2013 Castello dei Rampolla Sammarco Toscana IGT

Castello dei Rampolla’s new releases are off the charts. Specifically, the 2013 Sammarco and d’Alceo are two of the most profound Italian wines I have ever tasted. Brother and sister Luca and Maurizia di Napoli approach farming and winemaking with a decidedly spiritual approach that reflects the pace of another time. Everything seems to move in slow motion at Rampolla. Biodynamic farming and non-interventionalist winemaking are the rule. In recent years, some of the wines (especially Sammarco and the Sangiovese) have been partly aged in terra cotta amphora, while the estate has also experimented with no SO2 in the Sangiovese. Readers who want to learn about this remarkable, world-class estate will find plenty of background information in the two complete verticals of Sammarco and d’Alceo that have been published in Vinous over the last few years.