2012 Italy

This wine has a delicate nose of ripe stone fruit, the palate is well balanced and creamy. In addition to the ripe peach, minerality adds to the broad mouthfeel and clean acidity.

Roberto’s second vintage making Barbaresco from this celebrated cru. If sand is what characterises Paolin, and grey, marne clay Rabajà, then limestone is what surely distinguishes Asili. (Indeed, Asili could be said to possess the agility of Paolin with the complexity of Rabajà.) Whatever the similarities, it’s clearly beautifully balanced – the limestone element giving us masses of small, red fruit that have soaked up the hot August sun, rendering them tamarind like, decadent even, and complemented by new Stockinger oak botte. 

Bright and ripe classic Sangiovese notes on the nose of red and black fruit vying for attention, with a certain meaty nuance in the background. Lots of fine red fruit on the palate, tempered by crisp acidity and fine, ripe tannins, all in balance with a pleasing mouth-feel and satisfyingly complete finish. This is hard to resist now, but will become even more harmonious if cellared for another four to six years.
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 

Deep ruby with a narrow orange rim. Cool fruit and herbs on the nose. Remarkable sweet and ripe fruit on the attack with firm, bitter tannins. A successful balancing act, showing great concentration while keeping perfect focus and poise.
Drinking window: 2020-2036
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com, 21 March 2016

We are once again fortunate to be able to offer the opportunity to buy three of Roberto's top Baroli. This year we are featuring the 2012 vintage and we are offering the wines in a mixed 12 bottle case.

This case contains:

5 x 75cl 2012 Barolo Rocche dell’ Annunziata
5 x 75cl 2012 Barolo Cerequio  
2 x 75cl 2012 Barolo Brunate

The stony, chalky minerals of this renowned site in Serralunga d’Alba come through on the nose and palate, adding to the precision lent by defined tannins and clean acidity. Layers of crunchy red fruit, smoky spice and rich plums hint at the complexity to come with time in bottle. 

“There is only one Bruno Giacosa. No one will ever make wines like these. It's as simple as that.” Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

Roberto’s Rabajà recalls the damp and then hot vintage, while expressing its prime, “front row”, west-facing, deep, grey, marne-clay soils perfectly. A darker, almost ruby red, it’s very, cooly composed, noble even, on the nose, with dried roses, black truffle and clove notes. Broad, emphatic and square-shouldered with lots of juicy flesh on those heavy bones, ensuring Rabajà’s well covered for the years to come as it ages in bottle.

One of the oldest, and finest, Barbaresco estates, Cascina Luisin is located close to the village itself, overlooking its prime vineyard of Rabajà. Roberto is gradually filling the shoes of his father, Luigi Minuto. There has been a renovation of the large oak botti, with Austrian Stockinger oak, along with a new family reserves cellar for all those magnificent old bottles. Alongside the structured Rabajà, this year we are also offering the second release of their old-vine Asili.

As it is every year, the 2012 Flaccianello della Pieve represents a selection of the best fruit from the best vineyards (excluding, of course, Vigna del Sorbo that is dedicated to its own wine). The five parcels span various soils types and exposures, and the youngest vines are 20 years old. Because the fruit selection process is so detailed, the darkest and smallest clusters are carefully chosen.

As a result, the fruit is rich in polyphenols, thick extract and extra aromatic intensity. The 2012 vintage saw yields reduced by as much as 20%, meaning that fruit selection was even more severe in this vintage. This beautiful wine shows abundant richness and generosity with toned mineral nuances that are wrapped within bold flavors of dark fruit and spice. The wine is rich and velvety in texture.
Drink 2016-2030
94/100 points Monica Larner, eRobertParker.com #221 Oct 2015  

Fantastic aromas of lavender, rosemary, violets and currants. Full body, a wonderful concentration of fruit yet tense and taunt energy. The new wood is exposed now but will become integrated and polished. Give it three or four years together. The pure merlot magic is there. The 2011 was a perfect wine, and this is very close indeed. Drink in 2019.
99/100 James Suckling, Wine Advocate

Masseto, produced by Tenuta dell’Ornellaia, is among the world’s most sought after Merlots. It comes from one of Italy’s most celebrated 7 hectare plots of Merlot in Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast where the vines grow on an outcrop of pliocene clay (ideal for Merlot and not found elsewhere in Bolgheri). Its first full release was 1987, although there was a partial release in 1986, and it quickly became a cult wine revered by collectors. The 2012 vintage is a year that has produced many outstanding wines in the Super Tuscan arena and Masseto looks sure to continue that trend

Made in tiny quantities.  Despite having only debuted back in 1986, Masseto has almost taken on the mystique we see with the likes of Ch. Petrus – rare, expensive, ground breaking and much sought after. Total production is circa. 2500 cases

The Isola et Olena Estate, run by Paolo de Marchi, is a property that has seen a dramatic rise in quality over the last few decades. Paolo's family, originally from Piedmont, purchased the estate in the 1960s. His attention to detail in both the vineyard and the winery was the driving force that turned quality around.

The wines have Cepparello at their head, a barrique-aged Sangiovese classified as an IGT - because at the time of its creation in the 1980s a wine comprising 100% Sangiovese could not legally be labelled as Chianti. This is a fabulous Super Tuscan at an incredibly good price and a wine that can age 10 – 15 years if one so wishes.

Isole e Olena’s Sangiovese Super-Tuscan Sangiovese never fails to please. Beautiful ripe Sangiovese nose of black cherries intermingled with hints of spice. Big and rich on the palate with savoury black cherries, grilled meats and loganberry notes, framed by crisp acidity, fine tannins and a lick of warmth from the alcohol. A very impressive Super-Tuscan which could be drunk now, but would reward 5-10 years in the cellar for the components to knit together and gain complexity. A great lesson in what great Sangiovese from Chianti Classico is capable of producing.
Chris Pollington, Private Account Manager

Stefano’s desire to produce an Amarone with more freshness is clear in this elegant, yet full-bodied wine. Aromas reminiscent of stewed, sweet plums and wild herbs are supported by chocolate and roasted coffee. The mouth-feel is silky in texture and the weight of fruit buffers the tannins. Excellent balance.
Drink from 2016-2035.

Yields were down 20 percent at Bartolo Mascarello in 2012 due to a hail storm that hit the Rocche dell’Annunziata vineyard. This, combined with a comparatively short maceration of 20 days and minimal racking, have contrived to make Mascarello’s 2012 Barolo one of the most delicate, ethereal and Pinot-like in recent years. With air, this rose-petal Barolo is timid, creeping slowly out into the limelight. Maria Teresa aged the wine partly in the two new 50hl garbellotto botti, giving it a sandalwood edge to the rose, coal tar and orange-skin notes. There’s great finesse on the palate, with cool, red-berry crunch and sapid, svelte lines: this is racy yet served on a cushion of sweet red fruit. Such lift!

The Borgogno family, whose cantina crowns the Cannubi vineyard, has blended together the fruit from their Nebbiolo vines facing south (Battista), east (Nuovo) and west (Cane). In 2012, the blend was mostly Battista fruit, along with some Cane plus a little Nuovo. Bottled on 2nd October 2015, after an all-wood vinification, it shows a lovely rose-red colour, with plenty of rose and strawberry perfume on the nose; the palate is joyful, full of delicate, dreamy, Cannubi red fruit, complete with the softest of tannins. 

This remains a very traditional expression of the elevated La Serra vineyard in La Morra. Compared to the Brunate, La Serra is always more perfumed, breezy and ethereal, with incense and notes of dried grass. The 2012 vintage is especially discreet, scented with distinct notes of cassis, hay and tea-tree. This is slender on the palate, sylph-like even, with delicate notes of quinine, spices, kirsch and cassis. This will come round earlier than the Brunate.

From the blended Barolo Serralunga d’Alba we move up a gear to the single-vineyard Cerretta. Noticeably more focused and more resolved than the village Barolo, this is darker plum in colour, suave, soft and generously fruity on the nose, with neat, bright intensity. One is struck by the volume of fruit on offer; succulent kirsch, currant and dark cherry, with such clean lines.

Thanks to Alessandria’s sensitive winemaking, one can greatly appreciate the styles that differentiate the two villages of Verduno and Monforte. Where Verduno’s Baroli are cool and laced with limestone, here the brambly, Bonnes Mares-esque fullness is expressed by Monforte’s Gramolere vineyard, with its red sandstone and west-facing aspect which overlooks Bussia below. It’s a darker hue than the Monvigliero, rich with eucalypt, cologne and wild mint aromatic lift. Fuller, fleshier and meatier, there’s a gorgeous, brambly, rosemary roll, backed by an iron spine and molten tannins. 

While the Rosso family’s Vigna Rionda vineyard may now be the most sought-after, it’s their Serra vineyard, on bright, white, talc soils just across the road that consistently catches the eye. Beautifully poised with salty, red-cherry fruit freshness and such focus. While Cerretta delves out the plummy fruit in abundance, Serra is more sinewy and highly strung, like a thoroughbred race horse. This is pure, red rose essence. 

From further down the La Morra escarpment, Brunate is clearly more muscular than its sister La Serra, even in 2012. This is darker, brooding garnet-red, fuller and more menthol, with loganberry, balsam oil and liquorice aromas. To taste, it’s squarer, more tannic, more demanding and complex in youth, so will need at least 10 years to come round.


The Marcarini estate was established in the mid-1800s by Giuseppe Tarditi. Today, it is owned and managed by the utterly charming Manuel Marchetti, widower to Giuseppe's great, great, granddaughter, the late Luisa Bava. Their three children are slowly joining the family business, but Mexican-born Manuel is still very much in charge and running the domaine with wonderful passion and enthusiasm.

Ripeness and refinement define this Cannubi and its complexity is already evident – sour black cherry and ripe plum are interwoven with tar and more savoury, herbal notes. There is no denying the concentration and weight of phenolic matter across the palate: this is long and powerful.

Until 31st August 2017 this product is discounted by up to 30%. Prices shown include discount; no further discount will be applied at checkout.

Bright ruby in colour, the texture and intensity of the Via Nuova is enhanced by a fine tannic structure and cool acidity. Layers of red stone-fruit and dried flowers absorb the influence of the French oak, which brings added complexity and spice to the wine. The fruit for this cuvée is predominantly from the clones of Michet and Lampia. 

Savoury overtones on the nose, the fruit resides beneath currently. Again characteristic purity evident on the palate. Fine and toned. Tight with focus on the finish. Classic Villero, all about the purity and finesse, the one to drink while you wait for your Santo Stefano and Monprivato to mature. Drink 2017-2030+.
Katherine Dart MW – Italy Wine Buyer