Tua Rita’s Redigaffi is one of the most extraordinary wines in Italy, a pure Merlot of cult status produced in tiny quantities from the estate’s clay and mineral-rich vineyard plots near Suvereto in the Maremma Toscana. The wine’s international reputation was cemented when Robert Parker awarded the 2000 vintage a perfect score of 100 points, though the wine had already attracted critical attention from the moment it was first produced in the early 1990s as a garage experiment by owners Rita Tua and Virgilio Bisti. Since then, Redigaffi has consistently attracted the highest scores from all five approved publications, confirming its position as one of Italy’s half-dozen greatest wines and one of the world’s finest expressions of the Merlot variety outside Pomerol. Annual production is approximately 9,000 bottles from fewer than two hectares of clay-dominant vineyard at the optimal elevation above the Tyrrhenian coast.

The 2019 Redigaffi is produced from Merlot harvested at the moment of perfect phenolic and sugar ripeness, fermented in small tanks with native yeasts and aged for 18 months in new French barriques. Wine Advocate’s Monica Larner awarded the 2019 vintage 97 points and described it as “elegant and less hearty compared to its previous edition” with “pretty freshness that renders a very lively and vivid mouthfeel” and “black cherry, granite and cooling menthol-like endnotes.” Wine Enthusiast awarded 96 points. James Suckling, in his retrospective vertical of all Redigaffi vintages, confirmed the 2019 scored “above 95 points” and described it as one of the three greatest Redigaffi vintages made, alongside 2016 and 2018. In the magnum format, with its ideal ageing conditions and slower development, this is a wine that will reward patience well into the 2040s.

A magnum of 2019 Tua Rita Redigaffi is among the rarest and most sought-after Italian wine acquisitions currently available. The combination of the wine’s cult status, the 2019 vintage’s outstanding critical reception, the scarcity of the standard bottle (9,000 per vintage) and the extreme rarity of the magnum format creates a proposition of exceptional collector appeal. For those who follow Italy’s finest Merlot-based wines with serious attention, and for collectors who seek the world’s great Merlots outside the narrow confines of Pomerol, this wine requires no further argument.

Deep ruby-purple with a pure and vivid nose of black cherry, violet, granite mineral, cooling menthol, cedar and the distinctive iron salinity of the Suvereto clay soils. Full-bodied with incredibly fine, polished tannins, vibrant natural acidity and an extraordinarily long, precise, mineral finish of extraordinary purity and persistence. Best from 2026 through 2050.

The 2019 Redigaffi feels elegant and less hearty compared to its previous edition. This important Merlot-based wine delivers an immediate quality of fruit, with pretty freshness that renders a very lively and vivid mouthfeel. A sharp and well-defined interpretation of the grape with black cherry, granite and cooling menthol-like endnotes. — Wine Advocate