2012 Fattoria Ambra Carmignano Montefortini Podere Lombarda 750 ml

Harris Tweed in Berkeley and Galloni’s #1 Tuscan Bargain of 2012

Marco de Grazia was born to an American father and Italian mother. When his parents separated, Marco and his brother Iano stayed with their mother and grew up in Florence. Nearly every night there was a bottle of Tuscan red on the dinner table. The boys took full advantage.

In 1979, Marco moved to California to attend college. Brash and opinionated, de Grazia felt right at home in Berkeley. Dressed in a Harris tweed coat, a bandana around his neck, and a beret, he rode his motorcycle around the Bay Area looking for the Tuscan wines he’d so enjoyed at home.

One day, de Grazia walked into a Berkeley wine shop. It wouldn’t be long before Marco began criticizing the store’s Italian wine selection. The store manager, Joel Butler, who would become one of America’s first Masters of Wine in 1990, was no less opinionated than Marco. Butler held his ground. Despite some heated discussion back and forth, the two hit it off. Over dinner, de Grazia pulled out two bottles he’d smuggled in from Italy and asked Joel’s opinion of each. Butler was wowed, and told de Grazia to export them to the U.S. If so, Butler would stock them in his store.

Over the following 30 years, de Grazia assembled America’s most critically acclaimed Italian wine portfolio. Still, diplomacy wasn’t Marco’s strong suit. He spared no words in criticizing the lean, angular Tuscan and Piedmontese wines of the 1980s. De Grazia’s insistence that growers push the envelope on ripeness and clean up their cellars led the push to more modernistic Sangiovese and Nebbiolos. Marco’s palate preferences were right in tune with the critics’, and de Grazia’s producers soon harvested a bumper crop of rave reviews from Robert Parker, Antonio Galloni, Stephen Tanzer, and Wine Spectator.

While the “Barolo Boys” — led by Elio Altare, Domenico Clerico, and Giorgio Rivetti — were de Grazia’s hot-ticket producers, the Rigoli family’s Fattoria Ambra ranked among Marco’s most captivating discoveries, producing single-vineyard Sangiovese with a healthy splash of broad-shouldered Cabernet Sauvignon.

In 2012, Giuseppe Rigoli turned out a spectacular single-vineyard Carmignano off his family’s small 20-hectare estate.

The 2012 Carmignano Vigna di Montefortini is classic de Grazia. Opaque purple to the rim, with a gorgeous nose of ultra-ripe dark cherry, licorice, tobacco, and Asian spices. Rich, plush, and silken in texture, packing a core of dark-fruit preserves, tempered by dusty Tuscan tannins. Drink now or stash away for another 10 years or so.

For Brunello, California Pinot Noir, or Burgundy aficionados, this offer is like STEALING. 92 points from Antonio Galloni, the most revered Tuscan wine critic on the planet. Just $16.99/bottle on 12 for a few hours this morning. Shipping included on 6.