2021 I Greppi Greppicaia Bolgheri Superiore 750 ml

Bolgheri produces Italy’s most lush, luxurious Bordeaux-style red wines. Wine Spectator called it “Tuscany’s Napa”—and I Greppi makes some of the finest Super Tuscan blends out there.

They’re a young estate by Tuscan standards—founded just in 2001—but have had a meteoric rise to stardom thanks to a single-mindedness on quality through research and refinement. That started at the beginning, when a team of scientists identified a prime location in Bolgheri as perfect for the project.

The tiny, 14-hectare estate sits near the Greppi Cupi lakes that give the estate its name. Those bodies of water provide thermal moderation, allowing for even ripening of the Bordeaux grape-varieites planted in the gravel, sandstone, and clay/limestone soils. Those vineyards are also only three miles from the Etruscan coast, with plenty of maritime influence that serves to warm the vines early in the day but prevent temperatures from getting too warm in the heat of summer.

From the beginning, I Greppi attracted attention, with Antonio Galloni declaring, “we will have much to look forward to over the coming years” after tasting their initial releases. A few years later, he urged his readers to look for the wines, noting “I Greppi flies a bit under the radar next to its much more famous (and expensive!) neighbors, but the wines often deliver excellent value” from the top to the bottom of their range.

Greppicaia is their top bottling—it’s “aia” ending a clue that it’s made and blended to compete with the very best of Tuscany. Blended from their top lots of Cabernet Sauvignon, which provides the main character of the wine, as well as Cab Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, and aged in prime French oak, it’s full-bodied and powerful.