Felsina Maestro Raro Cabernet Sauvignon Tuscany 2019

If you were savvy enough to snag any of Fèlsina’s glorious 95-point Chianti we offered a few weeks back, you know… this is an iconic Tuscan estate making fantastic wines across their portfolio. 95 POINTS again – but this time in a remarkable, Super-Tuscan style of 100% cabernet sauvignon!

From an estate that was once a post station of the Roman Empire – situated on an important road, and designed as a place to meet, take rest, and reinvigorate oneself for the journey ahead – Fèlsina has endured as a farm of great importance for centuries. The ancient wine cellar had been used for bottling as far back as the early 1900s, though it wasn’t until the late 1960s that this estate took on its current shape.

In 1966, when Domenico Poggiali Fèlsina purchased the estate, Italy was in the midst of a bit of a wine crisis. Outside of Italy, the wines were struggling, and many growers were abandoning their vines for new careers closer to the big cities. He, like other visionaries of the time, fell in love with the Tuscan countryside and took the risk to create something special. Now, over 50 years later, he has achieved just that.

The cabernet grapes for Maestro Raro are sourced from two estate vineyards – Rancia Piccola and Poggiolo – set amongst the rolling, verdant backdrop of Tuscany. The first vintage of this wine goes back to 1987, before the Super-Tuscan frenzy of the mid-90s. The grapes here are traditionally harvested, de-stemmed, and crushed with fermentation occurring exclusively in stainless steel. They settle in tank for several months, before transferring to new French oak barrels for 18-20 months of additional maturation. After bottling, a further 10 months of aging occurs before release.

Fresh from Italy, this beauty has just arrived, and...wow! What. A. Beast. Galloni nailed it when he called this “...impressive. Dark, layered and striking in its completeness, Maestro Raro is endowed with terrific depth and sheer resonance.” Loaded with Black Pearl cherries, crisp plums, minty freshness, licorice, and coffee beans – this is nuanced, layered, and far more than just rich and round. It’s those, too, but there is a precision here – a jagged vein of mineral substratum and a lean and mean tension to the wine that slowly unravels to reveal something epic. A complex, deeply concentrated, and purely vibrant wine that is only going to improve with time. This is one to savor.