2018 Tenuta Loacker Valdifalco Morellino di Scansano Tuscany 750 ml

In Italy, you could call Sangiovese the king.

The red grape is the country’s most widely planted variety, and arguably its most versatile. But while Brunello delivers stately red-fruit complexity and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano offers freshness and vibrancy, some of the fullest, ripest, most charmingly earthy Sangiovese comes from Morellino di Scansano.
The 2018 Tenuta Valdifalco embodies the dynamic rusticity that’s got some of Italy’s top winemakers flocking to Morellino. It’s a showcase of character that kicks off with bold fruit, from plums to black cherry to boysenberry, then turns to holiday spice and pink peppercorns. Built on powerful tannins and generous acidity, the wine has plenty of underlying details to tease out.

The Valdifalco picks up enticing nuances from its home terroir on the Tyrrhenian Coast. The Morellino di Scansano region occupies the far south of Tuscany, where warm days ripen grapes more reliably than the cooler northern areas, while maritime breezes and brisk nighttime temperatures preserve fresh acidity. That climate led Wine Enthusiast to call it “perfectly suited to grape-growing.” Wine Spectator dubbed the larger Maremma region “grape heaven.”

The Loacker family—owners of Tenuta Valdifalco—knows that you don’t mess with terroir like that. Their land lies partially in the Uccellina Nature Park’s rugged, littoral hills, and they use only organic and biodynamic practices to draw out the purest character of their Sangiovese.

They blend that Sangiovese with 15% Syrah, ferment the juice with indigenous yeasts, then give almost all the wine a 14-month rest in stainless-steel tanks. That light touch in the cellar helps make the Valdifalco a refined and unadulterated look at Morellino di Scansano’s terroir.