Solaia is Antinori’s answer to the same question Sassicaia asked: what happens if you plant Bordeaux varieties on great Tuscan ground and ignore the rulebook. The vineyard is a ten-hectare, south-west facing slope on the Tignanello estate in Chianti Classico, at 350 to 400 metres on stony alberese and galestro soils. The name means « the sunny one ».

First made in 1978, it is roughly 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Sangiovese and 5% Cabernet Franc — the Sangiovese is what keeps it Tuscan rather than a Bordeaux imitation. Aged around eighteen months in French oak, and released only in years the estate judges worthy.

2015 was a warm, sunny, generous Tuscan season saved from excess by well-timed August rain. Where the 2010 is built on structure, this one is built on flesh — among the most immediately seductive Solaias made.

Ripe blackberry and cassis over tobacco, vanilla and thyme; generous and velvety on the palate, the tannins ripe and enveloping, closing long and warm. Drinkable now for the pleasure of it, and capable of twenty more years.

Supplied in original wooden case, twelve bottles.