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5 Top-Rated Wines from Monica Larner’s First-Ever Orcia Report

“It may be Italy’s most beautiful wine territory,” says Monica Larner of the Orcia wine appellation. “It’s also a wine region that few people outside Tuscany have heard of.” This is Larner’s first-ever report on the under-the-radar region that is spread over the shallow valley and rolling hills that fall between Montalcino and Montelpulciano. “Orcia is flanked by two of Tuscany’s most celebrated and historic wine appellations, yet virtually none of that celebrity has befallen the mostly overlooked wine identity of the Val d’Orcia,” she says. 

Here, the top five wines from Larner’s report, all rated 91 points or higher. 

“This is a tight and streamlined wine that hits the palate in direct and immediate fashion.”

“Translated as 'the dragon and the 8 doves,'…the eight doves refer to the all-female staff at the Donatella Cinelli Colombini winery, and the dragon is Donatella's husband Carlo Gardini.”

“There is a delicately toasted note to this wine that keeps it from tasting too sweet or heavy.”

"The 2014 Orcia Petrucci (made with organically farmed fruit) offers a generous and full succession of fruit flavors such as ripe cherry, forest fruit and dark plum."

2017 Donatella Cinelli Colombini • Toscana Passito
“The 2017 Toscana Passito (poured from a 375-milliliter bottle) is a pure expression of air-dried Traminer Aromatico.”

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