2017 Luce della Vite 'Lucente' Toscana IGT Tuscany 750 ml

Luce della Vite is Italy’s Opus One—a powerhouse estate dripping with luxury pedigree, producing wines that are among the richest and most monumental produced in the country.

Co-founded by Robert Mondavi and Vittorio Frescobaldi, Luce della Vite has done for Tuscany what Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild did for Napa Valley with Opus One. The flagship wine Luce, a Super Tuscan blend of Sangiovese and Merlot, has become synonymous with staggering concentration and power, racking up 98- and 97-point scores.

Like Mondavi’s iconic Napa winery, Luce della Vite boasts a second wine, Lucente, that we believe is one of the greatest sleeper hits of Tuscany’s Montalcino subregion. The same voluptuous blend as Luce, made from the same high-elevation vineyards and by the same renowned team. In 2017, that winning recipe yielded heady blackberry and clove aromatics and a ripe mocha-tinged purple fruit core, buttressed by firm acids. 

With our discount, this release screams value. We can’t recommend the 2017 Lucente highly enough as a rare chance to sample the luscious, benchmark Luce style without spending a fortune.

After helping launch Napa into the stratosphere and partnering with Baron Philippe de Rothschild to create Opus One, Robert Mondavi turned his attention toward his family’s native Italy. Just as Baron Philippe had found California’s quintessential producer in Mondavi, Mondavi found the perfect partner for his Italian project in the Frescobaldi family, whose Tuscan roots go back to the 1300s. When Frescobaldi family patriarch Vittorio saw a kindred spirit in the iconoclastic Mondavi—whose parents had moved from the Marche to America in the early part of the 20th century—Luce della Vite was born. 

If Luce is a Napa Cabernet drinker’s Super Tuscan, Lucente is its more classically Italian younger brother, defined by litheness, energy, and acidity. The Sangiovese and Merlot grapes hail from some of the highest slopes in Montalcino, bordering on the Frescobaldi’s Castelgiocondo, famous for its Brunello di Montalcino.

Higher altitude plots, rich in galestro definition with schist and limestone, offer perfect conditions for Sangiovese. On lower, cooler sections, heavy clay terroir is ideal for growing structured Merlot. The two are fermented separately and see twelve months in a mix of new and old wooden barriques, resulting in a less oaky expression than Luce.

$25 for the kind of critically acclaimed Tuscan pedigree that usually costs $100. We haven’t been able to resist this offering from the Frescobaldi family, and today we’re sharing one of our favorite Montalcino deals with you.