2016 Tenuta Collazzi Toscana Tuscany 750 ml

You don’t always need to spend a fortune to acquire a fabulous, top-pedigree Super Tuscan from an incredible collector’s vintage like 2016. This bottle exhibits that principle: It went stride for stride with the Super Tuscan classics in our blind tasting, and boasts 95 points from James Suckling.

Crafted by Tuscan wine royalty, you can lock down this profound Bordeaux-blend expression—with its dark blackberry, cassis, and balsamic-soaked dried cherries from vines rooted in clay soil—for just $36 a bottle. All the Italian elegance you crave, with none of the sticker shock.

A collector friend recently tasked us with putting together a case of some of his wife’s favorite wines for a surprise 50th-anniversary gift. He handed us a list, scrawled his budget at the top, and sent us to work hunting down bottles of Jacques Selosse’s Le Mesnil sur Oger Les Carelles, Dalla Valle Maya, Yves Cuilleron Côte-Rôties, and other dream cuvées.

At the bottom of his list he’d included “Any 2016 Super Tuscans: Tignanello, Sassicaia, Ornellaia, etc.” We didn’t quite have the heart to tell him that his budget, while sizable, wouldn’t cover those last pricey items after securing everything else. So instead, we met him for dinner at a red-sauce BYO with a brown paper bag, which we told him contained a Super Tuscan for his wife’s case.

We poured and his eyes went wide. Dense ruby in the glass with out-of-this-world aromas: ripe plum, mocha, sweet red cherry, tobacco, and smoked wood, and that was just within a few minutes of opening. On the palate, a masterful structure built to last and seamlessly melding bright acidity, caressing, dusty tannins, and a persistent finish with lingering notes of spice and licorice. No wonder Vinous’s Antonio Galloni called Tuscany’s 2016 “a classic vintage in the making” and “nothing less than thrilling.”

“Is it Tignanello? Or Solaia?” our friend wanted to know. We pulled off the paper bag, revealing this 2016 Collazzi, and scratched out the above chart on a napkin to make our point. The 2016 Tignanello and Ornellaia got 97 and 98 points from James Suckling—at an average cost of $143 and $252. This Collazzi was just a few hairs shy of those in the point department with a 95 from Suckling, yet magnitudes less expensive. Not to mention, it has pedigree to burn, made by the famous Marchi brothers and Bona Marchi Frescobaldi at a villa originally designed by Michelangelo.

He didn’t have to think twice. He asked us to tack on a case of the 2016 Collazzi to his order. At this price, and with most retailers already sold out, that’s the overwhelmingly smart move for Tuscan value hunters.