Pizzini Rubacuori Sangiovese 2016

You’ve heard of single vineyard wines; prized for their premium soil or location. Having championed Sangiovese for more than 30 years, Pizzini decided to step it up a notch with Rubacuori, a wine made from selection of their best individual vines. Rubacuori translates as ‘heart breaker’ and features one on the label –  matriarch Katrina Pizzini in 1970, a few years before the first vineyards were planted at the Pizzini’s beautiful home in the King Valley.

A wine like this deserves to be decanted but even straight from the bottle it offers an impressive interplay of tar and roses. The fruit is deep and juicy – black cherries and blackberry compote. Savoury complexity comes to the fore with Umeboshi (Japanese salted plums), dried Italian herbs, black truffles and the earthiness of ferrous crushed rocks in the summer sun. With a silky, mouth-filling texture and lashings of complexity you will want to drink it now. However the structured tannins, supple acidity and length for days raise a compelling argument to keep at least a couple of bottles in the cellar.