"Utterly Spellbinding"
- The Heights of Sangiovese Revisited
2006 Montevertine Le Pergole Torte
"In a week during which I tasted most of the reference point Sangioveses and Sangiovese-based reds, one wine stuck out - Le Pergole Torte...
Le Pergole Torte isn’t a great Tuscan or Italian wine. It is simply one of the world’s elite wines." -Antonio Galloni
Montevertine's Le Pergole Torte is very special wine indeed.
This is Sangiovese at its most elegant, its most Burgundian.
Galloni recently tasted 12 vintages of Pergole Torte going back to 79 and placed one of our favorites, the 2006, at the very top of the heap, not only for Pergole Torte, but for all the top Sangioveses.
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We offered the 2006 Pergole Torte a few years ago, but in the light of Galloni's enthusiasm, we wanted to revisit the wine and try to introduce it to a wider audience. For people interested in wines of incredible complexity and wines animated by subtlety and finesse, 06 Le Pergole Torte is a must. It's as simple as that.
We've been fans of Pergole Torte for a long time - it's one of the few great wines that you can still buy for under $100. With more and more people discovering just how profound this wine can be, this pricing can't last for much longer. The best advice that we have is to take advantage of this pricing now.
The Burgundy comparison is apt, but it might distort things - after all, few wines capture the soul of Sangiovese with such an earnest clarity. Few producers are able to shape a Sangiovese that is at once so deep, so pure, so ravishingly complex, yet with such focus and cut.
Le Pergole Torte is a curious bottle of wine; it is not a "Super Tuscan." Frankly, it's not even a regular Tuscan. Sergio Manetti, the spirited owner of Montevertine, left the Chianti Classico consortium in the early 1980s, believing the Sangiovese grape just wasn't getting the respect it deserved. Instead, he went his own way, dedicating himself and his high-altitude vineyards just outside of Radda almost completely to the Sangiovese grape.
Pergole Torte originates from one of the coolest microclimates in the region, giving the wine a shivering energy, a precision to balance the wine's obvious power. Le Pergole Torte is only made in top vintages; it is always 100% Sangiovese. There is truly mind-blowing clarity to the wine, an articulation of nuance - dark berry fruit, dried cherry notes, smoke, gravel. Make no mistake, Le Pergole Torte is meant to age.
Pergole Torte wasn't in need of any more accolades; still, it's nice to see it explicitly placed amongst the world's best. Such status is well deserved.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Ian McFadden
Director, Fine & Rare Wine
Crush Wine & Spirits