Rocca di Montegrossi pre-shipment offer
Marco Ricasoli Firidolfi's finest set of wines to date
Marco Ricasoli Firidolfi is a man at the top of his game. His 2009 is the Wine Advocate's equal-highest-scoring Chianti Classico normale of this superb vintage; his single vineyard 2007 San Marcellino is possibly the best Chianti Classico - bar none - he's ever made.
As regular customers will know (see “Rocca di Montegrossi - The very essence of Chianti Classico”), the Ricasoli family wrote the story of Chianti Classico, and created the formula for the wine we know today at the site of what is now Marco's San Marcellino vineyard. What you may not know is that - even at the basic level - the wines age beautifully. When we visited last year, Marco served us a 1990 Chianti Classico under the Rocca di Montegrossi label. Although that was only the predecessor to the wine he produces today - his family made it for an American importer - it was still drinking beautifully: brick red in colour and wonderfully mellow and subtle. It was at that point that I decided to cellar a few bottles for myself of each of his wines as they are released. Because as you can see from the Wine Advocate extract below, this isn't an estate to follow only in the good years. /AR
'My visit last year with proprietor Marco Ricasoli was illuminating, as we tasted through a number of older wines. The progress this young estate has made under Ricasoli's leadership is nothing short of remarkable. I would be remiss if I didn't say a word about the most surprising wine Ricasoli poured. It wasn't one of his higher-end selections, but rather the straight 2002 Chianti Classico that impressed the most. Readers, of course, know 2002 was one of the worst years on record in northern Italy, yet this was a beautiful, mid-weight wine with no hard edges or signs of greenness, and the freshness to drink well for a number of years to come. It was truly a mind-opening wine.' - Antonio Galloni, Wine Advocate, October 2010
PS We visited with Ossie Gray, wine and olive oil buyer for The River Cafe. He'd never tried Marco's oil before, but reckoned it as fine as anything else he buys. Produced almost exclusively from the Correggiolo variety, farmed organically and harvested in October at the midpoint of ripeness, it is a piquant oil with a green colour and intense fruity aromas. At £15 for 50cl, it's also something of a bargain...
Offered subject to confirmation for shipment winter 2011/12
