Bibi Graetz, Colore, 2024 - Magnum
Bibi Graetz, Colore, 2024 - Magnum
- 150cl
- 14.5%
- Red Still
- Sangiovese
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Drinking window: 2028 - 2042
Bibi Graetz is not a name that does things quietly. The son of a painter, working from a crumbling Renaissance castle above Florence, he makes wines that feel more like acts of artistic will than commercial calculation, and Colore is the one he treats as his masterpiece.
Everything about Colore is obsessive. The grapes are hand-sorted not once but three times - in the vineyard, at the winery door, and again before fermentation, to ensure only the purest berries make the cut. Fermentation is spontaneous in open-top barrels, allowing gentle extraction and maximum transparency of site. Ageing takes place in a mix of new and used French oak for around 20 months, the aim not to dress the wine but to refine its natural shape.
The vineyards around Fiesole sit at altitudes between 250 and 400 metres on the slopes above Florence, on soils that are predominantly galestro — the friable, schist-like stone that drains freely and stresses the vine just enough to concentrate flavour without losing freshness. Alberese clay also features, adding structure and mineral depth. The elevation brings cooler nights that preserve acidity in the grapes, essential for the long-term ageing potential that defines Colore.
Colore is classified as a Toscana IGT, which in this context is not a sign of compromise but of freedom. The IGT designation allows Bibi to blend varieties and work with vineyards across the broader Tuscan landscape without being constrained by the rules of Chianti Classico or other DOC and DOCG frameworks. It is the category that gave us the original Super Tuscans, and Colore sits comfortably in that tradition — wines defined by their maker's ambition rather than by a committee's rules.
The 2024 growing season in Tuscany was defined by a cool, wet spring followed by a summer that never quite committed to the heat Sangiovese craves — periodic rain events through the summer kept growers watchful and selective work in the vineyard essential. Those who managed canopies well and harvested at the right moment came out ahead; those who hesitated paid for it. It was a vintage that rewarded attentiveness rather than simply good fortune, and the best producers — particularly in Chianti Classico and Montalcino — rose to that challenge.
What landed in the cellar was fresher and more lifted than the riper, more muscular style that warmer years like 2022 tend to produce. Sangiovese shows bright acidity and firm structure with real energy behind it — less about sheer density, more about definition and length. It is too early to draw firm conclusions on the very best Brunello and Riserva releases, which will need time to resolve, but the Rosso and Chianti-level wines are already drinking well and offering genuine pleasure without demanding patience.
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Bibi Graetz
