“Might well be the best red wine I have tasted all year.” - Walter Speller, Italian editor for Jancis Robinson’s website

“Bursting with energy, stunning in its depth and complexity.” - Walter Speller

“It is the perfect example of Il Maiolo’s philosophy which centres around taking time and not rushing anything. I am still stunned just thinking of this wine.” - Walter Speller

When I tasted this wine recently and was told that it was produced in 2004, I was astonished. Not so much because the wine was in such great shape, but because I hadn’t fully appreciated that 2004 was 21 years ago! The wine itself certainly felt ‘mature’, showing some lovely tertiary aromas of worn leather and autumn leaves, but there was still so much rich and glowing fruit that it felt more like a wine with only a decade under its belt, not one that was produced in the year of the ‘Friends’ finale and the year that Facebook was launched.

It’s a real privilege to drink a wine like this, made with the healthiest, organically-grown grapes (a blend of Barbera, Bonarda, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot), because it shows how the efforts undertaken in the vineyard can produce such wonderful experiences downstream. It’s rich and supple, ”bursting with energy” (as Walter Speller notes), with flavours that bring together impressions of damsons steeped in cherry juice and hints of orange peel with a long walk through the woods in autumn time, with suggestions of golden leaves, undergrowth and barnyard. It’s a grand wine, deserving of your best wide-bowled glasses, to be enjoyed with a meal that took a lot of effort to prepare, much like the wine. Try it with beef wellington, roast venison with red wine and juniper sauce or a rack of lamb.

We shipped this wine in April 2024 directly from the estate, where it has been lying in their cold cellars since it was bottled in 2010. Wild yeast fermentation, 60 days on the skins. Aged for 6 years in large 50h/l oak barrels. 14% alc. Drink now-2029.

Organic (certified). Biodynamic.

Press review:

JancisRobinson.com: “Impenetrable dark ruby with orange tinges. Impressive, deep, complex nose for this 20-year-old wine. Sour cherry with notes of damson, cassis, blackberry and horse saddle. Hints of undergrowth and tobacco leaf and iron. Succulent, deep cherry fruit with supple acidity and silky tannins. Energetic, long and lifted and now at its peak. Amazing nose and depth. A stunning wine. Drink now-2030.” 17.5 points

A note on the winemaking

Winemaker, Francesco Torre, is adamant that wild yeast fermentation (where the fermentation is initiated by the yeasts found on the skins of the grapes and/or in the winery) brings out the best in his wine, allowing it to take its own natural course, and he eschews the chemical tweaks that commercial winemakers use during élevage to stabilise and, one could argue, neutralise the final outcome. He accepts that it is “a longer, more tortuous road, certainly more risky but, based on the experience gained in recent years, it’s the only way to hope to obtain a truly great wine, capable of expressing all of its complexity, longevity and authentic personality and not just a story trivially told.”