The Tua Rita 2020 Lodano Rosso is mostly Petit Verdot with about 35% Merlot to complete and flesh out the blend. The Merlot comes from old vines planted in rich soil that offers less acidity, especially in the very warm years like 2020. That's why the Petit Verdot works so well to round off this wine. It adds sharper contours, freshness and lots of dark fruit. Grilled poblano pepper, aromas of charred meat, bramble and sweet vanilla spice give volume and intensity. This is a big-bodied red with lasting power and structure.

The Tua Rita 2019 Lodano Rosso is a blend of Petit Verdot and Merlot with fruit from a vineyard that was planted in 2011. The Merlot adds volume and richness, and the Petit Verdot brings sharpness and specific aromas of graphite and pencil shavings. Petit Verdot represents the majority of the blend, but this grape never exceeds 70% of the wine in any vintage. That's because it produces thick skins and very concentrated flavors when cultivated on the Tuscan Coast, and any more would be too much of a good thing. This wine sees brooding black fruit at its core with spice, tobacco and tarry smoke. Some 14,000 bottles were made in this vintage, and that's a bigger production than average.

A blend of Petit Verdot and Merlot, the Tua Rita 2018 Lodano Rosso is another wine that I had tasted in a preview capacity at the beginning of this year. The wine is seamlessly integrated with dark fruit, blackberry and plum that is rounded off nicely by the smoke and tobacco from French oak and a smaller part of American oak. The Merlot is sourced from the estate's celebrated old vines, and a theme of flashy or contemporary concentration and richness is found in this wine and throughout the estate portfolio. This vintage was cool and wet during the spring months but turned much warmer and drier toward the end of the growing season.

The 2017 Lodano Rosso is a new addition to the Tua Rita portfolio, made from ten-year-old Petit Verdot vines and Merlot vines planted in 2000, a variety that loves the heavier soils in this part of Tuscany. The blend is 60% Petit Verdot and 40% Merlot. The dark fruit and spice speak in low baritones in this debut wine, asking for a juicy grilled steak. This is a dark and thickly concentrated wine that offers terrific value, especially in this robust and richly layered break-out vintage.