Erta e China Rosso 2018

We’ve been buying wines from Paolo Masi's estate in premium Rufina for 20 years now. It first won a Gold medal in 1929, when Paolo's grandfather, also Paolo, was in charge. Today they have a reputation for wines of superb quality and value, many of them gaining points over 90. Paolo and his wife Anna Rita took over in 1992 after he'd graduated top of his year in oenology at Florence’s university. He has worked hard to fine tune methods in the vineyard and in the cellar – planting better clones, researching the soils and working gently in the cellar. This is one of his top wines, a blend of native Sangiovese with Cabernet, aged for 14 months in French oak barriques. The result is a dense red with dark cherry and mocha notes. Decant early.