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With a Tuscan-centric wine list in our old restaurant and a wine store traditionally loaded with Brunello di Montalcino and the like, you could say a lot of Sangiovese Grosso has flowed under the bridge here at PRIMA over our 48 years in the biz.  Over the decades, though, there have been only a handful of producers whose wines we’d call true significant mainstays- producers whose wines we look forward to every year regardless of the quality of the harvest, the scandal du jour in Montalcino, or what the press has to say.  One of those is, of course, Livio Sassetti. We got our start with Livio Sassetti’s wines back around 1990 or 1991 when they first appeared on the west coast in the Marc de Grazia portfolio.  I remember unpacking the amazing, age-less 1990 vintage 5-star Brunello during my first or second week at PRIMA in the spring of 1994 and having to allocate our meager few cases to a lot of very thirsty people!  Not much has changed at Sassetti over the past thirty years- Livio has retired and his son Lorenzo has taken over the reins, and there was an important renovation of the cellars not too long ago, and an important expansion into the Montecucco hills, right over the hill from the southern border of Montalcino.  Lorenzo fancied the area because of its resemblance to the best terroirs of his home territory- good altitude and exposure to the breezes of the Tuscan coast and the same volcanic geology.  He chose a vineyard site called La Querciolina as it faced northwest, a cooler orientation in a warmer zone.  It’s worked out perfectly. Sassetti was able to plant the vineyard entirely to a massale selection of his favorite Sangiovese Grosso vines and make the wine in the same careful way he produces his vaunted Brunello di Montalcino- fermentation in stainless steel and aging in large format casks.  The results have been, predictably, very exciting, and lovers of Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino who are fatigued at pricing that seems to go nowhere but up will find a lot to love here.  The 2023 La Querciolina is a stylish, quite elegant version of this wine with nicely developed sweet plum, black cherry, bitter chocolate, dried porcini and warm camphor and orange peel notes on the nose and a generous but also lithe palate that effortlessly straddles richness and polish.  Its acidity is fresh and the tannins polished.  Ready to go now, it’ll cellar nicely but, if your plans this summer include grilled pork, beef, lamb or chicken, I think we’ve found your wine!  And, yes, because you’ll ask, the 2021 Pertimali Brunello is due later this summer or fall.  We know you’ll want some of that!