2024 Dei Rosso di Montepulciano
Caterina Dei — winemaker, musician, singer, actress, and overachiever of historic proportions — runs a Montepulciano estate whose winery was personally designed and built by her father Glauco from the family's own travertine marble, descends to its cellars via a nautilus-shaped staircase, and produces a "simple" Rosso by blending organically farmed Martiena cru fruit with up to thirty percent of wine that literally auditioned for the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG, made the cut, and was then declassified downward on purpose because Caterina had other plans for it. The sandy tuffaceous soils, the indigenous yeasts, the large Slavonian oak casks, the six months of bottle rest — none of it is trying to be fancy. It just cannot help itself. The Wine Advocate describes Caterina's wines as ranking "among the leaders of the pack in Montepulciano," which means this Rosso is essentially a leader wearing a disguise, and the disguise is extremely reasonably priced.
The facts
90% Sangiovese (Prugnolo Gentile clone), 5% Canaiolo Nero, 5% Merlot
Organically cultivated; 5–40 year old vines in sandy tuffaceous soils of the Martiena cru
Up to 30% declassified from Vino Nobile di Montepulciano production
Indigenous yeast fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel; 14–18 day maceration
Aged 3 months in 33–50 hectoliter Slavonian oak casks; 6 months additional bottle aging before release
~8,000 cases produced annually
Best drinking window: now through 2029
In the glass
Bright ruby with a violet edge, the 2024 opens with crushed raspberry, sour cherry, dried violet, and a thread of licorice that announces this is a wine that has given its personality considerable thought and made some very good decisions. The palate is a clinic in Sangiovese doing what Sangiovese was put on earth to do: brisk, food-craving acidity, fine mineral texture from those tuffaceous soils, plum and red berry fruit with a sweet-sage-and-dried-herb character on the finish that makes "medium-bodied" feel like a vast understatement of how much is actually happening. Tannins are polished and present without being demanding, like a houseguest with excellent opinions who also knows when to be quiet. The fact that a meaningful portion of this blend once auditioned for Vino Nobile and was redirected here is either Montepulciano's most generous open secret or the most delightful thing you'll pour this season. Possibly both. Pair with ribollita, bistecca alla Fiorentina, wild boar ragù, pasta e fagioli, aged pecorino, a margherita pizza that deserves better than it's about to get, or any dinner where the Vino Nobile is being saved for a special occasion and this quietly upstages it anyway.
2023 Rocca del Principe Fiano di Avellino
When Ercole Zarrella and Aurelia Fabrizio — growers from Lapio, Irpinia, so close to the peak of Monte Tuoro that the mountain functions as a personal thermostat for their vineyards — spend years convincing their skeptical family to replant old vines with Fiano, formally found a winery in 2004 from plots split across opposite faces of the Arianiello hillside (volcanic soils on the north, calcareous clay on the south, blended into a single harmonious whole), ferment entirely in stainless steel for forty days, age on lees for ten months with zero oak intervention, and then watch their debut vintage immediately earn Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri and the title of Up-and-Coming Winery of the Year, you don't get "southern Italian white." You get a patient, slightly triumphant argument that Irpinia has been Italy's most underrated white wine appellation for decades and someone really should have said something sooner. Daughter Simona joined as oenologist in 2018. The wines have not gotten worse. With only 1,833 cases produced and 90–92 point scores as a matter of routine, this is a wine that has been quietly winning and waiting for you to catch up.
The facts
100% Fiano from the Lapio districts of Tognano, Arianiello, and Lenze
500–600 meters above sea level; calcareous clay soils of volcanic origin; north/east and west exposures
North/east and west exposures; sustainable farming; no chemical pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers; green harvests performed annually
Fermented in stainless steel (40 days); aged on fine lees in stainless steel for 10 months; 6–8 months additional bottle aging before release
13.5% alcohol; ~1,833 cases produced
Best drinking window: now through 2031 and beyond
In the glass
Pale gold with luminous clarity, the 2023 opens with white flowers, ripe peach, lemon curd, lime zest, and a mineral-smoky thread that the Picentini mountains appear to be contributing personally. The palate is the kind of pure, electric experience that makes you forgive every mediocre white wine you've ever suffered through: stone fruit and citrus giving way to crushed rock, aromatic herbs, and a briny note that reads less like "salty" and more like "altitude and volcanic soil expressing themselves with perfect diction." The forty-day fermentation and nearly a year on lees build a texture that is simultaneously lean and plush — a contradiction Fiano resolves effortlessly through sheer structural confidence. A hazelnut nuttiness lingers in the background, a classic Fiano tell, and the finish arrives with a bitter mineral twist of notable length that demands a second sip to confirm. Confirmed. Age this bottle with any patience and the petrol and hydrocarbon notes that Fiano devotees describe reverently as "development" will begin to emerge, at which point the wine crosses from "impressive" to "alarming in the best way." Pair with spaghetti alle vongole, branzino in acqua pazza, fried zucchini blossoms, burrata with honey, aged provolone, or anyone who insists that interesting white wine can only come from France.
2023 La Spinetta (Piedmont) Barbera d'Asti 'Ca di Pian'
The Rivetti origin story involves a grandfather who left Piedmont for Argentina in the 1890s with dreams of making great wine, never quite got there, and left the ambition to his son Pin, who bought vineyards, married Lidia, and in 1977 moved the family to a hilltop in Castagnole Lanze they named La Spinetta — the top of the hill. They started with Moscato because that's what the neighborhood did. Then in 1985, with an attitude that would become characteristic, they decided to make their first red wine from Barbera and called it Cà di Pian. Four decades later the rhinoceros label (borrowed from an Albrecht Dürer woodcut, because Giorgio Rivetti contains multitudes), the certified-organic farming, and the fruit sourced from 18 vineyards across three zones are all unchanged. What has changed is the résumé: Tre Bicchieri for more than thirty individual wines, Barbaresco and Barolo among the finest in Piedmont, Robert Parker calling Giorgio "one of Italy's most fashionable winemakers." Through all of it, the Cà di Pian remains the wine that started everything — and Jeb Dunnuck just handed the 2023 a 92-point score with the note that it "overdelivers for the price." For a family whose Barbaresco costs considerably more, that's quietly the funniest sentence in Italian wine criticism.
The facts
100% certified-organic Barbera from 18 vineyards across three zones: Castagnole, Montegrosso d'Asti, and Costigliole (including the Bionzo vineyard)
Average vine age 40 years; south-facing at 300 meters; calcareous soil
Harvested late September to early October
Fermentation with ~10-day maceration
Aged 12 months in a mix of new and mainly used, medium-toasted French oak barrique; 6 months bottle aging before release
~5,800 cases (70,000 bottles) produced
Best drinking window: now through 2032
In the glass
An opaque red-magenta that means business before the cork is even out, the 2023 opens with blackberry, blueberry, candied violet, and ripe plum over sweet herbs, mocha, and dark chocolate that makes the whole thing smell like something composed rather than vinified. The palate delivers everything the nose promises and adds lavender, menthol, and a dark spice note that makes "Barbera" and "sophisticated" the same adjective — a thing Barbera has been quietly earning the right to be called for decades and is finally fully comfortable with. The acidity is vibrant and invigorating, doing the particular thing great Barbera acidity does: making the wine feel simultaneously generous and refreshing, neither sweet nor austere, just aggressively alive. Twelve months in French barrique add structure without making you feel like you're chewing furniture. The finish is long and silky with lingering violet and berry notes that have clearly decided to stay well past their welcome, and you will not ask them to leave. Pair with mushroom risotto, sausage and polenta, braised short ribs, pizza with nduja, tagliatelle al ragù, any occasion where the wine list would otherwise charge you twice as much for half the pleasure, or anyone who still thinks Barbera is just what you drink while waiting for the Barolo.