Isole E Olena Cepparello, Toscana IGT

Paolo De Marchi's Cepparello is the Chianti Classico zone's most quietly brilliant wine — a pure Sangiovese that eschewed DOC regulation to achieve something greater than the rules permitted. Since its first vintage in 1980, it has been a benchmark for what the variety can achieve: complex, structured, and possessed of an elegance rarely associated with Tuscany's great reds. It is a wine made with complete conviction, and it shows. Among the Super Tuscans, Cepparello stands apart for its restraint and purity.