Today’s post is about a Rosso di Montalcino I tried to that I really enjoyed from Roberto Cipresso. Robert is a friend who I met 11 years ago in Argentina by chance.

My friend was looking to import Argentinean wines into Italy so we had the pleasure of meeting with some producers independently when we visited. We met Roberto Cipresso, the winemaker at Achaval Ferrer at that time. Roberto has since become a friend but at the time, I had no idea who he was. A world famous oenologist, he spent about three hours with us tasting from his barrels with a wine thief. I was overcome with delight and didn’t take a single photo but it is all imprinted in my mind. The Finca Mirador, a delicious Malbec and the Quimera, a blend of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc were among my favorites together with the Finca Altamira, also a Malbec. The wines displayed red fruit and minerality, typical of wines from Mendoza but the Mirador is a more robust wine while the Quimera is arguably more nuanced, perfumy and bordeaux like in style. Roberto has a lot of ideas about terroir, wines and almost everything under the sun. He is a truly imaginative person and a terrific winemaker.

Today I was serving another fabulous Rosso di Montalcino from Tiziana Pecci of Celestino Pecci at Zachy’s in Scarsdale. I had no idea that the importer also worked with Roberto’s wines from Montalcino. It was fun to taste them side by side.

2017 was a hot year and Tiziana’s Rosso was a big bold version of this wine. Roberto’s though from a different year was very polished with more oak, a classic Roberto wine.

Rosso di Montalcino is an underrated wine in my view and that has long been the case. I think it’s time for it to get more play and attention from all.