Picture this. It's nearing 4pm on the Tuscan coastline at the end of winter. It's raining. It's dim. It's freezing. The final appointment of the day is in central Tuscany at cult producer, Petrolo, at least 2 hours away. We ring and explain we're running late and ask if they're happy to see us if we arrive at 6pm. They will. Without enthusiasm we start driving. Along the way the rain beats down and just outside Florence an accident adds another 35 minutes to the trip. The temptation to abort the mission is strong! We press on and eventually we climb the narrow drive to the Petrolo winery and house. Expectations are not high apart from a profound hope the tasting is a quick one.
But then we start tasting the new releases. The wines are easily the best I've seen from here. The Torrione in particular is special and the 100% sangiovese (Boggina) is as good as I've ever seen. At this point the power of wine made well speaking of its origins and it's variety takes over. We're hooked in and by the time the tasting finishes a couple of hours later it feels as though we've been going for only half that time.
The point is, these are reference point Tuscan wines and within their genre there are few that are better. What genre I hear you say? Torrione fits into the top echelon of Chianti Classicos and Boggina is a wine that could easily compete with something like a Cepparello from Isole e Olena.