▸ Quietly serious.

▸ 2.5-ha hillside, 200 m.

▸ Plum. Vanilla. White pepper.

Tenuta Cicogna sits at 200 m, and breezes keep this Merlot-led blend light enough for the couch. Plum skin, black cherry and a line of white pepper ride supple tannins—good with a slice of cold roast beef after work.

Fornetto comes from a single 2.5-hectare slope on Cavazza’s Cicogna estate, planted at 4,800 vines per hectare and facing south-west. The Merlot-Syrah-Tai Rosso blend spends just six months in third-use barriques, wood as background rather than flavour. Expect black cherry fruit framed by supple but present tannins.