Alessandro Stefani Supera II Cabernet Franc 2024

The first thing I notice is flowers rather than greenness. Lavender, then blueberries, green strawberries, tomato water, pepper, damp turned soil; the fruit moves above and below ground. The acidity is properly mouthwatering, and underneath is a fine graphite structure, just enough bone for a wine that otherwise feels quite transparent. 

Fruit, earth, flowers, graphite, back to fruit. 

There is a thread running through Alessandro’s wines that makes sense once you know he never trained under a Cabernet winemaker. His formative years were in Burgundy at Domaine de Montille, then in Germany, and you can feel that palate here: an attraction to perfume, freshness, acid and tannin that doesn’t need to dominate the wine. 

Cabernet Franc gives him plenty to work with. In 2024 he picked with high acidity and ripe  flavour at around 12.5% alcohol, which becomes an important distinction because nothing here tastes underripe. The fruit is 100% destemmed and kept as whole berries. Fermentation takes five to seven days to properly begin, then the wine spends around 30 days on skins with very little intervention: a few movements by hand through peak ferment, enough juice over the cap to keep it healthy, otherwise it sits. 

Alessandro describes Cabernet skins in a way I like; thick, crunchy, already full of tannin.  Why push them too much? His extraction feels closer to steeping. Give the skins time in the wine and let the structure come out on its own. Two years in neutral barrique follow;  sulphur only comes close to bottling. 

On opening, Supera II can look slender, even a little skeletal, the acidity and graphite exposed before the fruit has quite filled the frame. Then the blueberry widens, lavender starts floating back through, savoury notes gather around the centre. It fleshes out without losing that transparency. I had it opened for a week and went back to it, and the wine was absolutely singing.  

Calling this Cabernet Franc for Pinot drinkers is tempting because the perfume and mobility are there, but it is still Franc: graphite, earth, red and blue fruit, acidity, that slightly leafy savouriness sitting underneath rather than taking over.  

Vivid is the word.  

Liinaa Berry

Liinaa Berry is a Melbourne-based wine critic and consultant with over a decade of experience as a sommelier and wine buyer across Australia and around the world where she has built award-winning wine programs and championed independent producers with conviction. Now focused on reviewing and writing, Liinaa brings a floor-trained palate and commercial insight to her assessments. She is also the Melbourne Ambassador for Star Wine List and serves on the committee of Sommeliers Australia. An advocate for site-driven wines and thoughtful farming, Liinaa is particularly drawn to producers who articulate a clear sense of place. Her tasting philosophy centres on structure, balance and context — always asking not just how a wine tastes, but why it matters.