92 points

2017 Bruno Giacosa Barbera d'Alba

James Suckling, James Suckling, November 2019

“A Barbera with blueberry and raspberry character, as well as lemon undertones. Medium body. Vivid and tangy. Fresh and satisfying. Drink now.”

93 points

2017 Bruno Giacosa Barbera d'Alba Falletto

Bruce Sanderson, Wine Spectator, December 2019

“Ripe, luscious blackberry, black currant, violet and mineral flavors highlight this intense, energetic red. The flavors just don't quit, building to a long, saturated aftertaste. Balanced, in an assertive way. Drink now through 2028. 300 cases made, 150 cases imported.”

90 points

2017 Bruno Giacosa Barbera d'Alba Falletto

Bruce Sanderson, Wine Spectator, December 2019

“A powerful and lush style, featuring ripe plum, black cherry, milk chocolate and earth flavors that fill in the texture. Structured, with well-integrated tannins on the finish. Drink now through 2023. 2,100 cases made, 1,050 cases imported.”

91+ points

2018 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis

Monica Larner, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, June 2019

“The 2018 Roero Arneis is a fragrant and linear white wine with plenty of spicy lemon, tangerine and crushed stone aromas. The 2017 vintage of this wine (from a hotter vintage) showed more tropical fruit, whereas this cooler vintage offers more citrus and mineral notes. Bruna Giacosa tells me that she prefers 2017 over this 2018; however, it's all a matter of personal choice. I am partial to this vintage because of those tangy flavors and the wine's precisely linear quality. However, this wine is set to flesh out and gain in volume after the summer because Arneis starts to show its best results in September following the harvest.”

93 points

2020 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis

Monica Larner, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, September 2021

“The Giacosa family does a great job with its high-end wines and its entry-level products alike. The 2020 Roero Arneis is a great example of a wine that knocks out simplicity while maintaining a great sense of inner freshness and complexity. This was a great vintage for the popular Arneis white grape that shows a wide range of tropical perfumes with papaya, citrus and Williams pear. The wine also boasts rich inner fiber, good fruit weight and concentration. At this young stage, it is less defined by its inherent minerality and more defined by those exotic fruit tones. But you can expect the mineral tones to take on more importance a year or two from now.”

94 points

2018 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis

James Suckling, James Suckling, November 2019

“This is a longtime favorite, due to its purity of fruit and freshness, showing green-papaya, lime, lemon and green-apple character. Medium body. Crisp acidity. No wood. Steely and fruity at the end. Drink now.”

92 points

2019 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis

James Suckling, James Suckling, August 2020

“Dried peach skin with lemon and crushed stone or cement on the nose. It’s full-to medium-bodied. Lovely, soft texture and richness and a fresh finish with lots of dried fruit. A little richer than usual. Drink or hold.”

95+ points

2018 Bibi Graetz Testamatta Bianco

Monica Larner, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, August 2019

“his wine is really quite terrific, and with 6,500 bottles made, it is easier to find (and more affordable) than Bibi Graetz's new single-vineyard expression of Ansonica, Colore Bianco. The 2018 Testamatta Bianco Isola del Giglio sees fruit blended from three bigger vineyard sites on Giglio Island and some smaller ones as well (Vigneto del Corvo, Scopeto, Ulivello, Radice and Le Grotte). In contrast to the Colore Bianco that revealed more consistency, the two bottles I sampled of this wine (one opened in the morning and one in the afternoon) showed very different results between them. The morning bottle was more fleshy and ample, while the just-opened bottle offered very linear notes of citrus, apple and white peach. Some of the grapes are harvested early, in order to maintain that total acidity, and used as a blending agent with the rest of the wine. Green harvesting is not practiced here, as each vine is left on its own to ripen. Bibi Graetz tells me that the 2018 vintage was much easier and gave more satisfaction compared to the difficult 2017 growing season. Of course, like any white wine from the Tuscan Coast, you get a distinctive layer of sea salt on the close—in this case, mixed in with some freshly milled white pepper.”

96 points

2018 Bibi Graetz Colore Bianco

Monica Larner, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, August 2019

“I saw the birth of this wine and am honored to report on its progression now. When I visited Bibi Graetz's tiny garage winery on the island of Giglio last year during harvest, I had the opportunity to taste this (it was hardly wine yet) from barrel. Ansonica grapes from the Pietrabuona vineyard, not too far from the estate's breathtaking Serrone that overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea, were fermented apart, thanks to the obvious quality of the fruit. From the start, Bibi Graetz and his team knew that these three barrels from this single-vineyard site were different than the rest. That's why they decided to make a new wine, the 2018 Colore Bianco, and the idea is to continue production in the future. During our afternoon tasting this year, I tasted this wine from two bottles: one was opened just before I tasted it, and the second bottle had been open since about 10 a.m. that morning. Ironically, the morning bottle was a bit more shy, but both presented beautiful tones of peach, sweet almond paste, honeysuckle and pure salinity driven by the proximity of the sea from all points on tiny Giglio island. There is an Italian or Sicilian word, zagara, for orange blossom, and I get a lot of that here. Island viticulture sees grapevines trellised with bamboo sticks, with four canes used in a sort of twisted guyot. Sometimes acidity can be a problem on Giglio, but the cooler 2018 vintage delivers good freshness, and Bibi harvested on the early side to achieve these results. This is one of Tuscany's most distinctive and precious (with only 900 bottles made) white wines.”

93 points

2017 Bibi Graetz Bugia

Monica Larner, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, September 2018

“The 2017 Bugia Isola del Giglio is a pure expression of Ansonica from 80-year-old vines facing the azure sea on Giglio island off the coast of Tuscany. The wine is made in a very simple and straightforward style: it is fermented in steel vat and released young to capture that freshness and purity. Bugia (named after an old farmer who once tended to this vineyard) offers a very authentic taste of a unique island territory. The bouquet evokes salty sea sensations with brimstone and sandy beach. Although Ansonica is not a particularly fragrant grape variety, you are treated to buoyant tones of white melon and summer peach in this sunny vintage. The advanced age of the vines makes a lasting impression on the palate, thanks to the richness of its mid-weight palate. This is a special Italian wine that tastes great straight out of the gate thanks to its primary freshness. It will surely reward even more complexity to those who have the patience to wait.”