It's easy to make wine. However, it is surmised that the first glass of wine created was a mistake. According to the Epic tale of Gilgamesh, it was a harem girl who first discovered wine. According to the legend, a member of the harem in the palace of King Jamshid suffered from terrible migraines. One day, the king saw that a jar of his favored grapes had developed a strange smell and started foaming. He immediately demanded that the grapes be set aside under the belief that they had become unsafe to eat and may even have been poisoned. Our girl with the bad headaches decided to drink the questionable mixture in the hopes it would grant her death and swift release from the migraines that pained her. Instead, she found that she enjoyed the drink and that it improved her mood considerably. Upon witnessing the change in his mistresses' demeanor, the king ordered that more be made immediately. Soon, wine became widespread in Persia as a cure for migraines and life’s other banalities. (It’s not often I get to use that word.)

If you own a piece of land, plant a vine, pick some grapes and, squeeze them into a container, let them sit out for a while, they will naturally ferment due to wild yeast, and you have wine. To make good wine is where the complexities start, and the many variables at every production stage along with the cost associated with them become mind-boggling. And how can you do this and keep the end cost to $10 a bottle?

Let’s take a quick look at each stage of production. If you feel your eyes starting to glaze over, skip down to the bottom of the page to the buy now button to end this dribble.

You need a specific type of land to grow good grapes for winemaking. The best is between 40 and 50 degrees latitude, generally on south-facing slopes with good drainage, mineral-rich soils with lots of limestone, and near a large body of water to moderate temperatures. These unique qualities are what make Napa, Burgundy, and Tuscany so great and why it costs $500,000 per acre in Napa for a virgin, plantable piece of land (you still need to clear it and plant it).

The rest of grape growing is equally expensive and specialized. Labor costs to plant, cultivate and pick crops, equipment, and fertilizer. And it doesn’t get any easier in the winery, stainless steel tanks, glycol cooling systems, open vat fermenters, crushers, destemmers, pumps, bottling lines, barrels, not to mention the cost of grapes and labor.

And, of course, the skill of the winemaker plays a very significant role in the end quality of the wine produced. He oversees the grape selection, which indirectly affects how it is grown, how long to macerate and ferment, when and how much malolactic fermentation to use, the type of barrels and how long to age, and a million more variables. OK, so making wine is not that easy.

So, with all these astronomical costs, how to keep one’s bottle price under $10 without going into industrialized winemaking, using high-yield, flabby grapes, grown on large flat fertile plantations and fermented at tank farms? Sometimes you need to think outside the box, as Neil Empson and his wife Maria have done for nearly 50 years, making wine the right way with a passion for good flavors and hard work. 

In the early 70s, the Empsons drove the back roads of Tuscany; he was a classic car collector, and she was an artist. They spent their days buying, restoring, and selling Ferraris and Maseratis. At the restaurants they would frequent, Neil would ask the restaurant owners about the local wine producers who made the various wines they would have at dinner and the location of the wineries so he could visit them. He eventually set up an export operation with the small wineries that he got to know. He did this because he realized that very few of the beautiful wines they fell in love with would ever reach admirers abroad. At the beginning of their business, they worked out of a closet and lived meal to meal while making long-lasting relationships with local wine producers. Using capital realized from the proceeds of selling 27 of his highly collectible sports cars, they created an amazing portfolio wine-selling business. They developed what would become a world-class wine exporter.

In 1977 the Empsons wanted to create their own wine. They did not have the money or inkling to buy a winery; instead, they created a brand. Using those tremendous relationships in Tuscany they had built over the years and knowing through years of experience where all the good juice was, they created Monte Antico. Monte Antico means “Ancient Mountain” in Italian. They enlisted a good friend, renowned winemaker Franco Bernabei, to help them make their wine. Franco is a Tuscan legend, a hands-on winemaker, whom many consider being Italy’s foremost consulting enologist. He is responsible for the success of Sartori, Bollini, Felsina, Fontodi, Selvapiana, Guicciardini Strozzi, and more. What I like about Franco is that in the 1970s he was an unruly adolescent, sporting long hair and sideburns, who toured the clubs and bars of his native Veneto region, playing Jimmy Hendrix-inspired guitar solos with a rock band called the Icemen. But I digress.

So, the Empons created an excellent everyday wine. They were not burdened with land to grow grapes on and used the winery of one of their good friends to make the wine. The initial source of their grapes was Maremma, well before the region became fashionable. In time, it expanded to some of Tuscany’s best vineyard sites in Maremma (Scansano, particularly for the Merlot and Cabernet) and Colline Pisane and Colli Fiorentini, as well as the most recent additions, a few areas in Chianti. Using probably the best winemaker in Tuscany, they created a very successful wine that could sell around $10 a bottle. Over the years, lavish praise came from the world’s best palates, including Robert Parker (“one of Italy’s better values”), Wine Spectator (“Delicious”; “Best Value”), the Washington Post (“This wine keeps getting better with every vintage”). This wine has always been a classic value and continues to be one of the best wines available near the $10 price point.

The best selections of grapes are perfectly blended and aged one year in oak: 80% in Slavonian oak barrels, five to six years old, and 20% in barriques. The barriques are 10-20% new and 90-80% 2nd year. The wine is bottle aged for 12 months and styled to a graceful balance of voluptuous berry tones and flexible/sturdy backbone.

A food-friendly red with all the classic Tuscan seductiveness, including delicious fruit, velvety, extract-fraught texture, full body, beautiful finish, and superb balance. Dark ruby in color, its bouquet of leather, earth, herbs, black cherries, licorice, and plums is confirmed on the medium to full-bodied palate. Round, spicy, elegant, attractively fruity, and extremely versatile- in other words, food-friendly and pocket friendly.



Blend: 85% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot

Blackberry, blueberry, and crushed-stone aromas follow through to a medium-bodied palate with lightly chewy tannins and dried lemon rind on the finish. Tangy and delicious. James Suckling 91 pts

Monte Antico 2018

This wine has always been our value go-to wine from Tuscany. When our group re-tasted the wine, we were reminded of how little flaws the wine has. Easy-going, quaffable wine with mild tannins felt in the front of the palate, medium-bodied, raspberry, and dark cherry fruit. I real crowd pleaser, sure to please any paison or paison-wannbees. If you are like me, you need to have a case like this around at all times to enjoy for absolutely no reason at all. And at $10, it makes even more sense.

Regular Price: $12.99

*Price is for a 12 purchase

Wine is packed in a 12-bottle case

*Wine pricing for these wine promotions are held for two weeks after the email offer.

We can hold wines in unpaid reserves for two weeks to allow you time to pick up your wine. If it takes you longer than that to pick up your wines, give us a call, and we can process your wine and move it to paid reserves.

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Cheers!

John Hannum,

Fine & Rare Wine Specialist

Attleboro

628 Washington St.

Norwood

942 Providence Hgwy.

Sturbridge

376 Main Street.

Swansea

207 Swansea Mall Dr.

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