Tuscany

The Chardonay and Vernaccia that make up this blend complement each other very well. The restrained aroma profile is of stone fruit with hints of citrus. Grapefruit pith plays on the palate with a good level of concentration.
Fiona Hayes - Buyer

This is Sebastiano Capponi's wine! For 'Comitale' means 'belonging to the Count'! A generous soul, he's quite happy to share his wine among friends. He's got good taste too, for this unoaked 90% Grechetto (the grape of Orvieto), 10% Vernaccia (di San Gimignano) has quite delicious bitter sweet, sapid fruit notes. It's light in body, dry, with a welcome cool greengage, almost grassy fruitiness. And in keeping with all Villa Calcinaia wines, it's restrained, elegant and immensely drinkable, especially with olives and summer salads.
David Berry Green

Coming from the heart of Tuscany’s historical zone between Siena and Florence, this classic blend of Sangiovese with 10 percent Canaiolo, Colorino and Ciliegiolo is made for us by the eminent estate of Badia a Coltibuono, from vineyards in Gaiole and Castelnuovo Berardenga.

The wine displays freshly scented red berry and spice aromas. The fruit is rich and fleshy, layered with savoury minerality and mellowed by 12 months in large 20-hectolitre oak barrels. This is perfect with meat dishes (particularly game), roasted vegetables and pasta.

Coming from the heart of Tuscany's historical Chianti Classico zone, this blend of Sangiovese and other local red varieties is made for us by Badia a Coltibuono. Rich aromas of red cherry, wild herbs and spicy complexity lead to a dense palate that is laden with ripe fruit and fresh acidity. The tannins are smooth and integrated while the finish is long and generous. Perfect with meat or tomato-based pasta dishes. 
Katherine Dart MW - Wine Buyer, June 2017

There’s such a difference between Bibbiano’s sensual, fleshy Castellina Chianti Classico wines and, say, Badia’s sinewy, salty examples from their village of Gaiole. The 2010 vintage puts this in sharp perspective. Bibbiano’s Vigna del Capannino plays another card: that of the Brunello clone of Sangiovese used in the vineyard. Hence the darker, ruby colour, and the unctuous nose which is a sensual ride of crushed velvet and super-ripe mulberry fruit, reminding you more of Montalcino, than Castellina. Yet it’s not cumbersome; that’s the joy of Chianti Classico, especially from a fine noble estate as Bibbiano. Yes, there’s a gorgeous brambly roll but it ticks over energetically, with refreshing saltiness and levity.
David Berry Green

Made for us by Andrea Mantengoli of La Serena, whose vineyards are located on Montalcino’s eastern flank, this is an example of true Brunello at its best. Stylistically La Serena’s wines echo those of its neighbours, such as the more celebrated Cerbaiona next door. The wines display a great drinkability even when young, all while respecting the identity of their piece of Montalcino terroir.

Bright in appearance, with ripe red cherry and herbal aromas on the nose. The palate is ripe and poised, with fresh acidity that adds definition to the mid-palate. As is characteristic of this wine, the tannins are finely wrought.

Very much a northern Tuscan, Lucchese blend of old vine, own estate 30% Sangiovese, 30% Merlot, 30% Syrah and 10% local varieties, grown on the property’s sandstone and clay soils, fermented and aged only in used barriques. It’s a full -odied, finely-woven blend of dark fruit, hay and sotto spirito kirsch black fruit, crunchy and linear. Distinctive and full of breed.
David Berry Green

One of Montalcino’s oldest estates, dating back to the time of the Medicis, Lisini is known more recently as one of the founding fathers of the Brunello di Montalcino Consorzio in the 1960s. The Clementi-Lisini family, at the 154-hectare property near Sant’Angelo in Colle (with 20 hectares are under vine), make a thoroughly traditional range that builds on ancient Eocene sand, clay and iron-rich soils; wines that were first bottled in 1967. Oenologist Filippo Paoletti stands guard over the estate’s pre-eminent position.

Lisini's Brunelli remain among our most traditional; in youth they are focused, quite serious, with crunchy-cool poise, and an almost Burgundian, herbal, cassis edge in 2011. Yet it opens up more on the palate, after 3.5 years’ oak-ageing after all, with juicy currants, gleaming cranberry-purity, cleansing acidity, red cherries, thick redcurrant-skins.

Intense garnet-rose, the nose sings of the pine needles that litter the ground at Cerbaiona, along with more classic redcurrant and blackcurrant notes. Placid, juicy, the palate conjures up redcurrant skins, sapidity, masses of flesh, forest fruit and cool, red-cherry finish. Impeccable, as ever; Diego and Nora continue to maintain the highest standards.

Nora Tadros Molinari is at the helm of this much-lauded Montalcino property, while her husband Diego recovers from a bout of poor health. More fortunate are the grapes that grow on their three hectares of alberese soils at perfect altitude on the northeastern shoulder of the Montalcino zone. The Molinaris have been there since 1977, gradually building up the reputation of their tiny estate through traditional practices. It’s now regarded as one of the very best.

Lovely mature nose with hints of forest floor, brambly fruit, black fruit compote and toast. Wonderful on the palate, elegant and fine, similar dark fruit profile to the nose, beautifully focussed by a crisp, linear structure. The finish is long and satisfying, very elegant.
Chris Pollington – Private Account Manager

Now firmly amongst the greats of the Italian wine scene, Tignanello’s origins lie in a single vineyard Chianti Classico Riserva ‘Vigneto Tignanello‘ made for the 1970 vintage. Even at this point it broke new ground by being the first Sangiovese aged in small oak barrels, and the die was cast from the 1971 vintage, when it became a Vino da Tavola della Toscana and was named Tignanello after the vineyard from where the fruit originates. Over the following eleven years Tignanello gradually evolved into the wine we recognise today – a wine that no longer follows the rules laid down by Chianti Classico Disciplinare.

This is a Tignanello vintage with wonderful purity of fruit on the nose first and foremost. Pure, unadulterated bramble, hedgerow fruit – exquisite! Behind that initial and impressive wave of fruit there are complex layers of nutmeg, black tea and Asian spices. This continues apace on the palate, and also where the Sangiovese really comes into play. The taut structure and fine tannins build neatly through the midpalate where more layers of hoi sin, dark coffee and subtle meatiness. The finish is textbook Tignanello, refined yet focussed and wonderfully long. Drinking from 2018 onto 2030.
Gary Owen, Fine Wine

Tignanello releases are always of huge interest – a superb Super Tuscan red which still offers significant value. This 2012 release demonstrates the quality and consistency of the Antinori estate very well indeed. The nose offers generous dark fruit, black cherry and cassis with notes of clove and dried herbs. The palate is laced with fine acidity giving real energy and vibrancy, very moreish. Fine, silky and eminently approachable now, but there is more to come of course and more layers will emerge over the coming years. Drink 2018 – 2028.
Martyn Rolph, Fine Wine 

The best vintages of Solaia are 1990, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and now 2013. Marchesi Antinori's 2013 Solaia is a profound and meaningful wine that is based mostly on Cabernet Sauvignon with Sangiovese and Cabernet Franc in supporting roles. It sports a dark and thick texture with plump fruit and spice, grilled herb and black pepper. The bouquet is intense and layered with the kind of complexity that is best admired as the wine shifts and evolves in the glass. The textual impact is also impressive—you feel the inherent power and the structure, but these elements are never overdone. The best is yet to come; this Solaia is built for long cellar aging.
Monica Larner - The Wine Advocate, 30th Dec 2016

Definitely pale and quite old. Not clean on the nose but big, bold fruit on the palate, and nice intensity of fruit. Again some tannin. Quite long.
Jancis Robinson. 14th June 2002. 

Deep and brooding, this wine takes a little while for the rich, sweet blackcurrant fruit to come through on the nose. However the palate explodes with unctuous fruit at the first taste. This is not an overpowering wine though; there is a firm backbone of acidity and ripe tannin, and the finish is long and complex..

The 2010 Solaia is even better than the Tignanello. Here, too, it is the wine's energy and sheer vibrancy that stand out most. Blackberry jam, graphite, tar, espresso, violets, crushed rocks and spices all take shape in the glass. The 2010 is a wine I have followed since its infancy, and it has never failed to deliver the goods. Earlier this year I had a chance to taste every vintage of Solaia back to the inaugural 1978. It is still early, but there is little question the 2010 is one of the greatest – if not the single greatest Solaia ever made
97/100 Antonio Galloni - Aug-2013

The nose here is a gorgeous, yet focused, tranquil weave of baked pine needles, of sweet ripe berried fruit, verging on loganberry. I love the way Stella manages to capture what is so brilliant about Montalcino, the swollen red fruit and emphatic fullon character, yet conveys it in such a delicate way. Her 2008 has great presence, it is succulent, noble, yet all the while understated.
David Berry Green

A new vintage of Sassicaia is always a treat and is never a disappointment. Cool, yet ripe Cabernet fruit provides great promise for the wine to come. On the palate that delicious coolness is there again, but there’s no hint of the hard edge that one might expect from such a cool wine, in fact ripeness of fruit is abundant. It’s more about the restrained sophistication of the style of this wine, incredibly elegant and fine, this is very impressive. All is perfectly in balance; fruit, acidity and fine tannins, nothing dominating. This isn’t a blockbuster of a wine, but if you are looking for something elegant and restrained with real breeding, this classic Sassicaia is for you.
Chris Pollington – Private Account Manager