Wine of the week: three stunning Italian reds

(Image credit: 2015 Birba, La Gerla)

last updated 14 May 2021

2015 Birba, La Gerla, Tuscany, Italy

Robbie Toothill is a wine buyer at Lay & Wheeler and his palate is impeccable. Here are three stunning Italian reds that Robbie has unearthed, two of which I know well and one which is a brand-new find. My advice is to mix a case and treat your palate to these extraordinarily delicious and competitively priced wines.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

In order, from the “lightest” to the “heaviest”, first up is the 2017 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Boscarelli (£20.68), a smooth, seamless sangiovese with little or no tannin and a snap of keen acidity on its finish. It is a cranberry- and sour-cherry-soaked fellow that is eminently gluggable as well as being effortlessly classy. Second is my featured Birba, which means “little rascal” in the local dialect. Made by a fabulous Brunello di Montalcino producer, this is a seriously plush, spicy, ripe and oaky wine that is every inch a Super-Tuscan – superbly luxurious and immensely impressive. If it wore a £50 price tag I wouldn’t have blinked. “Little rascal” should be renamed “big beauty”!

Finally, the 2016 Arte Langhe Rosso Domenico Clerico (£24.28) is made by an elite Piemonte estate and this nebbiolo and barbera blend is impactful, stuffed with glamorous black-fruit tones and oodles of attitude. Just starting to drink well and with another ten years in the tank, this is another heroic discovery. Tre applausi!

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com).

Explore More

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.