Reviews
December 2024 95 Points View From the Cellar
The 2018 vintage of Gran Selezione from Querciabella is a touch lower in octane than the 2019 version, as this wine comes in at an even fourteen percent alcohol. It was handled identically to the 2019 in the cellars, with its malo in barrels and its aging done in large oak botti. The 2018 Gran Selezione delivers a superb bouquet of red and black cherries, spit-roasted gamebird, coffee bean, campfire, a very complex foundation of galestro minerality, fresh oregano, incipient notes of hazelnut and a very discreet framing of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, precise and very pure, with outstanding depth of fruit at the core, great mineral undertow, ripe, seamless tannins and a long, bouncy and very complex, impeccably balanced finish. This too needs a good decade in the cellar to really start to hit its stride, but it is going to be another brilliant wine. 2034-2075.
December 1, 2024 91 Points View From the Cellar
When I wrote my feature on legendary Chianti producer Querciabella a few years back, I mentioned that I felt their Mongrana Rosso bottling, made from relatively new vineyards in the coastal region of Maremma, may well be the finest value in Tuscan red wine for the cellar to be found anywhere in Italy. Their beautifully refined 2022 version has done nothing to dissuade me of this notion! The wine comes in at 13.5 percent octane in this vintage and is composed from its now traditional cépages of fifty percent sangiovese and twenty-five percent each of merlot and cabernet sauvignon. The wine’s refined aromatic constellation wafts from the glass in a mix of sweet dark berries, cassis, cigar wrapper, dark soil tones, fresh oregano and a topnote of distant bonfire. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and still quite tightly-knit, with a good core of fruit, fine soil transparency and grip, firm tannins and lovely balance on the long and promising finish. This is a structured vintage of Mongrana and will need plenty of cellaring to soften up its undercarriage of tannin, but in due course, it will be a lovely wine. 2035-2065.
December 1, 2024 92 Points Wine Enthusiast
A sweet, floral, slightly tangy nose presents notes of cherry blossom, raspberry, potting soil, citrus peel and pepper. The fruit notes deepen on a palate of cherry, wild strawberry, raspberry jam and blood orange, as tannins grip at the edges of your tongue, before acid lifts a cool, peppery finish.
October 31, 2024 90 Points Wine Spectator
Black cherry and plum fruit signals this rich, round red. Boysenberry, eucalyptus and lavender notes chime in as this remains focused on the long finish. Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2027.
June 11, 2024 94 Points Wine Review Online
A rare Tuscan white that can stand bottle shoulder to bottle shoulder with its pricey red siblings. A blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco, it is about as exotic and tropical as you will get for a Chardonnay and as upper-crusty as you will achieve from a fairly warm climate Pinot Bianco. It is like sipping a fine whiskey as you try to dissect its flavor strands–floral like honeysuckle, but some green floral undernotes, some oak barrel spiciness, and only a hint of apple, Chardonnay’s go-to comparison. It is fullish and textured without being heavy–a rare Tuscan treat.