2020 Tenuta degli Dei Cavalli Toscana IGT 750 ml

For Super Tuscan enthusiasts and Italian collectors, the Tenuta Degli Dei Cavalli is an all-time favorite. This Cabernet blend consistently matches the scores of Tuscan icons—and Antonio Galloni wrote that the 2020 “might be the best vintage yet.” Competing directly with Ornellaia and Tignanello, it’s a gem of Tuscany’s iconic Conca d’Oro, and it’s near-impossible to find in the United States. 

We first went nuts for Cavalli after sampling it at a trattoria in Florence, where we were immediately pulled in by its seductive aromas and sophisticated palate. This ruby gem is just getting started after three years in bottle, and in another four to six years this will be one of the silkiest, most polished Tuscan reds in your cellar—one whose price your guests won’t believe.

The Cavalli in the name is Roberto Cavalli, the recently passed fashion designer who had been coming to this picturesque Tuscan village—a stone’s throw from the stunning Romanesque parish church in San Leolino—since the early 1970s. He eventually bought the breathtaking estate, which came with a small vineyard that was in complete disrepair. In 2000, Roberto’s son Tommaso Cavalli set about planting the vineyard anew.

Roberto may not have known it, but he had stumbled across a genuine viticultural goldmine. The estate is located in the heart of Tuscany’s iconic Conca d’Oro, or “golden basin”: an amphitheater-like cradle near Panzano, seemingly custom-made for grapegrowing, thanks to its ideal microclimate, high-altitude vineyards, and south-facing orientation.

When it comes to Tuscany, this is the expression we so often crave: a nose overflowing with blackcurrants and redcurrants, blackberry, black raspberry, and raw chocolate, plus an energetic, balanced palate upheld by a firm tannic structure.