Wine of the week: a well-bred, hidden Italian gem

2016 ColleMassari, Poggio Lombrone, Sangiovese Riserva, Montecucco, Tuscany, Italy

£32.50, reduced to £29.25 until 6 May for MoneyWeek readers, Decorum Vintners 020-8969 6581, email: wine@decvin.com

Montecucco, which neighbours Montalcino, is often described as the “hidden gem” of Tuscany. I have never visited, because I have stuck to the well-trodden path in Montalcino, seeking out the vaunted Brunellos and their accordingly nose-bleed prices. If I am brutally honest, I find many Brunello di Montalcinos either a little too rustic and old-fashioned or, at the other end of the spectrum, body-building, black wines with forests of oak strapped to their glistening thighs and horrendous halos of alcohol swirling around their braggadocious heads. My featured wine is made in precisely the same manner as Brunello di Montalcino (BdM) and from the same grape, but it is a rare delight.

Decorum has only 240 bottles of Poggio Lombrone, and it hails from the highly fancied 2016 vintage. Tasted blind, you are in the very top echelons of BdM. If you can get past the garish copper-hued label and its ambitious font-frenzy, you will experience a tremendously well-balanced sangiovese that takes no time at all to show you every facet of its excellence. The fruit is dark, layered, sumptuous and controlled, and the tannins are remarkably well-drilled. You can drink this today or in ten years, and it’s precisely half the price of an estate Brunello or buffoonish Super-Tuscan, yet it shows aweinspiring sophistication and breeding. I believe this vintage signals the birth of a superstar.

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