2015 Fattoria Le Pupille Saffredi Maremma Toscana Magnum (1.5 L) Magnum

Remember the name Le Pupille Saffredi: You’ll be seeing it over and over, as your eyes pass over the most coveted wines in your cellar, because that’s exactly where this wine belongs. The 2015 Saffredi earned 99 points from Italian wine expert James Suckling, a score that put it just one point behind the flawless 2015 Solaia ($361) and above Super Tuscan blue-chips Sassicaia and Ornellaia ($261, $233). 

In other words, this is your chance to cellar a large-format, age-worthy 99-point Super Tuscan for much less than you’d pay for one 750 ml. bottle of some of Tuscany’s biggest names.

A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot and Petit Verdot, the Saffredi is Tuscany’s coastal Maremma at its best. It boasts a purple hue with garnet rim, and is gorgeous from entry to finish, starting with bold notes of espresso, savory herbs, and mocha-infused berry fruit on the nose, then segueing into a palate laden with black and blue fruit. Saffredi always radiates along the mid-palate with plushness and balance, with superb refinement on the finish. 

As Suckling’s score makes plain, this red can go toe-to-toe with the top billings from neighboring Bolgheri. Enjoy it now, but in magnum format, it can go strong for another ten years, easy. 

Fattoria Le Pupille existed for years in the humble and nondescript DOC of Morellino di Scansano. But that all changed in 1984—that’s when Elisabetta Geppetti inherited her family’s small estate, which came with consulting winemaker Giacomo Tachis, the late Antinori ace who would eventually go on to be crowned Decanter’s Man of the Year.

When Elisabetta took over, Super Tuscan wines—Bordeaux-style blends made all over Tuscany—were making inroads, and Tachis encouraged her to make one at Le Pupille. The Saffredi blend was born in 1987, and with Tachis’ name attached, it started garnering some serious attention. All of a sudden, the out-of-the-way Le Pupille estate and its flagship wine were being mentioned in the same breath as Sassicaia, Ornellaia, and the other Super Tuscans taking the world by storm.

Elisabetta saw to it that Saffredi belonged at the top of the Super Tuscan food chain, and her impact has been long-lasting. Now, more than three decades later, Elisabetta is known as “The Lady of Morellino” and the “Ambassador of Maremma,” largely because of the success of Saffredi, one of the region’s marquee wines.

Grown on a sandstone-heavy, 35-acre vineyard planted mostly to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, the blend (which includes 10% Petit Verdot) spends 18 months in 75% new French oak barriques, which polishes its tannins, yielding a rich and long-finishing Super Tuscan classic. It’ll be a stellar large-format addition to your cellar.