De' Ricci Rosso 2022: Sangiovese from 1337 Cellars

Twelve to fifteen thousand bottles a year, aged beneath Palazzo Ricci in the old heart of Montepulciano. The De’ Ricci Rosso di Montepulciano 2022 is the house’s entry-level red: mostly Sangiovese, with a splash of Merlot from 15-year-old vines. I’ve tasted it twice. The two glasses barely resembled each other.

A cellar built like a cathedral

De’ Ricci traces the first cellar on this site to 1337. In the sixteenth century came the hall they now call the Cattedrale del Vino, cut into the tuff under the palazzo.

A cellar like that raises the question you should ask of any famous address: are you buying the wine, or the story?

The Trabalzini family owns the business today. They farm thirty-two hectares of their own vineyards, organically since 2007. The fruit for this Rosso comes from the eastern plots.

Rosso or Nobile

Two red wines carry the town’s name. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is the DOCG: at least seventy percent Sangiovese, known locally as Prugnolo Gentile, and a minimum of two years’ ageing before release. Rosso di Montepulciano comes from the same zone but spends less time in the cellar and reaches the shelves sooner.

If you want to learn the style without waiting years for a Nobile, start here.

And don’t mix it up with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. In Abruzzo, Montepulciano is a grape. Here, it’s a town.

How it’s made

The grapes are partially crushed and ferment in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The skins stay in the juice for eighteen days: long enough for colour and grip, short enough to keep it from getting heavy. Then a brief spell in French barriques and some rest in bottle.

Tasting Note

Nose

Expressive. Raspberry and wild strawberry, with guarana, passionfruit and wild thyme.

Palate

Orange and pink grapefruit, medium body. Finely extracted tannins that give structure without burying the fruit.

Quality

An honest, cleanly made Rosso that shows what Montepulciano Sangiovese tastes like. It doesn’t have the depth of the Vino Nobile or a Riserva, but it’s the right introduction to the house style.

The second glass

In spring 2025 the same 2022 turned up at La Grande Bellezza in Amsterdam, poured alongside the Vino Nobile and the Soraldo. This time it was a sterner wine. Spicy red fruit, fresh sage, high acidity, firm tannins. Very little was left of the expressive, almost tropical nose from my first note.

I can’t tell you which bottle was the outlier. My guess is temperature and air. At La Grande Bellezza it showed best slightly chilled, so that’s how I’d serve it.

At the table

It drinks well now. The classic match is pappardelle with wild boar ragù. Also bistecca, braised game and aged Pecorino Toscano.

Why you’d buy it, and why not

As for the story: what you get here is a good, honest Rosso, no more and no less.

Buy it as an introduction to Montepulciano, or as a midweek pasta bottle. It will keep for well over a decade; the acidity and tannins can carry it. But a Rosso is made for drinking. If you want to cellar something, go straight for the Vino Nobile 2021.

Producer: De' Ricci, Montepulciano
Wine: Rosso di Montepulciano DOC
Vintage: 2022
Region: Tuscany, Italy
Grapes: Mostly Sangiovese, with some Merlot
Vineyards: Eastern plots, vines around 15 years old
Winemaking: 18-day maceration in stainless steel, brief French barrique
Production: 12,000 to 15,000 bottles

Sources

My own tasting notes, September 2024 and La Grande Bellezza, Amsterdam, spring 2025
Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano: consorziovinonobile.it, for the Vino Nobile and Rosso di Montepulciano rules
De’ Ricci: history of the cellar, for 1337, the Cattedrale del Vino and the Trabalzini family