Only the fifth Riserva in more than thirty years, and immediately the highest-rated wine this estate has ever made: Vinous 98+, Decanter 97, Robert Parker 96.
A brilliant royal garnet red. The nose is fine and elegant and stirs the imagination: dried flowers and small red fruits, undergrowth, exotic spices, lavender, liquorice and balsamic herbs, alongside wild blueberry and a citrus freshness. On the palate the wine is full, savoury and very long, with a texture Vinous called silky and serene; Decanter described chalky tannins securely enveloping a compact core. It is a wine of rare thickness, held in balance by a tannic structure of great precision. At its best from 2030, and then well into the 2040s. Around 18 degrees, decanted generously. Lovely with game, truffle or an aged pecorino.
In Montalcino, grandparents call their granddaughters potazzine, after the small, brightly coloured birds of the Tuscan countryside. That is what their grandmother called Viola and Sofia, the daughters of owner Gigliola Giannetti — and the estate grew in step with them: Viola was born in 1993, the founding year, and when Sofia arrived in 1996 two more hectares took the total to five.
The Riserva has existed only five times: 2004, 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2019. It is made only when the vineyard asks for it, comes from Le Prata — the highest plot, at 507 metres — and matures in a single thirty-hectolitre cask of Slavonian oak, followed by more than a year in bottle.
For the 2019 that meant some fifty months in wood. The Consorzio rated the vintage at five stars.
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