Luce
⏳ Drinking Window
2025 - 2042
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Slow-braised beef short ribs, roasted lamb with rosemary, and aged cheeses such as Pecorino Toscano.
✨ Technical Specifications
Born from a groundbreaking partnership in the early 1990s between Vittorio Frescobaldi and Napa Valley pioneer Robert Mondavi, Luce represents a historic union of Italian tradition and American innovation. It was the very first wine created in Montalcino by blending the structure and elegance of Sangiovese with the lush, round fruit of Merlot. The estate's vineyards, bathed in the brilliant Tuscan sun that inspired the wine's name ('Luce' meaning light), feature diverse soils: clay-rich parcels that allow Merlot to thrive alongside the classic schistous 'galestro' soils where Sangiovese achieves its finest expression. Aged for approximately 24 months in French oak barriques, Luce is celebrated for its deep complexity, silky tannins, and vibrant balsamic and dark fruit notes.
🍾 About the Producer
Tracing its viticultural origins to 1308, Marchesi Frescobaldi is an iconic Florentine noble dynasty that has shaped Tuscan winemaking across thirty generations. Spanning celebrated historical holdings—including Castello Nipozzano in Chianti Rùfina, Castello Pomino, Tenuta Castiglioni, CastelGiocondo in Montalcino, and the social viticulture initiative on the penal island of Gorgona—the family stewards diverse terroirs ranging from galestro-rich hills to cool-climate Apennine elevations. Frescobaldi practices certified sustainable viticulture under Tuscany's AgriQualità protocol, tailoring canopy management and soil stewardship to site-specific conditions. In the cellar, their philosophy honors regional typicity while embracing technical precision, vinifying with calibrated temperature control and aging across fine-grained oak barriques and traditional casks. The portfolio showcases an expansive spectrum of expressions: high-elevation Chardonnay and Pinot Nero in the pioneering Pomino Benefizio Riserva and Leonia Brut sparkling wines, mineral-driven Ansonica-Vermentino field blends from Gorgona, alongside age-worthy, structured Sangiovese icons such as Nipozzano Riserva and CastelGiocondo Brunello di Montalcino.