Bertinga "Sassi Chiusi", Toscana IGT, Italy 2018

About Bertinga

Nestled on an exceptional hillside site in Gaiole in Chianti, Bertinga represents one of Tuscany's most remarkable success stories. Though founded just in 2015, this boutique winery stands on hallowed ground - the legendary vineyard parcels were previously owned by the renowned Castello di Ama and have been producing exceptional fruit for decades.

Under the vision of owners Anatoly Korneev and Maxim Kashirin (founders of Simple Group), Bertinga has transformed these historic 16.4 hectares into a world-class operation that has rewritten Italian wine history in less than a decade.

Critical Acclaim & Awards:

In 2021, Gambero Rosso named Volta di Bertinga 2016 "the best Italian Merlot" - an extraordinary achievement for a winery's debut vintage. The following year, Bertinga was awarded "Best Emergent Producer 2022" by the prestigious Guida Essenziale ai Vini d'Italia, curated by internationally renowned wine critic Daniel Cernilli (co-founder of Gambero Rosso).

The accolades reached global heights when James Suckling ranked Volta di Bertinga 2019 at #27 in his "Top 100 Wines in the World" and #3 in his "Top 100 Wines of Italy," awarding it a remarkable 99 points. Even more impressive, in a blind tasting of the world's best Merlots - including legends like Pétrus and Le Pin - the 2019 Volta di Bertinga was voted the top wine by over 20 expert tasters, including Suckling himself.

Italy's biggest newspaper, Corriere della Sera, included Volta di Bertinga 2019 in the top 10 best wines of Italy, placing it alongside such legends as Masseto, Barbaresco Rabaja from Bruno Giacosa, and Barolo Brunate from Roberto Voerzio.

The Estate:

The estate's three distinct vineyard sites - Bertinga, Adine, and Vertine - each contribute unique characteristics from their clay-limestone soils and varying elevations up to 800 meters. The team, led by Technical Director Elisa Ascani and Sales Director Luca Vitiello, works with renowned consultant oenologist Stéphane Derenoncourt (who also advises Bordeaux legends like Domaine de Chevalier) to craft small-production, terroir-driven wines from organically farmed Sangiovese and Merlot.

Production is extremely limited at just 55,000 bottles annually of their flagship Volta di Bertinga (plus small runs of magnums and jeroboams), ensuring each vintage maintains the exclusivity and attention to detail that has propelled them to international acclaim.

Every wine is single-parcel, single-vineyard, reflecting Bertinga's uncompromising philosophy: let the exceptional terroir speak for itself. The results have been nothing short of meteoric - proving that in the right hands, even a "newcomer" can quickly join the pantheon of Italian wine legends.

From historic vineyard to global recognition in just 10 years.

JAMES SUCKLING 97 POINTS

"This is a pure merlot with violets, blueberries and hints of minerals and black truffles. Black olives, too. Full-bodied, yet so tight and polished with a reserved and agile mouth feel. Linear and racy. Superb quality for this first released vintage. "

An exceptional example of the great heights to which the noble Merlot grape can attain on good sites in temperate climates (c.f. St. Emilion). While maintaining a sense of its Tuscan origins, it shows Bertinga's winemaking style: cool, reserved, with a stony mineral quality supporting the moderate generosity of fruit, and lifting freshness of acidity and grounding of firm, fine tannin that will allow this to improve over the next few years and on.