1985 Lisini Prefillossero

BY NEAL MARTIN | SEPTEMBER 02, 2024

Vines planted in their own roots is a subject that has intrigued me for a while, not least after my now infamous article on Liber Pater. The topic arose again recently with Eric Guido’s excellent piece on Tiberio’s Fonte Canale. Addressing ungrafted vines, one must not conflate recent plantings on vines’ own roots and the plots of surviving vines that predate the phylloxera louse in the late 19th century. This story is about the latter.

In the early days of my career, around 1997 or 1998, long before thoughts of writing, my Japanese employers briefly imported the wines of Lisini. I have vague recollections of visiting a vineyard and being shown extremely old, gnarly vines whose fruit went into a special cuvée. This must have been their half-hectare plot of Sangiovese planted in the mid-1800s. Surrounded by olive trees and forest, their isolation, together with sandy soils, allowed these vines to escape phylloxera. The wine was only bottled separately between 1985 and 1997 as a Vino da Tavola because, for some inexplicable reason, at that time, the rules forbade pre-phylloxera vines to be included in the DOCG. It was matured in a single barrel of Slavonian oak for one or two years, followed by another couple of years in glass demijohns.

After 1997, the fruit was reintroduced into the mass for Brunello until the vineyard was no longer worth maintaining because of its hard-to-reach location for treatments and very low production. In the early 2000s, the Regione Toscana gave Lisini the opportunity to uproot the 20 vines left and still keep the rights to replant the original surface of the vineyard. Lisini used the rights but in a different plot. The location of the vineyard made it very hard to reach and cultivate.

Over the years, Lisini took cuttings from the vines to propagate them on American rootstock. Unfortunately, these vines began to die off. They suggest that even grafted vines eventually lose their resistance to phylloxera in the same way that antibiotics lose their ability to protect us from infections. If that is true, it would be catastrophic for the global wine industry.

I was lucky to have the opportunity to taste the maiden 1985 Prefillossero during my trip to Japan in July, a bottle that a friend kindly kept for me. Apparently, hardly any bottles remain in Lisini’s own reserves. It shows modest bricking on the rim. The bouquet is enchanting, reminding me of a Pessac-Léognan of a similar age. Red fruit mixes with damp loam, forest floor and just the faintest touch of camphor. It opens gloriously in the glass – utterly seductive. The palate continues with that Pessac entwined with Brunello theme, showing pliant tannins and quite fleshy, perfectly judged acidity. It unfolds with layers of red fruit, cedar and hints of espresso, with a dab of allspice on the finish. I was smitten by this extraordinarily rare wine, and on the subway back to Ikebukuro, I rued the fact that it is no longer made. Anyone lucky enough to have any bottles in the cellar would be advised to enjoy it now, but based on this showing, it will easily last another two decades. 95/Drink 2024-2040.