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Hors Bordeaux tasting notes: Italy
Italy brings a stunning and very consistent set of releases to La Place this year, led by the monocépage Merlots of Masseto and Petrolo’s Galatrona, says Colin Hay.
Others in the top of the list include La Massa’s Giorgio Primo, Tenuta Sette Ponti’s Sette and Bibi Graetz’s Balocchi No. 9. Solaia, Siepi (appropriately in its 30th anniversary release), Colore and the rest of the Balocchi series from Bibi Graetz are other standouts and there is great value to be found in Giovanni Rosso’s wines from both Sicily and Barolo, and in Petrolo’s Torrione and Bòggina A and C.
Italian Reds
| Italian releases (red) | Vintage | Region | New? | Rating |
| Etna Rosso (Giovanni Rosso) | 2021 | Sicily | No | 93 |
| Barolo Cerretta (Giovanni Rosso) | 2020 | Piedmont | No | 95 |
| Barolo Bussia Riserva ‘Oro’ Vigne Munie (Parusso) | 2015 | Piedmont | No | 93 |
| Barbaresco Gaiun Martinenga (Marchese di Grésy) | 2005 | Piedmont | No | NYT |
| Barbaresco Camp Gros Martinenga Riserva (Marchese di Grésy) | 2005 | Piedmont | No | NYT |
| Caiarossa | 2021 | Tuscany | No | 95+ |
| Concerto di Fonterutoli | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 94 |
| Passi di Orma | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 90 |
| Orma | 2022 | Toscana | No | 97 |
| Oreno (Tenuta Sette Ponti) | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 95 |
| Siepi (Castello di Fonterutoli) | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 98 |
| Sette (Tenuta Sette Ponti) | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 97+ |
| Torrione Petrolo | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 93 |
| Bòggina A Petrolo | 2022 | Tuscany | Yes | 95 |
| Bòggina C Riserva Petrolo | 2021 | Tuscany | No | 96 |
| Petrolo Galatrona | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 99 |
| Giorgio Primo (La Massa) | 2020 | Tuscany | No | 98+ |
| Solaia | 2021 | Tuscany | No | 98 |
| Massetino | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 96 |
| Masseto | 2021 | Tuscany | No | 99 |
| Testamatta (Bibi Graetz) | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 96 |
| Colore (Bibi Graetz) | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 98 |
| Balocchi No. 3 (Bibi Graetz) Colorino | 2021 | Tuscany | No | 95+ |
| Balocchi No. 7 (Bibi Graetz) Cabernet Franc* | 2021 | Tuscany | Yes | 98 |
| Balocchi No. 8 (Bibi Graetz) Canaiolo | 2021 | Tuscany | No | 96 |
| Balocchi No. 9 (Bibi Graetz) Merlot | 2021 | Tuscany | Yes | 98 |
| Balocchi No. 10 (Bibi Graetz) Cabernet Sauvignon | 2021 | Tuscany | Yes | 99 |
| [* – an exclusivity of Berry Bros. & Rudd] | ||||
Giovanni Rosso Etna Rosso 2021 (Etna Rosso DOC; 100% Nerello Mascalese; 14% alcohol). Nice bright cherry and raspberry fruit, with lots of lift and a searing freshness. Direct, authentic, honest – and one senses the altitude. Limpid and glossy with lots of energy. Bright and always fresh yet at the same time quite spicy with a pleasing touch of white pepper on the finish. Long with a gentle taper. 93.
Giovanni Rosso Cerretta Barolo 2020 (Barolo DOCG; 100% Nebbiolo; 14.5% alcohol). Dusty and earthy, floral with lovely dried flower notes. Cinnamon. Sage. A little balsamic hint, more so on the palate than on the nose. Bright raspberry fruit. Tight and with a lovely sense of structure and beady tannins. Lithe and limpid, succulent and juicy; above all, fresh. This is really excellent. 95.
Parusso Bussia Riserva ‘Oro’ Vigna Munie 2015 (Barolo DOCG Riserva; 100% Nebbiolo; 14.5% alcohol). Smoky. Quite oaky too, as is its style. A little note of girolles and truffle. Full and rich, plump and quite broad on the entry. Powdery, with slightly dry tannins, but with a pleasing sapidity in the mid-palate, and a refreshing whirl of fresh fruit. Cinnamon. Tomato consommé. Black tea. Leather. Cigar box. Quite classical in a way. Chewy on the finish, but again just a little desiccated. 93.
Barbaresco Gaiun Martinenga (Marchesi di Grésy) 2005 (Barbaresco; 100% Nebbiolo; from the famous hemispherical monopole with a largely southern exposure at an altitude of 230 to 290 metres). A tiny re-release. I have tasted this before, but not recently. I remember it fondly. NYT.
Barbaresco Camp Gros Martinenga Riserva (Marchesi di Grésy) 2005 (Barbaresco; 100% Nebbiolo; from the famous hemispherical monopole with a largely southern exposure at an altitude of 230 to 290 metres). A miniscule re-release. I have tasted this before, but not for several years. I remember it as a truly wonderful wine. NYT.
Caiarossa 2021 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 30% Syrah; 20% Cabernet Franc; 16% Cabernet Sauvignon; 16% Merlot; 6% Petit Verdot; 10% Sangiovese; 2% Grenache; 14.5% alcohol). Spicy and quite saline. You really notice the Sangiovese here (even at 10 per cent). Baked and fresh plums, damsons, a little cherry and perhaps loganberry too. There’s an impressive degree of fruit complexity. Limpid and sapid in the mouth. Fluid and dynamic, with slightly prickly tannins on the finish, but they just need time. Well-made and impressively chiselled and structured. Substantial. Imposing. Quite a proposition and I think the strongest Caiarossa I have yet tasted! 95+.
Concerto di Fonterutoli 2022 (Toscana IGT; 80% Sangiovese; 20% Cabernet Sauvignon; Mazzei; 14.5% alcohol; tasted at Castello di Fonterutoli in June with Giovanni Mazzei and at the Joanne press tasting in July). Peppery. Spicy. Intense. Red cherry compote and fresh red cherries, a little damson too. Very fruit-forward. Nice baking spice notes bring some complexity. A meaty, charcuterie note too. Juicy and quite sprightly and racy. Slender but concentrated on the slowly tapering finish. Quite distinctive. Liquorice, sea salt and iodine, a little ferrous mineral note too. 94.
Passi di Orma 2022 (Bolgheri DOC; 40% Merlot; 35% Cabernet Sauvignon; 25% Cabernet Franc; 14% alcohol). Fresh. Bright. Quite spicy. The fruit is restricted to quite a narrow frame which helps ratchet up the intensity. Glossy and succulent, impressively so. The tannins, unsurprisingly, are a little coarser than for the first wine, so this finishes a little more rustic than it starts. This will need a little time to cohere, the acidity for now quite pronounced on the finish. 90.
Orma 2022 (IGT Toscana Rosso; 50% Merlot; 30% Cabernet Sauvignon; 20% Cabernet Franc; 14.5% alcohol). Impressive. Direct and expressive with a pleasing freshness and an attention-grabbing dark berry fruit-dominated aromatic profile. A touch of cedar. Nice concentration. Compact and well-framed by high quality fine-grained yet still granular tannins – the Cabernet Sauvignon doing much to circumscribe and rein in the structural parameters. A touch of leafiness with aeration brings additional freshness (from the Cabernet, once again). Maybe just a hint of dryness right at the end, but still very impressive and, really, this is just in need of a little time. A pleasing spiciness too marks its Tuscan origins. 97.
Oreno (Tenuta Sette Ponti) 2022 (IGT Toscana Rosso; 45% Merlot; 40% Cabernet Sauvignon; 10% Cabernet Franc; 5% Petit Verdot; 14.5% alcohol). When tasted after Orma this is a little richer, a little broader in frame, a little more obviously spicy and less aromatically fresh (perhaps linked to the lower proportion of Cabernet Franc in the blend). Plum and cherry, a little cassis but actually at this stage I find this rather more Merlot-influenced than Orma (though the proportion in the blend is actually lower). Punchy and substantial. Less subtle and more of a vin de garde. For now, I prefer Orma but it’s very much a matter of taste. 95.
Siepi (Mazzei) 2022 (Toscana IGT; 50% Merlot; 50% Cabernet Sauvignon; 14.5% alcohol; tasted at Castello di Fonterutoli in June with Giovanni Mazzei as part of a vertical, just before bottling before its September release; tasted again at Joanne’s hors Bordeaux tasting in July). The 30th anniversary release from Siepi. The darkest and most densely coloured in the glass in the vertical tasting. Ethereal. Relaxed. Harmonious. Plump, plush, amble and broad on the opening, though reined in quickly by the grippy tannins. Yet soft, succulent and lithe, the oak better integrated than the 2021 and with much the same sense of concentration and density as the 2020. Perfumed, floral, complex, with patchouli, chocolate ganache and black pen ink vying for attention. Broad on the attack yet taut in the mid-palate and nicely layered. Silkily-textured rather than the velvet of the 2020. The sense of volume and density builds in the mouth with aeration, with the pixilating tannins seeming to infiltrate each layer. Sapid. Excellent and, alongside the 2020, the pick of the vertical tasting. 98.
Sette (Tenuta Sette Ponti) 2021 (Toscana IGT; selected from 3 of the 7 Sette Ponti Merlot vineyards – Nocetta I, Cipressi and Sorbaccio; 100% Merlot; pH 3.56; 15.5% alcohol; certified organic). Bright, crisp and very lifted aromatically with crushed rosemary, thyme and lavender, cassis and bramble the first notes to express themselves. There’s a little fresh mint too, a touch of cedar and hint of first pressed walnut oil. This feels wild and natural, one of those wines where you feel you sense the organic viticulture. Pure and intense on the palate with slightly crumbly chalky tannins bringing detail to the well-composed and, again, quite lifted finish. Very impressive indeed. 97+.
Torrione Petrolo 2022 (Toscana IGT; 80% Sangiovese; 15% Merlot; 5% Cabernet Sauvignon; aged in a combination of concrete tanks and French oak barrels and tonneaux for 15-18 months; pH 3.52; 14% alcohol; certified organic). Much of the Sangiovese comes from the Bòggina vineyard, the Merlot from Galatrona and the Cabernet from Campo Lusso. Intensely spicy and with a lovely subtle blend of balsam wood, rosemary and lavender, with more and more of the latter filling the aromatics with gentle aeration. Plum, baked plum and damson, perhaps a little red cherry too, more so on the palate. Grippy tannins seem almost to wrestle the fruit to the spine, giving this a marked, visceral, sense of structure. Precise and focused on the finish. Excellent value at anything like last year’s release price. 93.
Bòggina A Petrolo 2022 (Val d’Arno di Sopra; 100% Sangiovese; from 13 hectares planted in 1952; vinified in two terracotta amphorae of 300 and 500 litres; extended maturation on the skins in the same amphorae before additional aging after the skins are removed; no oak; pH 3.64; 13.5% alcohol; 3600 bottles and a handful of magnums; certified organic). Delicate and introvert for pure Sangiovese, but enticing and complex aromatically. Very pure. Characterised by the gloriously crystalline red fruit components. There’s just the tiniest hint of spice and a sprinkling of pepper dust. Crystalline again its delicate purity on the palate. Luminous, light on its feet, lifted and aerial. There’s almost something a little Barbaresco-esque in its finesse and subtlety. My first encounter of this wine; I like it very much. 95.
Bòggina C Riserva Petrolo 2021 (Val d’Arno di Sopra; 100% Sangiovese; vinified in glazed concrete vats; aged in French oak barriques and tonneaux for 16 months; 13.5% alcohol; 6516 bottles and 750 magnums produced; certified organic). An exacting selection of the best barrels from the 13 hectares of the Bòggina vineyard. Aged for a little longer and, since 2019, released as a Riserva. Spicier, deeper, darker, richer than Bòggina A, as you’d probably expect it to be, but with much of the same grace, guile, elegance and subtly – the Petrolo signature. There’s a balsamic note, more red cherries, some darker berry fruit notes too and a touch of virgin leather. Dense and compact, much more so than Bòggina A, but once again with such grace and fluidity over the palate. The tannins are exquisitely fine-grained and they bring great detail to the structured and more serious mid-palate. Quite superb. [I guess that I was always going to like this, since the Paul Klée image on the label – Angelus Novus – inspired the quote from Walter Benjamin that I used as an epigraph for my first book]. 96.
Galatrona Petrolo 2022 (Val d’Arno di Sopra; 100% Merlot; spontaneous vinification in glazed concrete vats; malolactic and aging in French oak tonneaux and barriques for 18 months, a third of them new; pH 3.54; 14% alcohol; certified organic). A wine famously referred to as Tuscany’s Le Pin – and you can see why. So gracious and gently opulent if still a little introvert at first. Subtle spice – a mix of green Szechuan and more classical cinnamon, mace and nutmeg – slowly gives way to lavender and wild rosemary, all gently enveloping and enrobing the dark berry and lighter stone fruits. Brilliantly poised and beautifully contoured in the mouth, with a gloriously crystalline and limpid luminosity in the mid-palate that invites comparison with the other great monocépage Merlots of the world. Staggeringly beautiful and perhaps the most eloquent and articulate expression of this fabulous terroir to date. 99.
Giorgio Primo (Tenuta La Massa) 2020 (Toscana IGT; 75% Cabernet Sauvignon – the highest proportion yet in the blend for this; 15% Merlot; 10% Petit Verdot; aged for 20 months in 50% new oak; 14.5% alcohol; picked in a window before the rain under perfect conditions; tasted first with the incomparable Gianpaolo Matta looking out over the beautiful vineyard from which it comes in the Conca d’Oro of Panzano in Chianti). Truly fabulous. The aromatics are gorgeously tempting and enticing, with a lovely leafy freshness from the Cabernet bringing that beautiful note of cedar that gives an early indication of how this wine will evolve. Menthol. Rose petals, lavender and lilac, maybe a hint of peony. This is very floral, reminding one of the subtlety and finesse of the wine-making here. I love that hint of the first raindrops on dry baked clay – bringing something of the same sensation of sensory overload. Cassis too. More and more leafiness and lift arrive with the cedar on aeration. Black pen ink. A subtle aged balsamic note and a little hint of toasted brioche. Gorgeously soft and svelte, fine-grained but actually very grippy tannins sculpt and shape this over the palate. Like a number of the leading ‘super Tuscans’ in this vintage, the supple, delicate softness of the attack gives way to a considerable tannic presence on the mid- and late-mid palate that indicates considerable aging potential. Cool and composed, sapid and with a wave of freshness released on the finish. Menthol, mineral, fresh and wondrous. 98+.
Solaia 2021 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 77% Cabernet Sauvignon; 14% Sangiovese; 9% Cabernet Franc, a little higher than usual; from a vineyard of around 20 hectares with a south-eastern exposition and at an altitude of 350-400 metres on a stony soil of alberese (hard limestone) and galestro (flaky calcareous clay; 14% alcohol; tasted with Stefano Carpaneto over Zoom). Very late picked in mid-October with long slow-ripening of the fruit. Black pen ink, graphite, mocha and rich dark berry and stone fruits – bramble, blackberry and black cherry predominantly, generously enrobed in lavender, violet with a subtle hint of freshly plucked rose petals and rose water. Salinity from the Sangiovese and a little sweet spice – cinnamon. A wine of incredible intensity, great impact, massive depth and concentration, yet with great lift, levity and grace. Fluid and dynamic despite the considerable structure and aging potential. Exceptionally long on the chewy tapering finish. 98.
Massetino 2022 (Toscana IGT; 90% Merlot; 10% Cabernet Franc; 15% alcohol; tasted with Marco Balsimelli at the property in June 2024). Gosh. Wow. This is very distinct, very vertical and lifted, intense and highly expressive aromatically. Parfumier’s essences of flowers. Hyacinth and hyacinth bulb. Saffron. Wild rosemary. Mulberry. Wild blueberry. Maybe a hint of lavender. Graphite. Pencil-shavings. So succulent. Plump but with quite a tight frame accentuating the sense of density and compactness. Layered vertically but with great depth – tapering to a distant vanishing point below. Slightly chewy tannins grip on the finish after the silkily textured opening. Long and pure, very well sustained. Truly special. 96.
Masseto 2021 (Toscana IGT; 100% Merlot; tasted with Marco Balsimelli at the property in June 2024; 15.5% alcohol). Incredible. Such lift and purity, integration and harmony. Black raspberry, mulberry perhaps. A touch of toasted brioche. A lovely natural sweetness. A delicacy and a subtly that I don’t quite find with Massetino. Hyacinth bulb. Cedar released in the mouth when one draws in some air – so beautifully and enticingly. Black pen ink and more and more cedar with gentle aeration. Creamy. Parfumier’s essences of petals – with rather more lilac, lily and hyacinth than rose. Graphite. Wonderful texture. So soft and caressing, like a million layers (milles feuilles plus!) of silk but actually with a deeper and richer texture – so, more cashmere perhaps than silk. Vibrant, fluid, dynamic, floaty and rippling in its sapidity. Radiant in its incredible dynamism and energy. Very special. Endless on the finish – if there is one! The very slight suggestion of alcohol on the finish keeps this from attaining perfection. 99.
Bibi Graetz Testamatta 2022 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 100% Sangiovese; 14% alcohol). Lifted, aromatically very floral, bright and enticing. Quite delicate and very much in keeping with its recent style. Very well made with a lovely sense of finesse and gracious fine-grained tannins. Dark berry fruits, red berry fruits too – very croquant and charged with a very natural fruit acidity bringing energy and dynamism to the mid-palate. Tender and lithe, gently rippling on the finish. 96.
Bibi Graetz Colore 2022 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 96% Sangiovese; 3% Canaiolo; 1% Colorino; from the Lamole and Olmo vineyards and hand-harvested over a full month; 14% alcohol). Spicier and more intensely floral than Testamatta – as if we’ve moved from the fresh flowers to the parfumier’s laboratory, but still with plenty of vibrantly fresh rose blossoms. This is bloodier, meatier and more substantial too with a ferrous note to its minerality. Generous but with delicacy and finesse too. Intense, due to the narrow frame, accentuating the sense of compactness and density. Candlewax. Crushed berries. This is limpid, luminous and intensely sapid on the tapered finish. 98.
Bibi Graetz Balocchi No. 3 2021 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 100% old-vine Colorino; from the Vincigliata vineyard, at 250 metres; aged for 24 months in used French oak; 14% alcohol). Peppery. Wild sage. Oregano. Italian herbs. Hyacinth bulb. This too comes from the same parcel as last year’s first release in the Soffocone vineyard, on the opposite side of the hill overlooking Florence. Lush, plush and more acidic than the others. Lifted but with the same broad and ample frame. Wild and herbal. Sapid and juicy, a little more balsamic. A density not unlike the Cabernet Sauvignon, but with less vertical structure in the mouth. Firm and strong tannins. Pure and crystalline, incredibly broad and pushing at the cheeks. There’s impressive density here and yet this is sprightly and sapid on the finish, reinforced by the acidity and the salinity. 95+.
Bibi Graetz Balocchi No. 7 2021 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 100% old-vine Cabernet Franc; from the higher part of the Olmo vineyard, a full 100 metres above the Canaiolo that sources Balocchi No. 8; aged for 24 months in used French oak; 14.5% alcohol; just 1200 bottles produced). An exclusivity of Berry Brothers in London. Very beautiful, elegant and refined. The very essence of Cabernet Franc. Leafy and herby in the very best way. This comes from the same vineyard as Balocchi No. 8, but we’re at the top of the vineyard here, 100 metres higher. Cedar. Violet. Lavender. Blueberries. Walnut skins and some of their texture, all very tactile and engaging. Quite broad in frame, but the Cabernet Franc tannins massage themselves in at the shoulders to bring this slowly back to the spine. It’s still quite broad, ample and opulent, with velvet layering replacing the silk of the No. 8 cuvée. Juicy and pinched on the finish, releasing freshness that picks up the lavender note again – the signature of the varietal. The cool vineyard and the warm vintage combine beautifully. Very layered on the tongue – the tannins getting between the layers. A special wine. 98.
Bibi Graetz Balocchi No. 8 2021 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 100% Canaiolo; sourced from the lower parts of the Olmo vineyard; aged for 24 months in used French oak; 14% alcohol; just 600 bottles produced). From the same parcel as the original release. A variety one so rarely sees and that is less and less planted. Old vine. Gracious. With aeration, loads of rose petals. Soft. Quite voluptuous but relaxed too. A very broad and ample profile, thinly layered in fine sheets of silk. Lavender. Violet. Rose petals. Plump and gorgeously svelte. Thinly layered but very ample in form, and delicate. Fresh, vertical, aerial. One feels a little the mountain location. Mashy, crunchy fruit with great energy on the finish. Sapid and intensely juicy, A wine that could actually be served lightly chilled. 96.
Bibi Graetz Balocchi No. 9 2021 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 100% Merlot; from the higher part of the Olmo vineyard, a full 100 metres above the Canaiolo that sources Balocchi No. 8, and one row over from the Cabernet Sauvignon from which Balocchi No. 10 is sourced; no new oak, all old barrels, fermentation in open-topped barriques; 14.5% alcohol; just 600 bottles produced). This comes from a single row of vines, two over from the Cabernet Franc and next to the Cabernet Sauvignon! Plush, plump, opulent and explosively effusive. There’s a hint of cedar, with more to come for those patient enough to wait for it. It’s more intensely floral for now, with prominent lavender, rose petal and wild rosemary. A wine of incredible density yet enrobed in cashmere. Spherical in form, though almost a more foursquare and substantial in the lower palate. Dense and compact, yet luminous and ethereal with the refinement of the tannins bringing that signature crystallinity that is the essence of Bibi Graetz’s wine-making. Brilliant. Slightly ferrous in its minerality, saline too. There’s a lovely natural sweetness too, the only hint of the intense heat of the summer. Long and focussed on the very precise finish, all the more remarkable given the breadth of the attack. It’s as if the mouth forms itself to produce a long whistle as the tannins draw in the cheeks! 98.
Bibi Graetz Balocchi No. 10 2021 (Toscana IGT Rosso; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; from the higher part of the Olmo vineyard, a full 100 metres above the Canaiolo that sources Balocchi No. 8 and just one row of vines over from the Cabernet Franc that sources Balocchi No. 7; aged for 24 months in used French oak; 14.5% alcohol). From the highest part of the vineyard, next to the Cabernet Franc. Very expressive of the varietal with lovely classic bell pepper notes, and a bulby florality. A touch of frangipane. Cracked black peppercorns. The florality seems almost to be picked up from the Cabernet Franc row next to it. Cedar. Lush and plump. Velvet or cashmere. A wine of massive concentration but with such lift, levity and crystallinity. A truly fabulous mouthfeel. A big mouthful. So structured but one doesn’t notice it until right at the end, where it is highly sculpted as if by little waves of tannin each releasing juice and sapidity as they grip. So balanced. So harmonious. What an advert for the varietal. Sumptuous. Very Bibi Graetz. 99.
Italian white wines
| Italian releases (white) | Vintage | Region | New? | Rating |
| Etna Bianco (Giovanni Rosso) | 2023 | Sicily | No | 94 |
| Petrolo Bòggina B | 2022 | Tuscany | No | 94 |
| Testamatta Bianco (Bibi Graetz) | 2023 | Tuscany | No | 95+ |
| Colore Bianco (Bibi Graetz) | 2023 | Tuscany | No | 98 |
Giovanni Rosso Etna Bianco 2023 (Etna; 13%). Golden. Glistening. Quite limpid. Fresh and lifted, with a distinctly stony minerality. Jasmine. Pink grapefruit. Kumquat. Confit white melon. Very vertical in the mouth and hyper-fresh despite the richness. Rippling, pure and refreshing, reassuringly crisp and salivating. In short, excellent. 94.
Petrolo Bòggina B 2022 (IGT Toscana Bianco; 100% Trebbiano; aged on its lees for 15 months in French oak tonneaux; pH 3.40; 12% alcohol; certified organic; the consultant for this wine is none other than Mounir Souma of Lucien Le Moine; tasted in Paris from a sample sent from the property). Golden hued, though with the slightest lime green highlight, this glistens enticingly in the early morning sunshine. An excellent and very distinctive wine from a varietal that, in fact, I rarely taste. Intense and focussed aromatically, very linear and quite vertical, with a zesty limey lift, a touch of wild honey, peach stone, quince, orange blossom and a suggestion of beeswax alongside the sage, fennel and a gunmetal minerality. Plunge-pool clear and crystalline with quite a gracious and succulent, dense and glistening mid-palate. Oily-textured in its richness, but never even hinting as heaviness, with loads of freshness and the tension that brings. Sumptuous and with a lovely finish where the zesty citrus notes seem to pinch the flow of the wine, releasing in their wake a fine but broad mousse of sapidity. Decant this in its youth. 94.
Bibi Graetz Testamatta Bianco 2023 (IGT Toscana Bianco; 100% Ansonica from Isola de Giglio on the top of the island, looking west looking towards the Mediterranean; the coolest vintage; around 6000 bottles). A cooler vintage, breaking the cycle of hot vintages. White grapefruit. Fennel. Citron pressé. So pure. Very fresh and lifted. Great natural citrus acidity yet with super amplitude too – like a volcano of freshness projected vertically, with all that depth below. A nice gentle spiciness. The freshest vintage of this I can remember, with no malolactic fermentation. Highly juicy. 95+.
Bibi Graetz Colore Bianco 2023 (IGT Toscana Bianco; 100% Ansonica; close to the sea in a small bay, with both southern and northern exposure, terraced and old vine; 2000 bottles). Richer still, with a slightly more exotic aromatic profile and associated complexity. Citrus. More structured and more layered. Picked a little earlier. Strangely reminiscent of Meursault in its freshness, opulence and capacity to provide the perfect vehicle for acidity and minerality. Great complexity. Walnut and white almond. Blood orange. Peach and apricot, guava and quince, passionfruit and passionflower. So juicy. So rich, but ethereal in its freshness. A more diffuse (and hence integrated) acidity than Testamatta. Quite superb. 98.
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