, originally intended for the production of Brunello di Montalcino, the results of which are now being marketed without the longer ageing period prescribed for Brunello.

Lagrein is South Tyrolean through and through. The grape variety grows almost exclusively in this region, with a genetic origin that stretches further back in history than most other Central European varieties: pre-Roman, documented in historical records and unmistakable in character. Its historical home is Gries, now a district of Bolzano, where its potential was recognised early on and which gave it its name. The Pfitscher family has its roots in Montan, a municipality in the South Tyrolean Unterland, known above all for the Mazon vineyards and Pinot Nero. The fact that a Lagrein of this calibre is also produced here demonstrates the breadth of the terroir. The Griesfeld is the most consistent expression of this: 15 months in small oak barrels, which lend the Lagrein character and refined spice without overpowering it.

Deep ruby red in colour. Cenito seduces with complex aromas of dark red fruits, cinnamon and cloves mingling with earthy tones, mint, chalk dust and camphor. The palate is seamlessly smooth and elegant, with ripe wild berries flowing over a core of vibrant acidity, while a hint of acidic citrus adds tension towards the end. The finish is structured and long, with fine-grained tannins and floral notes of sour plums and violets. Cenito is Cilento Aglianico at its best. It is deceptively accessible and gentle, but the tension increases with every sip. Be patient and savour this great Aglianico! SUPERIORE.DE

Animardente is a pure Nerello Mascalese produced from vines planted in bushes at an altitude of 700 metres on partly sandy and ashy, partly gravelly and pebbly soils that are exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations between day and night. The name of the wine is derived from the bowels of the volcano, from its incessant activity, the heat and the colour of the magma. The vines grow in a kind of amphitheatre created by volcanic eruptions, which over the centuries have produced a valuable substrate for viticulture: On dark volcanic soils formed from lava flows, mainly free-living, rootless vines develop here, which are exposed to the most extreme climatic influences. Animardente was born a few years ago in this almost moon-like landscape. A name that tells of the soul of the silent volcano, unexpected and incandescent, breathing life into perpetual motion. An irrepressible and seductive force of nature, the expression of a unique terroir. SUPERIORE.DE

Uvaggio is an old Piedmontese word for what has been practised in the vineyard for centuries: Growing different grape varieties together, harvesting together, pressing together. In Alto Piemonte, this was never an emergency solution, but a conviction – that Nebbiolo brings depth, Vespolina spice and minerality, Croatina colour and suppleness, and that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Proprietà Sperino has recovered this principle from the historical memory of the region. Paolo De Marchi – who redefined Chianti Classico in Tuscany with Isole & Olena – returned with his son Luca to the family's home in Piedmont, the castle of Lessona, in 1999. Here, in a vaulted cellar that is more than two hundred years old, they have since been producing wines that put Alto Piemonte back on the map of great Italian red wines. The grapes come from the vineyards in Lessona and the Madonna degli Angeli vineyard in Brusnengo, both on those unique marine Pliocene sands on igneous rock that give the wine its unmistakable minerality. Spontaneous fermentation with natural yeasts in open wooden barrels, 23 days of maceration, regular pumping over. Twelve months sur lie, then 22 months in a mixture of barriques and large oval barrels.

Livio Felluga's new cru wines are the result of massalselection. For this purpose, selected vines are reproduced in particularly favourable locations in order to renew vineyards with particularly high-quality vines and to further improve the quality of individual varietal wines.

Montalcino is a hill. To be more precise: a single large cone of limestone, marl, slate and sand that rises above the Val d'Orcia – exposed to the north, south-east and south-west, characterised by three completely different climates. Most of the producers in the appellation have access to one of these slopes. Val di Suga has all three. Vigna del Lago in the north-west, Poggio al Granchio in the south-east, Vigna Spuntali in the south-west. Three soils, three microclimates, three characters – and a single winery that unites them all under one roof. The basic Brunello is the result of this unique position: a cuvée from all three sites that does not aim for simplification, but for synthesis. Fermentation takes eight to twelve days at a controlled temperature, with maceration lasting a further two to three weeks. Maturation in traditional 50-hectolitre Slavonian oak barrels for 24 months, followed by six months in concrete and then the bottle. The 2021 vintage brought a late frost in April – the harvest was reduced, the quality concentrated. A dry summer without extreme heat, a long, even autumn. The Consorzio and a jury of eight Masters of Wine agreed on three words to characterise the vintage: fragrant, precise, vertical.

When Luciano and Luca Sandrone first set eyes on the concave hill of Valmaggiore in the 1990s, it was love at first sight. It wasn't just history that moved them – in the 19th century, the Nebbiolo grapes from this vineyard dictated the price for the entire area – but above all the unique combination of sandy soils and the microclimate of this natural amphitheatre. In Vezza d'Alba, on the left bank of the Tanaro in the Roero, lies this south-facing single vineyard with extremely steep slopes, where soft sandy soils give the Nebbiolo the finesse and elegance for which the Roero region is famous.

When French noble vines were planted in the Tuscan soil of Felsina's Podere Molinuzzo in 1998, a visionary experiment of extraordinary boldness began. Pinot Nero in Tuscany? A seemingly impossible endeavour in a region dominated by Sangiovese. But Giuseppe Mazzocolin and Franco Bernabei, who had already initiated the Sangiovese revolution with the legendary Fontalloro, once again dared to do the impossible: to cultivate the Burgundian king grape variety under the Tuscan sun. The vineyard, which covers just 2.5 hectares, is strategically located on the border between Felsina and Castello di Farnetella, on soils of sand and clay with a significant stony and calcareous component. This geological peculiarity, combined with the cooler microzone of Podere Molinuzzo, creates ideal conditions for a grape variety that elsewhere in Italy only thrives in the foothills of the Alps.

Just like the famous I Sistri, the “Collezione Privata” is a single-varietal Chardonnay. Since the early 1980s, the former LitersGiovanni Mazzocolin had sourced some of his Chardonnay vines from Burgundy, and so a micro-site was cultivated here right up until the 2000s; the grapes from this site are used to produce the gently vinified “I Sistri Collezione Privata” is made. A bright, intense straw-yellow colour with golden highlights. A delicately reductive nose of spices, peach and exotic fruits, with subtle hints of vanilla. Creamy and full-bodied on the palate; the perfectly balanced acidity lends it structure, whilst the fresh juice, combined with a mineral-salty note, carries this complex white wine into an exciting and spicy finish of quince and orange. The clearly recognisable Burgundian style of this great Chardonnay will continue to develop with further bottle ageing, not least due to the subtle barrique ageing. Very attractive at an even more attractive price! SUPERIORE.DE

The Conca d'Oro – the golden basin. This is what the winegrowers of Panzano call the natural depression in the terrain south of Greve, where the sun arrives earlier and stays longer than elsewhere in Chianti Classico. The slope, the Galestro-Alberese soil, the air circulation between the hills: everything comes together to create a microclimate that gives the Sangiovese the depth and fruit ripeness that is exceptional elsewhere, year after year. Gagliole lies at the centre of it all – a small, carefully managed winery that has been showing what Panzano can achieve in this price range since the Riserva première in the 2018 vintage. 100% Sangiovese from vines over twenty years old, organically farmed, hand-picked, fermented in steel. What follows is a well thought-out ageing process: ten months in small used oak barrels, then five months in cement tanks – a combination that gives the wine structure without over-moulding it. Only 11,000 bottles.

"Querciabella" – beautiful oak. The name says it all for a winery that has been one of the leading producers shaping the style of Chianti Classico since 1974. Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni was one of the first to switch to organic viticulture here – as early as 1988, when the word "organic" still raised eyebrows in the wine industry. Since 2000, Querciabella has been practising biodynamic viticulture and today manages the largest certified biodynamic vineyard in Italy. The fact that Daniele Cernilli (Dr Wine) named the estate "Cantina dell'Anno" in 2024 came as no surprise to anyone familiar with these wines. The Riserva blends Sangiovese from three of the finest vineyards in Chianti Classico: Greve brings vibrancy and bright fruit, Radda firm tannins and dark berry notes, and Gaiole riper fruit and distinctive limestone minerality. The altitudes of between 350 and 550 metres ensure cool nights and slow ripening. In the cellar, each plot is vinified and matured separately – a process of micro-vinification that preserves the terroir of each vineyard and only brings them together into a multi-layered whole during the final blend. Sixteen months in French barriques and tonneaux lend structure without overpowering the wine.

The Colline Metallifere – the Metalliferous Hills – take their name from what people have been extracting from the ground here for thousands of years: copper, iron and silver. An ancient mining landscape, part of the UNESCO Geopark since 2024, set amongst volcanic and limestone soils that bear witness to three million years of geological history. 500 metres above sea level, in the Alta Maremma, Demeter biodynamic. Elisabetta Foradori – the woman who brought Teroldego back to life in Trentino – founded Ampeleia together with Giovanni Podini and Thomas Widmann, because they believed that this place, with Cabernet Franc, could express something it has never expressed elsewhere.

1172 – the year in which Volpaia is first mentioned in documents. A small, fortified borgo on a hill north of Radda in Chianti, built as a border fortress between Florence and Siena. Today it is a jewel of peace and beauty and one of the most historic wine villages in Tuscany. Here, where soldiers once stood guard, the Stianti-Mascheroni families now press their grapes within the medieval walls. The bottles mature in the vaults of old churches and almost every cellar contains a tank of organic wine. An entire village dedicated to viticulture. So complete that it becomes poetic again. The Riserva is made from 100% Sangiovese from vineyards between 400 and 600 metres above sea level. One of the highest wineries in the region. Up here, where the air is thin and the nights are cool, Sangiovese develops the elegance and minerality that makes Volpaia so distinctive. Sandstone, clay and sandy-loamy soils with a high proportion of skeleton. Manual harvest in the second half of September, temperature-controlled vinification, then 24 months in French and Slovenian oak barrels.

The name says it all: Marne means marl soil, on which the vines for this marvellous Amarone grow. They are over 20 years old and lie in an ideal 180° direction, from south-west to south-east. Rich, shiny ruby red colour, compact bouquet with intense aromas of plum, black cherry, green tea and tobacco, with a fine chocolate note in the background. The body, coated in fine berry fruit, develops a dynamic flavour experience on the palate with a sweet fruit melt, firm tannins and a long finish. SUPERIORE.DE

A very special wine made from overripe and strictly selected Aglianico grapes that thrive in Mastroberardino's south-facing vineyards. The Taurasi is aged for two years in oak barrels and one year in the bottle. A wine with a fascinating personality, power and extremely high Storage potential.

The approx. 35-year-old Pinot Nero vines stand near the village of Rodel-Pianezzi at an altitude of approx. 500 m. Ruby-red wine with aubergine reflections. Frank, clean scent of wild strawberry, raspberry and delicious notes of tobacco. On the palate, a very well-balanced extract-tannin ratio, yet complex, soft and with a spicy-salty vein. The well-dosed use of wood and the finely meshed tannin create a good framework for further development at absolute Riserva level. SUPERIORE.DE

Elena Fucci's exceptional wine, Titolo, is built to last. It will continue to develop steadily for at least the next 20 years, which is why it is a real delight when fully matured, particularly in magnum format. Dark ruby red in colour, with aromas of ripe red fruits and a subtle woody spice on the nose. Blended with remarkable precision, the wine offers balanced intensity and a lovely degree of fruit purity, which speaks both for the Aglianico grape and for the extreme terroir from which it originates. Titolo impresses with its fine texture and elegantly integrated tannins. This is a masterful expression of Aglianico, just as we love it. SUPERIORE.DE

Eneo is supposed to be the "Grand Vin" of Montepesolo, the Italian answer to the globalisation of wines. And Eneo can do that. The blend of indigenous grape varieties, with Sangiovese and Montepulciano clearly in the foreground, unmistakably expresses its terroir and is understood worldwide in the process. SUPERIORE.DE

This Sangiovese rarity, bottled without the addition of sulphites, is only produced in the best vintages and matures for 16 months in cocciopesto, a container made from ground brick, fine stone, sand and natural fibre binder. This mixture can then be moulded into containers that are watertight but still allow micro-oxygenation. The real peculiarity of Cocciopesto wine containers lies in the material itself, which is characterised by a high thermal inertia and a certain permeability that makes it ideal for all phases, from vinification to ageing.

Massolino's Barbaresco is the quintessence of finely balanced terroir: Nebbiolo grapes from the Starderi, Albesani and Serraboella cru sites mature together to create a complex yet transparent wine. The 2022 vintage provided a balanced climate – warm days and cool nights – which harmoniously blends freshness, finesse and aromatic richness. The colour in the glass is a medium garnet red with bright reflections. The nose exudes a velvety elegance of red fruits, violets, delicate lavender, spicy notes, crushed rock and a hint of orange peel – pure, lively fragrance with contoured clarity. A medium body full of energy unfolds on the palate: silky tannins, lively acidity and polished, mineral tension are the carriers of a fruit-emphasised depth. The finish lingers for a long time – intensely floral, spicy and with vibrant freshness. SUPERIORE.DE