CASTELLO DELLA SALA · UMBRIA, ITALY

Only 26 Bottles Left of the Vintage

Every Allocation Instantly Sells Out

Antinori "Cervaro della Sala" 2023

Elsewhere: $100.00

$79.99

Artisan.Wine · Ships Nationwide

THE GRAND CRU COMPARISON

"Reminiscent of the Great Whites of Burgundy." Here Is
What the Actual Montrachet Grand Crus Cost.

All prices are average retail per bottle for the current release vintage.

The 2023 Cervaro della Sala earns 97 points from Wine Advocate — matching the Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet and Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. At $79.99, it costs roughly 1/11th the price of the cheapest wine on this list. That gap is what Monica Larner is calling out when she writes "reminiscent of the great whites of Burgundy."

WHY THIS WINE IS EXTRAORDINARY

Italy Has Never Made a White Wine
That Rivals Grand Cru Burgundy.
Until Cervaro della Sala.

In 1985, Renzo Cotarella — a young winemaker who had joined the Castello della Sala at just 25 years old — took a trip to Burgundy with Piero Antinori. They visited Corton-Charlemagne. They tasted at Puligny-Montrachet. They came home with a question: Why can't Italy produce a white wine that commands the same reverence?

The answer was Cervaro della Sala — the first Italian white wine to undergo both malolactic fermentation and aging in French barriques. It was a revolutionary departure. Forty years later, Wine Advocate's Monica Larner — the most authoritative critic on Italian wine — calls the new 2023 vintage "the best Cervaro della Sala I have tasted."

Four of the world's most respected critics gave the 2023 between 93 and 97 points. Wine Advocate and James Suckling each landed at 97. At $79.99 — $20 below the national average — it is the finest Italian white wine we have ever offered at Artisan, and the most compelling value in white wine we have seen in years.

THE 2023 VINTAGE AT CASTELLO DELLA SALA

The 2023 Cervaro della Sala is the result of a deliberate winemaking reinvention. As Monica Larner notes in her 97-point Wine Advocate review (November 2025): "the most impressive aspect of the Castello della Sala ethos is its ability to reinvent itself." For this vintage, Renzo Cotarella's team moved away from 500-litre barrels in favor of larger foudre, eliminated bâtonnage entirely, and further reduced the Grechetto component (now 5–10% of the blend, down from historical norms) to avoid any rustic edges from the indigenous grape.

The result is a wine of brilliant precision: tension, energy, and what James Suckling calls "amazing balance in this vintage." Vinous's Eric Guido describes it as "pure elegance in the glass," with "silken textures" and "a resonance of mineral-infused apricots." Wine Spectator's Alison Napjus notes "a sense of finesse as the profile waltzes across the palate." Three different critics. The same word: elegance.

The 2023 was harvested at night and at dawn, cold-macerated, and fermented in new French oak with part of the Chardonnay completing malolactic fermentation while the Grechetto was held back for energy and verve. The wine then rested in foudre on the fine lees before bottle aging in the historic cellars of the 14th-century Castello della Sala. Per Wine Spectator: 3,000 cases imported.

SIX REASONS TO ACT NOW

Why This Bottle Matters

THE ARTISAN INSIDER VERDICT

This Is the White Wine Italy Has Always
Wanted to Make. Now It's $79.99.

There are two kinds of white wine collectors. The ones who pay $800–$21,000 for Grand Cru Burgundy because the world agrees it's the standard. And the ones who understand when Wine Advocate's most authoritative Italian critic calls a wine "the best Cervaro della Sala I have tasted" and "reminiscent of the great whites of Burgundy," she is saying something with serious implications for a wine that costs $79.99.

WHAT YOU'D PAY AT A RESTAURANT

The Same Bottle. Three Very Different Prices.

THE WINEMAKER — RENZO COTARELLA

The Man Who Invented the Category — and Spent 40 Years Perfecting It.

Renzo Cotarella joined the Castello della Sala in 1979 at the age of 25. After the Burgundy trip with Piero Antinori, he spent two years developing the protocol for Cervaro della Sala — the only Italian white wine to undergo both malolactic fermentation and aging in new French oak barriques. It was a statement: Italian white wine did not have to be simple, early-drinking, or regional. It could aspire to greatness.

Today, Cotarella oversees a program that has earned him recognition as one of Italy's greatest white winemakers. The Antinori family — in wine since 1385, one of the oldest wine dynasties in the world — now led by daughters Albiera, Allegra, and Alessia, have continued to invest in Castello della Sala as the crown of their white wine program.

The 2023 Cervaro is the 38th vintage. At 97 points from Wine Advocate — with Monica Larner calling it "the best Cervaro della Sala I have tasted" — it is the finest statement the wine has ever made.

THE VINEYARD — CASTELLO DELLA SALA, UMBRIA

The medieval castle of Castello della Sala was built in 1350 in the Orvieto hills of Umbria. The 600-hectare estate, with 229 hectares under vine, sits at elevations ranging from 220 to 470 metres on clay and limestone soils rich in marine fossils — the geological signature of ancient seabeds that once covered central Italy.

The Grechetto blended into Cervaro della Sala is not an afterthought. It is the wine's identity. Fermented separately in stainless steel to preserve its native acidity and aromatic precision, then assembled with the barrel-fermented Chardonnay before the final 10 months of bottle rest in the castle's centuries-old cellars.

PERFECT PAIRINGS

What to Serve with This Wine

Chardonnay + Grechetto with mineral tension and ripe pit fruit — it demands food with substance.

CRITICAL CONSENSUS — FOUR AUTHORITIES. ONE VERDICT.

WA 97 · JS 97 · Vinous 95 · Wine Spectator 93. Italy's Greatest White Wine.

TWO QUESTIONS COLLECTORS ASK

Q: If this is 97 points, why isn't it $500?

Because it doesn't have a Burgundy appellation, and the market hasn't fully priced in the score. Cervaro della Sala is Umbria IGT — "Indicazione Geografica Tipica," Italy's broad classification for wines that fall outside DOC/DOCG rules. There's no grand cru classification system, no village hierarchy, no centuries of price-setting precedent the way Montrachet has. What there is: 97 points from Wine Advocate ("the best Cervaro della Sala I have tasted"), 97 from James Suckling, a 40-year track record as Italy's most acclaimed white wine, and a $79.99 price tag. The market will catch up.

Q: Should I drink it now or cellar it?

Both. Wine Spectator confirms a drinking window through 2036 — thirteen years of runway. Vinous calls the 2023 "youthfully coy" with energy that "maintains throughout," meaning the wine will reward both early opening and longer cellaring. The safe answer: buy two. Open one in 2026 with good food — the silken texture and salted citrus finish are remarkable now. Lay the other down for 5 years and see what the foudre-aged 2023 becomes when it grows up. See which conversation you prefer.

ANTINORI · CERVARO DELLA SALA 2023 · UMBRIA IGT

97 Points × 2. Italy's Greatest White.
"The Best Cervaro I Have Tasted." $79.99.

Wine Advocate's Monica Larner: "the best Cervaro della Sala I have tasted." James Suckling: "classic Burgundian style." Vinous: "pure elegance in the glass." Wine Spectator: "drink through 2036." Four critics, 93–97 points. One price. $20 below retail. The comparison to the great whites of Burgundy starts and ends here.

Elsewhere: $100.00

$79.99

Cheers,
— James Tran
Chat · sales@artisan.wine · Text 650-880-3553 · Call 650-917-8080

ARTISAN WINE · ARTISAN.WINE
2495 Old Middlefield Way · Mountain View, CA 94043