This blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot is exuberant and explosive. The 2020 Saffredi reveals a very ripe and rich interpretation of this iconic wine made by Elisabetta Geppetti and her family. The blend of fruit is the same, but 2020 actually sees less oak intervention to allow that dark fruit to shine through. There is blackberry, perfumed rose, dried apricot, spice and sweet cinnamon. In all, the wine offers immediate fruit and a vertical delivery of flavors. Finding that combination of wine versus oak is not easy, Elisabetta tells me.

My article on icon wines from Tuscany focuses primarily on releases from the 2018 vintage. Fattoria le Pupille releases its top wine, the 2019 Saffredi, earlier than the rest. This blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot is explosive. The percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon has been slightly increased in this vintage (and we can expect the same in the warm 2020 vintage that saw the percentage of Merlot further reduced). This 2019 expression boasts a very compact and powerful quality of fruit with deep intensity, thick layering and a velvety texture. This is a real beauty that should be put aside for a few more years of aging.

The Fattoria le Pupille 2018 Saffredi borrows quite a bit from all of the grapes that make up the blend (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot). These balanced results open to a round bouquet of dark fruit, black cherry and plum. As the wine warms in the glass, it shows spice, cured tobacco and campfire embers. This is a full-bodied expression but not excessively so. It puts forth immediate elegance with carefully measured tannins and a fitting postscript of fresh acidity. This newest vintage of Saffredi should be hitting the market now, but if you buy it, you should plan on cellaring it.

Wow, there is a very impressive freshness here that defies the heat of this vintage. The 2017 Saffredi does not seem like a 2017 at all. Now celebrating its 30th birthday, Saffredi is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Petit Verdot. Thanks to the vineyard's proximity to the sea, leaving leaves on the vines and the sharp diurnal shifts of the area, the fruit was able to ripen in a balanced manner despite the hot and dry summer. The team at Fattoria le Pupille knew they would have to be ready to harvest early and lose some their yields, and they did. In the end, production was down 25%, but the result is a fresh, thick and beautiful red made with ripe fruit and dark concentration. This is a great effort from Fattoria le Pupille. This wine will be released in November.

The 2016 Saffredi brings full-throttled intensity in a very well-balanced wine. The blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (30%) and Petit Verdot (10%) spends 18 months in mostly new oak. This vintage is compact, firm and precise, with lovely floral aromas on the bouquet in front of blackberry and plum. Long oak toasting gives the wine tasty notes of spice and cinnamon and rounds the bouquet off nicely. The mouthfeel is soft and velvety. This is a complex, integrated and absolutely beautiful wine.