The Super Tuscans 2011 have now all been released in bottle. The five wines were well received by critics, with Tignanello and Masseto awarded 95 from Antonio Galloni, Solaia scored 96 and Ornellaia scored 96+. James Suckling wrote a blog on the ‘excellent’ Sassicaia 2011 in May this year, ‘Buy Sassicaia 2011’; scoring the wine 94 points he called it ‘clearly outstanding’.
Italian wines had a good run in 2013, with the Italy 100 index – composed of the five Super Tuscans and five wines from Piedmont – rising 9.2% over the year. While the index has run flat in 2014, Super Tuscans still represent good value as the Italian First Growth equivalents. At an average £1,850 per 12×75 compared to £3,940 for the Bordeaux Firsts, they also have relatively low POP* scores (Liv-ex’s loose measure of value, where a lower score equals a better value wine). The First Growths’ POP scores range from 250-380. The lowest of the Super Tuscans is Tignanello, with a POP score of just 39.5.
As shown below, since its 2007 Tignanello has scored consistently well, yet these vintages remain some of the cheapest. For those who haven’t considered Italy’s finest, recent vintages of Tignanello would seem to be the place to start.
All prices are in GBP and are for 12x75cl cases. Scores are from www.vinousmedia.com
*POP
A wine’s POP score is its price-over-points ratio, our loose measure of value. It is calculated by dividing the price of a nine-litre case of wine by a shortened 20-point score. We have calculated this 20-point score by simply subtracting 80 from the official rating (for barrel-score spreads we use the mid-point of the score), on the basis that any wine under 80 points is unlikely to attract a secondary market. In theory, the lower the POP score the better value a wine is.
