Spring 2023 Offer #1: Le Ragnaie

Le Ragnaie - 2018 Brunello di Montalcino

Bottom Line: Le Ragnaie’s 2018 Brunello is a graceful, age-worthy red wine of great harmony and character. Winemaker-owner Riccardo Campinoti crafts some of the best and most sought-after wines in all of Montalcino. The style is elegance over brawn and freshness over ripeness. The results are what you might expect from a Burgundy lover like Riccardo. Unfortunately, our supplies of this wine are very limited, so please get your requests in early for this one!

My notes: “Tuscan herbs and black cherry on the nose. Lighter, prettier fruit than the 2017 Brunello, and longer on the palate; sleek, acidic backbone; dissipating elegant tannins. Better in 5-10 years but lovely already. Endless flavor depth.”

Le Ragnaie - 2021 Toscana Bianco

Bonus wine - Le Ragnaie’s Toscana Bianco is a multidimensional and structured white wine that pushes ever so slightly into the orange wine category. Unlike most orange wines on the market, this Bianco is clean and vibrant on the palate. You won’t get a dose of funk or any heavy, drying tannins. It’s a great wine to have at the table when you want to serve a diverse set of dishes and flavors. (The blend is 50 percent Malvasia and 50 percent Trebbiano grapes).

My notes: “Earthy nose with dried fruit; orange peel, apricot, mushroom, and almond notes on the gippy palate; medium-bodied, with firm tannins. There’s plenty of muscle, but the wine remains crisp and long. Unique, ageworthy Tuscan white.”

To order, just click the one of the links above and follow the prompts. Keep reading for more information on Le Ragnaie and these wines.

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Wine friends,

Le Ragnaie is now widely recognized as one of the top wine producers in Tuscany. The owners, Riccardo and Jennifer Campinoti, make classically beautiful Sangiovese-based wines. Their Brunello di Montalcino wines are prized around the globe and are more difficult to find with every passing vintage. 

Today, I’m thrilled to be able to offer Le Ragnaie’s 2018 Brunello di Montalcino to our members – and at the lowest price in the U.S.

As difficult as it is to source Le Ragnaie Brunello, Riccardo’s whites are even more of a rarity. The 2021 Toscana Bianco we’re offering today is truly one of a kind. There’s nothing like it produced in Tuscany or elsewhere in Italy. It’s a delicious lightly orange wine to convince all the orange wine skeptics out there!

Admittedly, I’m biased about Le Ragnaie. The original members of the Open Tuesday group have known Riccardo and Jenny for years. In 2013, Riccardo poured his wines during a tasting event at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. That year, some of us worked the Le Ragnaie harvest for a week. The crew included current Open Tuesday members Alessandro, Andrew, Eli, and Jay. It’s a good thing we brought Cheerios from the Embassy store, because our vineyard work wasn’t exactly efficient. Riccardo serves a lot of wine at lunch!

Take a look at the Instagram and Facebook posts from our most recent visit to Le Ragnaie. Riccardo also recently posted some fantastic photos of Le Ragnaie buried in snow on Instagram.

Please also check out this Rimessa Roscioli video in which Riccardo gives insights on Montalcino and Le Ragnaie’s vineyards: LE RAGNAIE, Brunello di Montalcino.  

If you’re ever in Montalcino, Le Ragnaie has a great agriturismo hotel that is co-located with the winery: https://leragnaie.com/en/about-le-ragnaie. From the property, you’ll get wonderful views of the surrounding vineyards and hillsides.

Food Pairing: While the freshness of this Brunello should allow you to pair it with most meat dishes, Tuscan dishes are still your best bet. I’d go with bistecca alla fiorentina (Florentine steak) or cinghiale in umido (Tuscan stew with wild boar). Perhaps grilled eggplant or aged cheese if you are a vegetarian. No Cheez-Its with Brunello please!

The Toscana Bianco is an extremely versatile wine at the table. Six days of skin contact produced a slightly tannic wine that stands up to otherwise tough pairing dishes. I had it recently at Cantina Piemontese in Milan with vegetarian lasagna, pasta alla nerano (pasta from Nerano with zucchini), cotoletta alla milanese (Milan-style cutlet), tortellini alla zucca (pumpkin stuffed tortellini), and tagliolini al ragu bianco di vitello e porri (tagliolini pasta in a white meat sauce of veal and leek.) This wine worked with all of it.

Open Tuesday has the lowest price in the U.S. on both of these wines.

Le Ragnaie - 2018 Brunello di Montalcino

13.5% ABV

Le Ragnaie - 2021 Toscana Bianco

13% ABV

Happy Tuesday,

Chris

If you have any questions or feedback, please email us: [email protected].  

How it works: 

After clicking one of the links above, you’ll be able to request 1-12 bottles. Actually, that’s all you have to do!

About a week later, when we close the offer, you’ll get an email confirming how many bottles we allocated to your account. We will charge you when the wines are allocated.

We’ll do our best to allocate all the bottles you request. But when there are more requests than bottles available, we’ll allocate one bottle to all requesting members before allocating a second bottle to anyone. We want as many members as possible to try these wines.

This is the first offer of our spring 2023 season. 

Through February and March, we are sending offers on Thursday and Sunday, with a recap of the past week’s offers on Tuesdays.

We ship in increments of 12. With 18 offers this season, there should be plenty of chances to get to 12, 24, or 36. If you don’t have an increment of 12 at the end of the fall season offers, we can hold your wines until the next offer season – fall 2023.

Wines offered in the spring will ship in April for $5 per bottle (if you have an increment of 12.) This is about the same as the price to ship coast-to-coast within the U.S. – but our wines come directly from Italy.

Once your payment method is on file, you can make future requests with just a few clicks from the offer email. If you don’t have a card on file, you can add one during your first order. Your personal financial information is protected by Stripe.

Chris MacLean

Rob Genova

Open Tuesday Wines S.r.l.s.

Via Augusto Anfossi 19, 20135 Milano - Italy