Villa Santo Stefano, Colline Lucchesi e Montecarlo (Tuscany, Italy) “Loto” 2016 ($65)

By comparison to the 2016 “Lippo” bottling from this same excellent producer, this top-of-line bottling is looking terrific at this point, with its blend of Bordeaux varieties still displaying depth of fruit and significant flavor impact. The blend began including Cabernet Franc in the 2019 vintage, but of course this precedes that. Full-bodied but neither over-ripe nor heavy, this has harmonized over the years to now show a nearly complete wine, though tertiary notes will continue to build in to fill out the bouquet. With at least another five years of positive development yet ahead of it, this is competitive at the quality level of much more expensive Bordeaux-style blends from Bolgheri. Impressive.
95 Michael Franz