2023 Petrolo Galatrona Val D'Arno Di Sopra 750 ml

Over the last decade, Luca Sanjust’s Petrolo has become one of the most critically decorated estates in Tuscany, and Galatrona is the estate’s calling card. Wine Spectator has called this top cuvée the “Le Pin of Tuscany,” referring to the mythic Pomerol that trades for $4,000 or more. 

We love that moniker, but since Galatrona is a blue-chip Merlot from Tuscany, Masseto is the obvious comparison. While James Suckling hasn’t scored Masseto’s $900+ 2023 flagship yet, he has scored Masseto’s sacred second wine, Massetino: It earned 95 points, and it goes for $347. 

With a glowing 98-point score from Suckling, Galatrona not only smokes Massetino at a third of the price—it also sits atop the Tuscan hierarchy: No 2023 red from the region has scored higher. 

Suckling has called Galatrona “a new reference point for Merlot in Italy,” and Antonio Galloni of Vinous lauded this 2023 as “soft, plush and sensual.” It’s a bona fide collectible that competes with the elite red wines of Tuscany and the world, and it comes at an absurdly affordable price. 

We first visited Petrolo in the fall of 2013. Located in the Valdarno Superiore, in the center of a triangle made by Florence to the north, Siena to the southwest, and Arezzo to the southeast, it’s the only notable estate in the neighborhood. But as you pull into the property and begin climbing—and climbing—you quickly get a sense of the passion and resolve that went into the planting and goes into upkeep of this world-class vineyard. 

The estate is a sprawling 672-acre mix of forest and hills, but just 11 percent of it is planted, to Sangiovese and Bordeaux varieties. And while Petrolo also produces other incredibly delicious wines—their Torrione bottling regularly scores in the 90s—it’s Galatrona that has our heart.

This is a 100% Merlot that explodes from the glass with the kind of fruit you cannot help but adore right away, but it’s still structured by the kind of tannins and acidity that promise decades more evolution in the cellar. There are only so many pure world-class Merlots out there, and this is the most accessible one. Don’t miss it.