Sourced from a 6 hectare plot on the Campogiovanni estate, where the vines naturally produce a brighter, more approachable and early ripening style of Sangiovese well suited to Rosso di Montalcino.

Tasting Notes

Nose

An inviting nose, warm and open, with ripe cherry and blackberry fruit combined with cedarwood and spice notes

Palate

The palate has rounded plum and red fruits balanced by fresh acidity. Spice and savoury characters and fine tannins lead to an elegant finish.

Producer

The Tenuta Campogiovanni is a sister estate to Agricola San Felice, and is located on the southern slope of the Montalcino hill, near San Angelo in Colle.

This 65ha estate comprises 19ha of vineyard across three separate parcels - amongst olive trees, woods and fields. Production here (and 14ha of vineyard) is strongly focused on Brunello, with the remainder largely used for Rosso di Montalcino. Campogiovanni Brunello is amongst the very best in the region.

1990 saw the first production of a Riserva, entitled Il Quercione, made from fruit rigorously selected from the vineyard of the same name and made only in exceptional year.

Production Method

These 6 hectares of Sangiovese vines were planted in the 1990s on the Campogiovanni estate. The vineyard is at a 250-300m altitude, south to southeast-facing. After a 12-day maceration, and malolactic fermentation in stainless steel, the wine was matured for 12 months in Slavonian oak botti, followed by a further 2 months in bottle.

Specifications

Araldica's top-tier Barolo from selected vineyards. An approachable, richly-flavoured style expertly blended by Lella Burdese.

Tasting Notes

A fine, expressive style with Barolo's classic combination of mature, lightly floral aromas with richness and structure.

Nose

Dark plum, leather and delicate violet aromas, plus notes of woodsmoke and brown spice.

Palate

A full, firm and ripe red with rich, powerful flavours. All are balanced by ripe tannins, complex savoury notes and a long finish.

Production

Vines are trained on a low Guyot trellis at 4-5,000 vines/ha. The grapes were hand-harvested, de-stemmed and then crushed to small fermenters, for 12 days, with daily pumping-over. The wine was drained off at dryness, and the skins transferred to a small press. After pressing the wine was settled for two days, and then racked to stainless steel tanks for malolactic fermentation. After three years maturation in 50hl Slavonian oak casks it was racked from oak and gently fined.

Producer

Araldica is Piemonte's most forward-thinking co-operative, situated in Castel Boglione, in the heart of Barbera d'Asti territory. Here they work with 230 grower members to source quality grapes from around 690ha of vineyards. Many of their members joined the cooperative in the 1950s and have a long and loyal relationship with the winery. They produce wines from Piemonte's main DOC / DOCG regions - predominantly Barbera, Gavi and Moscato, but also including Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero Arneis.

Founded in 1954 by Livio Manera, father of the current Managing Director and winemaker Claudio Manera, Araldica has developed over the past 60+ years to become a major winemaking force in Piemonte, supplying wines across the globe. Claudio's wife Lella heads up quality control at Araldica, where she is responsible for the blending and approval of all wines.

Their son Carlo, also a qualified winemaker, is now part of the Araldica winemaking team. Livio pioneered developments in winemaking techniques - especially with regard to the production of Barbera - and Araldica have since continued to be instrumental in the distribution of Barbera and Gavi within the UK market and internationally. As Claudio states their aim is "...to provide a range that is both understandable and accessible. Quite simply, wine for drinking and enjoying."

Awards

Specifications

Villa La Pagliaia is the sister estate of neighbouring San Felice. It produces a similarly full-flavoured and spicy style of Chianti Classico Riserva but in a slightly more traditional style - and offers exceptional value.

Tasting Notes

Nose

Archetypal Chianti with bramble fruit notes as well as cedar and spice aromas.

Palate

The palate is richly-flavoured and complex with black cherry, plum and dried fruit characters, along with notes of spice, leather, pepper and liquorice. Supple tannins and bright acidity lead to a rich, savoury and satisfying finish.

Production

The grapes come from Villa la Pagliaia's 350-400m altitude vineyards around Castelnuovo Berardenga, in the south of the Chianti Classico zone, and are hand-picked. The vines are on average 25 years old - yielding about 1.5kg of fruit per vine - 'guyot' trained and planted in pliocene soil with 25% rocky clay. Fermentation and maceration on the skins is carried out at a controlled temperature of 28 to 30 degrees Centigrade and lasts for 18 to 20 days. This helps to extract the required amount of fruit, colour and tannins. This is followed by malolactic fermentation in stainless steel. The wine is matured for 24 months in Slavonian oak barrels.

Producer

The Villa La Pagliaia property in Castelnuovo Berardenga, around 15km from Siena, has a long and aristocratic history. The elegant 18th Century villa is amidst a striking landscape of vines, olive groves and cypress trees. Their vineyards, here in the south of the Chianti Classico region, are at 300-450m altitude, with clay and limestone soils.

Fruit from these, predominantly Sangiovese, low-yielding mature vines (over 25 years old) - combined with traditional vinification methods overseen by neighbouring property (and sister estate) San Felice - ensures consistent production of very classic and quietly impressive wines.

Specifications

Tasting Notes

Straw yellow with golden hues. Flint and orange blossom, with wild Mediterranean flowers on the nose. As the wine breathes, lime and citrus aromas develop. To taste, this is an intense, mineral dry white wine with refreshing citrus fruit.  The flavours linger long after the wine has left your mouth, leaving delicious nuances of almond, eucalyptus and bitter lemon.

Producer

With an annual production of about 120,000 bottles, the Cantine di Marzo still maintains the character of a small family-run company, whose wines, however, are present in more than 12 countries around the world.

Specifications

Nestled in the prestigious municipality of Diano D’Alba, these grapes flourish in perfect conditions that embody the art of fine winemaking, resulting in an elegant, complex, and beautifully structured wine.

Tasting Notes

This wine shows an intense ruby-red colour and reveals a complex, expansive nose layered with cherry, currant, violet, and iris. On the palate, it is firm and flavourful, with subtle hints of menthol. Smooth, well-integrated tannins provide a savoury character, complemented by an unexpected touch of minerality that adds depth and sophistication to the finish.

Production

The wine matures gracefully in stainless steel for approximately six months, preserving its vibrant freshness and pure varietal character. This careful approach ensures a clean, elegant expression of the grape, highlighting its natural aromas and crisp structure.

Producer

Cascina Adelaide in the heart of Barolo is the lifelong dream of Amabile Droco – a dream born not only of a passion for the region’s wines, but also the diversity of the terroir to be found within the Barolo DOCG.

Having purchased an old farmhouse and accompanying vineyards in 1999, Amabile made considerable investments in a state-of-the-art gravity-fed winery and a top winemaking team that would set Cascina Adelaide apart from the rest. Yet it was his continuing ambition to own land in each of Barolo’s crus that made Cascina Adelaide a producer of note. As Amabile himself explains: “It’s the land that provides the difference, the wine provides the medium”. In keeping with this philosophy, no herbicides are used in the vineyards, and all of the harvesting and sorting is done by hand. Likewise, native yeasts and minimal sulphur are used during vinification, allowing the resulting wines to speak for themselves: deliciously complex Barolos that display an exacting attention to detail.

Awards

Specifications

From the winery responsible for the invention of Amarone! 

Tasting Notes

Nose

This has a highly perfumed nose - intense and persistent, ethereal, fruity with hints of cherries and dried prunes, dried flowers, sweetly spiced. This is full bodied with a deliciously smooth mouth-feel and velvety tannins.

History

Consisting of 230 growers and 700 hectares, Cantina Valpolicella Negrar is a co operative located just a few kilometres from Verona, in the heart of Valpolicella. They are one of the major producers in Valpolicella Classico owning a quarter of all Classico Vineyards, and are the only winery to have vineyards in all 5 communes of the region. They have a long and distinctive history of winemaking going back to 1933 and were the first to produce Amarone in 1939, a%er a serendipitous mistake producing Recioto.

Production

Personal Tasting Notes

"Lovely - full bodied and rich with an alluring blend of juicy red and black fruits, a touch of spice and a super smooth finish. Extremely well made and well balanced. A great £15’s worth. Not cloying or offering overly ripe, sweet fruit - very fresh and clean on the palate meaning each glass is a fresh mouthfeel." Tasted April 2024

Specifications

When they created Senia, they took their inspiration from traditional fermentation techniques. For this reason the Nero d’Avola is fermented in open top barriques, in small quantities of around 150 litres. Senia has a extremely limited production of about 8.000 bottles per year.

Tasting Notes

Colour

Palate

A very full-bodied wine, with a refreshing acidity, and a long finish showing soft and intense tannins.

Vineyards & Vinification

We ferment the grapes in open top barriques in small lots of around 150 litres. Using this method, it’s not possible to control the temperature during fermentation, but it never exceeds 18-24C°. The small volume allows it to adjust itself naturally.

The grapes undergo fermentation for 10-12 days. The use of open top barrels allows us to carry out “follatura” (manually pushing down the skins) as often as is necessary for the natural and delicate extraction of colour and tannins from the skins.

We leave the wine in contact with the skins for about 20 days after the fermentation and then for a total of 30-35 days.

Once the maceration on the skins has ended, the wine is placed in barriques for the malolactic fermentation, after which it remains in barrel for 12 months before bottling. The wine stays a further 6 months in bottle before being released on to the market.

Accolades

91 pts points | James Suckling
I like the dried-spice, tobacco and ash character to the black plum and black cherry fruit. It’s medium- to full-bodied with plenty of spicy and smoky flavours. Soft tannins. Delicious now.

17/20 points | Jancis Robinson

Specifications

Sabuci is the name of the contrada or hamlet where Cortese has been situated since 1930. It is an historical area, perfectly suited to the production of Cerasuolo di Vittoria, which is the reason why we have given the name “Sabuci” to this wine.

Sabuci has a very limited production of about 7.000 bottles per year.

Tasting Notes

Colour

Palate

The palate is elegant and complex. Hugely concentrated, the tannins are at the same time firm and persistent.

Vineyards& Vinification

The area around Cortese, in the region of Vittoria, was strongly influenced by Greek culture and the very important ancient Greek site of Kamarina is located nearby.

We have been inspired by ancient Greek culture in the way we have chosen to make our Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico.

Sabuci is made with the best selection of grapes – Nero d’Avola (60%) and Frappato (40%). The grapes carefully hand-harvested at the end of September and beginning of October. The grapes are put into small containers and we lower the temperature to around 10°C.

The two grape varieties are vinified separately, in different ways: the Nero d’Avola is fermented in open top barriques, enabling us to follow a really scrupulous process. We carry out “follatura” (immersion of the skins) by hand and extremely delicately. The Frappato, on the other hand, is fermented in 7hl terracotta amphorae. The natural porosity of terracotta allows the ideal oxygen exchange during the fermentation process. At the same time it also allows the wine to remain in contact with the skins for an extended period of up to 12 months. The wines are blended together and are aged for six months in barriques and botti of various sizes. The wine remains in bottle for at least 3 months before being introduced to the market

Awards

• 17/20 points - Jancis Robinson

Specifications

Villa Cafaggio Chianti Classico Riserva is obtained exclusively from Sangiovese grapes. Grown on land owned by the estate, the vineyard, situated in Panzano in Chianti, extends along the sunny slopes of the 'Conca d'Oro' (Golden basin), a wine- growing area of great value.

Tasting Notes

Nose

This opens with aromas of black-skinned berries, leather, and baking spices.

Palate

Silky, with nutty fruit and a hint of bitter chocolate character. Full-bodied, with fine tannins and a long finish.

Producer

Since the Renaissance and beyond, Cafaggio's conca d'oro vineyards—which can also be translated as "golden shell," "golden bowl," or "golden basin"—have been renowned for the exceptional wines they produce at an altitude ranging from 300-400 meters above sea level and encompassing a surface area of about 60 hectares.

The conca, as its name suggests, is a steep, naturally occurring amphitheater with a southern exposure that is perfect for the growth of grapes that will be transformed into wines with intense flavor, distinct structure, and significant aging potential.

The conca d'ora is situated in the center of Panzano commune, one of the five Chianti Classico DOCG villages (the only five townships where Chianti Classico can be produced today) where Chianti was first manufactured.

The soil types, in combination with the height and exposure, offer the vines exceptional vigor as their roots look for the water table, making the estate's vineyards one of the most sought-after quality wine-growing locations in all of Tuscany.

Cafaggio is an active participant in the 1995-founded Unione Viticoltori di Panzano (Panzano Grape Grower and Winemaker Union), a group that supports and aids in the promotion of the township's wineries.

Review

Specifications