2024 Petrolo Galatrona Val D'Arno Di Sopra DOC 750 ml

Masseto ($1,000+). Messorio ($300). Sassicaia ($250). The most coveted Super Tuscans come with exorbitant prices. Petrolo’s Galatrona is a peer of these gems—and comes at a fraction of the cost.

Over the last decade, Luca Sanjust’s Petrolo has become one of the most critically decorated estates in Tuscany, with Wine Spectator calling this top cuvée, Galatrona, the “Le Pin of Tuscany,” comparing it to the mythic Pomerol that trades for $4,500 or more.

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.

Galatrona wears the Val d’Arno di Sopra DOC today, though for years it was labeled simply Toscana IGT. That appellation carries rare history: in 1716, Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici drew boundaries around just four wine zones—Chianti, Pomino, Carmignano, and Valdarno di Sopra—one of Europe’s first appellations, nearly 250 years before France’s AOC. Valdarno di Sopra was later folded into Chianti and didn’t reclaim its own DOC until 2011. Today the appellation is farmed entirely organic, Petrolo included.

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.