Monte Antico Toscana 2021 Review

A New Wine Shop Find!

I picked this bottle up from R&H Fine Wines in Liverpool after spending far too long staring at bottles I couldn’t quite justify buying this month. They had some proper gems on the shelves including the white Viña Tondonia and Wild Boy Chardonnay, both bottles I’ve wanted to try for a while, but in the end I settled on this Monte Antico Toscana 2021 for £15 and, honestly, I thought that looked pretty fair value.

Straight away I liked the honesty of the label. Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon all listed clearly on the front. No mystery, no marketing fluff, just telling you exactly what’s in the bottle. Naturally that led me down the road of expecting something in the Super Tuscan lane. Not a blockbuster obviously, but perhaps something with darker fruit, some oak influence and a bit of structure.

What I actually got was something completely different.

First Impressions

On opening there were definitely some Brett notes floating around. Slightly farmyard, slightly funky, enough to make me raise an eyebrow, but thankfully after around half an hour in the decanter they had pretty much disappeared.

Once the wine settled down the biggest surprise was the body. This wine is ultra light. Honestly, if you poured this blind I would have probably started wandering towards Beaujolais rather than Tuscany. That sounds ridiculous considering the blend, but that’s genuinely where my head went.

The nose was all red fruit rather than dark fruit. Fresh cherry, red berries and a lifted freshness rather than anything rich or powerful.

In the Glass

This continued once tasted. Again, lots of red fruit, hardly any oak influence and only a slight hint of tannin. No smoky notes, no plush Cabernet character and not much of that richer Merlot softness either.

The finish was fairly short too which added to the confusion because nothing about this really screamed Tuscan blend to me.

What did start creeping in though was a strange green note. Not aggressive underripe greenness where the sides of your tongue feel stripped for half an hour, but something softer and sweeter. The closest thing I could compare it to was Thai basil. Slightly herbal, slightly green, but oddly aromatic at the same time.

It actually became one of the most interesting parts of the wine because it gave it a bit of identity, even if I’m still not fully convinced it all knitted together perfectly.

Food Pairing

I paired this with a tomato pasta dish and, to be fair, that’s where the wine made the most sense.

The acidity from the Sangiovese worked really nicely with the tomato base and the lighter body stopped the pairing from becoming heavy. With food involved the wine became far more enjoyable and far more balanced than it initially appeared on its own.

This definitely feels like a wine designed for the dinner table rather than sitting analysing it for two hours with a notebook in hand.

Final Thoughts

This is one of the more confusing wines I’ve had recently because if you told me beforehand I was drinking a Tuscan blend with Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, I would have imagined something very different stylistically.

Instead this drinks like a fresh, light, red-fruited wine with almost Gamay like qualities and a slightly sweet herbal edge running through it.

Is it bad? No, not at all, Is it what I expected? Also no!

At £15 I still think there’s value here, particularly if paired with the right food, but if you’re expecting a mini Super Tuscan with power, oak and long length, this probably isn’t the bottle for you.