2015 Tassi Franci Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 750 ml

The ultra-rare 100-point 2015 Tassi Franci Riserva is Brunello at its absolute best. It’s a collector’s item that we’d pour (or cellar) alongside First Growth Bordeaux any day of the week—and one that managed to blow away even the world’s most experienced Italian wine experts. 

James Suckling, the former Wine Spectator European Bureau Chief who lives in Tuscany, gave the 2015 Franci Riserva 100 points, naming it his #4 Italian Wine of the Year. Vinous hailed the sublime bottling as “beautiful yet powerful” and “perfectly balanced.” 

This is not the kind of big-name (and just plain big) producer you’ll see on restaurant lists around the world. It’s a boutique Brunello that you’ll find only in the carefully curated cellars of sommeliers and collectors who pay the closest attention to who’s delivering the highest quality in Tuscany. Like us, they’ve noticed that Fabio Tassi has established himself as one of the most formidable vintners in the region. 

But not everyone who knows Fabio Tassi (or finds their way to his Italian-only website) gets a shot at his Riserva: He crafts it in minuscule amounts, and only in flawless seasons like 2015, which Vinous called “easily one of the top eight or ten Brunello vintages of all time.” That’s why we feel extremely lucky to have gotten a share—a tiny allocation that’s better counted in bottles than in cases. 

Only a lucky few collectors will get their hands on this one. It’s a flawless wine from one of Brunello’s top producers and one of the greatest seasons in history… and after this chance is gone, you aren’t likely to get another.

Tassi dwells in the top tier of Brunello. But unlike titans like Biondi-Santi and Banfi, Fabio Tassi didn’t rise slowly over decades. He rocketed to the top. 

Long known in and around Montalcino as the proprietor of Enoteca La Fortezza, the wine bar and shop in Montalcino that is famous for its Italian treasures, Fabio started his winery in 2000 with just four acres of vines. Four years later he began bottling wine from his grandfather’s old vineyard, Vigna Franci. 

Tassi farms two distinct vineyards, both organically. Compared to his more densely planted Tassi vineyard, the Franci parcel is more loosely planted and consists of vines that are over 40 years of age. The south-facing block produces full-bodied, complex wines that generally go into a distinct Brunello bottling—and in exceptional years they get the extra-patient Riserva treatment. 

With its 100-point score, this 2015 tops a career of ever-increasing accolades. We feel lucky to be able to bring it to you. The collectors who claim a bottle, however, will be the luckiest ones of all.