2018 Noelia Ricci Il Sangiovese Predappio Romagna 750 ml

Tasting any Italian wine alongside heavyweights like Gaja, Sassicaia, and Masseto is usually putting it at an unfair disadvantage, especially a value red from a (relatively) newly recognized DOC. But at a blind tasting with an impressive group of Bay Area sommeliers, this 2018 Noelia Ricci Il Sangiovese Predappio more than held its own. 

This floral, minerally, and bright red was a top contender for wine of the night, kicking off an exhaustive (and exhausting) search to track down its producer so we could secure some for our red wine devotees.

We found this gem at Wingtip, the members-only club in the heart of San Francisco, where we’d been invited to participate in the club's Cigars and Blind Tasting night. Organized by some of the city’s most influential sommeliers, the theme was Italian, and the usual $250+ suspects proved the social currency. The Master Sommelier with the least to prove was the one who pulled out this 2018 Noelia Ricci Il Sangiovese just after the most expensive wine had made its rounds, pouring it blind with a special twinkle in his eye. 

An intoxicating red rose-petal perfume filled the penthouse, overpowering even the lingering aromas left by the $725 Masseto. Mystified by what this impressive encore could be, we focused on the baked plum, red berry, tobacco leaf, and herbal spice tones that proved as warm and sensuous as our rich, leather-bound private setting. 

Our guesses were futile, all amounting to wines that would equal the cost of prix fixe dinner extravaganza rather than just an à la carte pasta course. 

Noelia Ricci was a favorite discovery of this Master Sommelier on a fact-finding trip he’d taken to Emilia-Romagna last year. One of the hottest producers of the area, contemporary wines like this Il Sangiovese have helped the south-eastern Romagna subregion finally win its DOC status in 2011.  

With its similar history, climate, and topography as Tuscany, Romagna has been dubbed the next Italian capital of Sangiovese. Based at the foot of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, Noelia Ricci’s calcareous yellow clay soils pay tribute to its neighbor’s classic Chianti styles while producing a richer, more focused wine. 

Though the Ricci family has been at it since 1941, when Giuseppe Ricci took over the estate (naming it after his daughter Noelia), the world’s most plugged-in sommeliers fell in love this wine for its modern take on traditional grape varieties. The young fourth-generation vintners age this wine in stainless steel, avoiding over-extraction, excessive alcohol content, and overpowering concentration, striving instead for a Sangiovese of strong personality and complexity that can cellar for decades while maintaining a tremendous drinkability while young. 

Just as it wowed us at Wingtip, Noelia Ricci’s flagship Il Sangiovese has indeed won over the few critics who have been lucky enough to taste it, winning Italy’s prestigious Tre Bicchieri award in nearly every vintage since its 2010 debut.

We searched high and low to bring it to the United States, and we’re thrilled to have the exclusive on this gorgeous 2018 for as unbelievably low as $23 per bottle. Representing the very best of what top sommeliers are calling the next Tuscany, this is a chance to discover the next great Italian wine region for a song.