Wines like this are so very rewarding. This was a difficult vintage, and you could instinctively downgrade a wine from such a scorching hot growing season. Instead, the 2003 Le Pergole Torte delivers unexpected surprises. It meets the high-quality bar achieved at Montevertine. With fruit picked on September 22, this vintage represents the estate's earliest harvest. This is also the Le Pergole Torte with the lowest acidity ever made. Despite these red flags, the wine delivers a full bouquet with dark mineral notes, succulent fruit, plum and prune. You also get hints of dry hay, black olive and campfire ash. One basic truth remains: By all accounts, this wine should be dead by now. Instead, there is life left within.

The 2003 Le Pergole Torte is an atypically rich, powerful version of this wine but the higher altitude of the vines, which extend to 550 meters, have helped preserve some freshness. It offers a compelling array of black cherry, licorice, mineral notes in a style that expresses the ripeness of the vintage yet is balanced by a classic sense of structure. Still very intense today, it will require a few years in bottle to settle down and may ultimately merit a higher score. “In 2003 we harvested our fruit on the 22nd of September rather than around the 10th of October, which is much more typical. I think it is a vintage that favors the later-ripening Sangiovese over earlier-maturing varietals like Merlot. I don’t expect that the 2003 Pergole Torte will be among the longest-lived vintages, but you never know. Sometime the wines that appear the least interesting when they are young offer the most development over time,” says Manetti. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2019. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchants, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990