Colore, 2020

The 2020 Colore is pleasantly unexpected and is a total feminine beauty. When I anticipate power, it delivers grace with a stunning bouquet of freshly cut roses, blood orange, wild strawberries and sweet smoke. It's deeply textural, yet not heavy, feeling like crushed velvet gently draped across the palate, leaving mineral-tinged blackberries and currants in its wake. This finishes on a note of elegance with fine-grained tannins without slowing its momentum as spice notes slowly fade. The Colore is all old-vine (70 years or older) Sangiovese from vineyards Lamole, Vincigliata, Olmo and Siena.

DRINKING WINDOW 2025 - 2035

date of review 02/2023

The 2020 Bibi Graetz Colore has beautiful, appetising aromas of savory wild herbs, wild-flowers and Mediterranean shrub with a light peppery note and on standing there is an aroma of strawberries warmed in the sun. The palate is round and soft, then mouth-wateringly fresh, then it finishes with savory, salty tannins. What I love is that the flavours are clearly delineated and remind me of Sangiovese and the Tuscan landscape with bitter cherry, light sea salt, iron tonic and wild herb notes. The flavors are quite fragile but persistent, the texture is fine and silky and there is a lot of savory, mineral tension in this wine.

DRINKING WINDOW 2023 - 2040

date of review 01/2023

A reliably brilliant Colore, full of life, generosity and pleasure. This is perfumed and nuanced, plenty of sage, liqourice root, white pepper, dried roses and campfire soot, against a pristine set of raspberry, damson and fresher redcurrant and greengage fruits. Concentration builds slowly through the palate to show slightly higher tannic grip that Testamatta - although one of the things I enjoy about the Graetz wines is that both Testamatta and Colore have their distinct characters, but it is never clear which one is the 'better' wine. Colore comes from the oldest vineyards of Sangiovese that stretch from 80 to 130 years old, harvested slowly and methodically by going up to eight times through the rows to ensure the right level of maturity before picking - obsessional winemaking that bears results in the glass.

DRINKING WINDOW 2024 - 2038

date of review 08/2022