wine classics

Rocche di Castiglione is prized for its pure white, chalky soils, which produce wines of exceptional finesse and a wide range of flavours. For lovers of timeless Nebbiolo, it is a real hit. The vines are located not far from the winery, which blends into the stone walls and urban fabric of the village of Castiglione Falletto. The vineyard is about one hectare in size. Rocche di Castiglione is a curiously shaped and elongated MGA with a unique south-east exposure along a steep ravine, with Bussia to the west and Perno to the east. This site is characterised by freshness, extreme precision, straightforwardness, structure and balanced freshness.

Barolo Cerequio comes from vines that are over 35 years old. The vineyards were acquired by Michele Chiarlo in the 2010s through fortunate circumstances. The 2021 vintage confirms once again that the purchase of this vineyard was one of the smartest decisions Vietti has ever made. Cerequio is a wine of nuance and class that reflects the entire pedigree of this great site. Crushed red berry fruit, cherry, blood orange, spice and mint rise from the glass, framed by nervy tannins that convey classicism. An exotic, racy Barolo. SUPERIORE.DE

You can lose yourself in the bouquet of the Brunello di Montalcino 2020 from Poggio di Sotto. One moment crushed cherries with autumnal spice, the next exotic flowers and candied orange peel, another floral undergrowth, white smoke and wild berries. It is incredibly soft and pure, lifted by salty minerals, while sweet notes of cherry and raspberry slowly begin to saturate. What they then leave behind are youthful, grippy tannins and a wonderful structure. Thanks to vibrant acids and notes of citrus fruit, it always retains its impressive freshness. It will develop superbly with further years of bottle ageing. SUPERIORE.DE

Vietti's Brunate parcels are located on the La Morra side of the cru site. It was fermented in stainless steel and then transferred directly to large oak barrels to mature. Vietti's Brunate 2021 shows blue flowers, wild berries, wild cherry and truffle-infused earth. It reveals a slender but open-knit quality that can be felt in the mouth. This softness or textural silkiness continues for many long minutes with hints of mint, liquorice and camphor ash carefully distributed along the way. The tannins are polished and long. Very elegant. SUPERIORE.DE

Ravera, located in the municipality of Novello, is one of the best Barolo vineyards that continues to surprise and impress despite the changing climate. Thanks to the high altitude and the open view of the snow-capped mountains, the microclimate is well ventilated but at the same time protected. Freshly cut flowers, white pepper and mint energise a wine that is now very shy and tightly wound. But it wouldn't be Ravera if pickled dark cherries, lavender, mint, crushed stones and sage weren't pouring out of the glass, creating a powerful, breathtaking Barolo endowed with great purity. A particularly stunning and breathtaking wine in the dream vintage of 2021. SUPERIORE.DE

Poggio di Sotto's Brunello 2019 is a true masterpiece. Bright, sparkling garnet red in colour. The multi-layered, seductive bouquet alternates cherry, autumnal spice, exotic flowers, candied orange peel with undergrowth, white smoke and wild small berries. Masterfully interwoven on the palate, with a softness and purity that, together with notes of sweet cherries and raspberries, delivers a firework of impressions. Add to this grippy tannins and an agile acidity and you have a prime example of Montalcino. It is already classic and modern at the same time, and we can only eagerly await its further development! SUPERIORE.DE

The year 1991 was the first. With the 2021 vintage, Poggio di Sotto is celebrating its thirtieth Brunello – an anniversary that the estate is marking with a special label in gold print, discreetly and without pomp, entirely in the style of the house. Thirty vintages that have proven that elegance is not a weakness. 2021 was not an easy year. Late frosts in spring decimated the harvest, summer brought heat, August finally brought rain – a sequence that could have been disastrous in other hands. Cellar master Leonardo Berti sees this as the special character of this vintage: fewer grapes, more concentration and an intensity gained through stress, which was kept in balance by the freshness of the long growing season. The soils – a mosaic of white and red clay, galestro and grey marl – did the rest. Spontaneous fermentation in wooden vats, maceration for at least 30 days, 42 months in large Slavonian oak barrels, unfiltered. The recipe is the same. The wine is not.

The Ravera vineyard in Novello is considered one of the coolest and structurally most demanding crus in the Barolo zone – a terroir of calcareous marl with fine layers of sand, which gives the wines precision, firm tannins and exceptional longevity. Bricco Pernice originates from a parcel on the upper slope, perfectly exposed to the south-west, where the vines ripen evenly under a gentle breeze. 2018 was a moderate year with a balanced growing season and a long ripening phase, which gave the Nebbiolo elegance and aromatic depth.

Firmly anchored in La Morra, Elio Altare has been vinifying a Barolo in Serralunga d'Alba on a rented plot for a few years, vinified and bottled separately. A fascinating and powerful Nebbiolo with elegant fruit, truffle, leather and floral aromas. Full-bodied, juicy and long on the palate, with a remarkably elegant tannin structure. SUPERIORE.DE

2021 – a Tuscan vintage for the ages. In the annals of Bolgheri, this year will be remembered as the one that revealed the perfection of the Mediterranean terroir in its purest form. A rainy winter, which replenished the water reserves for the coming summer, was followed by a growing season of classic elegance: a cool spring initially delayed budding, but when temperatures rose at the end of May, the development of the vines accelerated in an ideal way. The summer of 2021 was characterised by the Mediterranean drought that makes Bolgheri so unique – three months without any significant rainfall, but the vines did not suffer. The deep, sandy soils, enriched with limestone and stones, had stored the winter moisture and continuously nourished the roots. The exceptional day-night temperature difference, which was amplified by the nearby coast, was decisive and gave the grapes the freshness that makes the 2021 so distinctive.

2020 posed a simple question for Montalcino's winegrowers: who has the better terroir? In a hot, dry year – august temperatures close to 40 degrees – it was not just the manual labour in the vineyard that decided, but the geology. Le Lucére responded with Galestro and slate: soils that hold water deeper, moderate temperatures and preserve freshness when patience and acidity have long since given way elsewhere. Organic farming since 2013 has paid off many times over in years like these. Living soils, deep-rooted vines, no drought stress that forces chemical interventions. Paolo Caciorgna didn't have to save anything. He just had to listen.

"When we taste the Riserva Franco Ziliani, we hear the voice of our father: direct, brooding and rigorous." – paolo Ziliani. Born as a tribute to the 90th birthday of the visionary who, together with Guido Berlucchi, bottled the first 3,000 bottles of Franciacorta Metodo Classico in 1961, changing the fate of an entire region. The 2011 vintage – only the second bottling after its debut in 2008 – this Riserva is now part of the permanent collection. A limited special edition becomes a living legacy. The philosophy behind it: Time perfected. Art is Timeless is the manifesto, and each bottle is indeed a work of art. The hand-crafted brass label transforms it into a collector's item, of which only 4,732 exist.

There are moments in wine history when terroir, vintage and human mastery come together to create something extraordinary. The Barolo Bricco Boschis 2021 is one such moment – born from one of the most celebrated vintages in recent history and from a vineyard that has belonged exclusively to the Cavallotto family for almost a century. 2021 was the year that reminded Barolo lovers of the classic virtues of the great vintages: elegance instead of power, finesse instead of opulence, freshness instead of overripe sweetness.

Rich, concentrated Bordeaux-style red with the unmistakable signature of top oenological consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt. Multi-layered black fruit on the nose, plus rock, liquorice, camphor and graphite. Impressively supple on the palate, the fruit is always juicy and centred, wonderful and almost perfect in structure, polish, elegance and length. SUPERIORE.DE

A wine of remarkable aromatic complexity. Amarone aficionados know how many allusions these wines are capable of evoking, and it is not difficult to discern mushrooms, forest undergrowth, truffles, Havana leaves and even wild violets in this wine's aromatic profile, as well as the usual confit cherries and plums. In the mouth, the wine is remarkably concentrated yet elegant, carrying this bundle of allusions effortlessly and seamlessly through the palate. The fine pearly tannins give it support and the concentration of fruit is so great that the acidity almost fades into the background. A dense, polished and stately wine of the highest calibre. SUPERIORE.DE

Three generations bear this name: The grandfather, who always encouraged Giampaolo Motta in his wine dreams. The son who carries on the torch. And in between, this wine, the highest expression of a man who left the leather goods business of his Neapolitan family to create his Bordeaux in the Conca d'Oro of Panzano. The "Golden Basin" – cultivated since 1490, planted with Merlot and Cabernet for almost 400 years – became Motta's stage in 1992. He experimented with Chianti Classico for ten years, then the break: he left the Consorzio because the rules stood in the way of his vision. "I wasn't really happy with the result after ten years of work," he explained laconically. What followed was pure consistency – and, since 2008, a partnership with Stéphane Derenoncourt, perhaps the most influential consultant on the right bank of Bordeaux.

2019 shone in Montalcino. No critic who tasted it spent long searching for words. No overripeness, no heat scars, no compromises. And for an east-facing vineyard like Le Lucére – fully exposed to the first light of the morning – this meant that the Sangiovese Grosso was harvested with a ripeness that has rarely been so precisely predictable. Harvested early, fresh and concentrated at the same time. Caciorgna allowed the wine to pass through all of its stages: 13 to 14 months in barrique and tonneau, then almost 28 months in large containers – an ageing process that demands and receives depth. The result is a Le Lucére of princely stature.

Sugarille has always been the most aristocratic of the estate's three Brunellos. On the palate, it has a dense core of primary fruit, excitingly surrounded by a salty, mineral vein that we otherwise only find in Giacomo Neri's Tenuta Nuova. This wine awakens the imagination, because it never reveals too much of itself, but first opens up slowly, then in a well-proportioned manner with a mysterious depth and race, flanked by direct and linear tannins that round off the polyphonic palate concert excellently. Simply marvellous! SUPERIORE.DE

Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Madonna del Piano 2015 is a huge, outstanding wine. Waves of vibrant, intensely fragrant fruit appear on the palate, supported by the firm, broad tannins of the plump, very rich vintage. Violets, spices, new leather and liquorice unfold in the glass, clean mineral notes frame an eruption of dark cherries, plums and camphor in a finish that fills the palate endlessly. Madonna 2015 is well on its way to becoming one of Vincenzo Abbruzzese's very great wines! SUPERIORE.DE

Mazzei's top wine Siepi is not only an outstanding Tuscan wine every year, but also a 6-hectare vineyard in the middle of dense oak forests with an ideal altitude and a unique climate. The sunshine is optimal throughout the day and a constant breeze from the west prevents excessive heat and creates a mild, Mediterranean climate. The oak forests also provide an ideal protective barrier against extreme weather conditions. Rocky soils of marl, limestone and clay from the Pliocene period ensure a special balance of elements in this geological complex.

There are wines that define a region. Saffredi is one of them. In 1987, when Elisabetta Geppetti – just in her mid-twenties and with the vision of helping the sleepy Maremma region achieve world fame – created this wine together with the legendary Giacomo Tachis, nobody could have guessed that a Supertuscan was born here that would rival Sassicaia and Tignanello. The name is a loving tribute to Fredi, Elisabetta's father-in-law Alfredo Gentili, who sparked her passion for wine and planted the five-hectare vineyard in the 1980s from which the grapes for Saffredi are still sourced today. The single vineyard Saffredi near Pereta lies at an altitude of 250 metres, south-west for the old vines and south-east for the newer plantings. The soil is the result of millions of years of geological history: Sandstone origin, rich in limestone marl and iron minerals, poor in organic matter, with clay layers only from a depth of 30 centimetres. On a clear day, the view from here sweeps over the hills to the Mediterranean 25 kilometres away – a proximity to the coast that gives the wine its special freshness and tension.

Il Bricco rises above Treiso to an altitude of around 400 metres. The vines are on average around four decades old. Selective hand-picking, parcel-by-parcel fermentation in stainless steel, patient malolactic fermentation. Maturation takes place predominantly in large oak barrels, accompanied by a smaller proportion of French oak for additional polish. 2019 is considered a textbook year in Barbaresco: a moderate summer, large day-night amplitudes and a long, dry autumn led to a late harvest and fully mature phenolics. The wines show density and vertical tension with excellent freshness – a profile with staying power.

Barolo Ornato is a great wine every year. It captures the true character of Serralunga with its wild herbs, minerals and ferruginous notes. Its bouquet shows small berry fruits and cassis, framed by gravel, forest floor, blue flowers and candied orange peel. The wine also has a dusty, mineral note and is intense on both the nose and palate. Ornato sets in with finely integrated tannins and an acidity that sustains all these fruit flavours. A wine that is consistently vertical, straightforward and frontal. SUPERIORE.DE

The grapes come from the historic single vineyard Ornato in Serralunga d'Alba: steep, windy slopes on calcareous marl with ferruginous inclusions, at an altitude of around 350-400 metres, predominantly south/south-west facing. Each parcel is harvested separately and fermented in stainless steel; long maceration with gentle extraction. Maturation takes place classically in large Slavonian barrels, with a finely dosed proportion of French oak for texture and lustre. The typically long autumn of 2019 brought fully ripe, aromatically dense grapes with a cool acidity.