RBW is the brand of wines made in Italy by Robin Baum, a specialist winemaker from England. All his wines are matured in ceramic egg shaped vessels, hence the nickname THE EGGMAN.
“The wine world is talking about eggs, egg shaped vessels in which wine is matured. By coincidence I am seen as a pioneer of this method of production.
I started using them 6 years ago in Chianti when I imported 2 Magnum 675 ceramic egg shaped vessels made in the Barossa Valley in Australia into Italy. At the same time I bought 2 cement egg shaped vessels made by Nomblot in Burgundy.
Further research identified producers within Italy and I thought it would be interesting to start a collection and compare Clayver, Sirio and Porcellanea and more recently TAVA. This collection is now housed in the 5 wineries in Italy where I make my portfolio of Italian wines, in Veneto, Chianti (2), Montalcino and on Mount Etna in Sicily. The pyramid of wines identifies these wines.
So why egg shaped? Simply the shape enables better circulation of the juice allowing the various molecules present to interact and better contact with the lees following fermentation in the eggs.
The benefit of the egg shape was only one of the reasons why I chose to make my wines using ceramic egg shaped vessels. I wanted to go back to enhancing the natural flavours of the grape and producing elegant, juicy, fruity wines with long lengths of taste in the mouth. All the vessels I use are porous so you get 2 benefits from this:
1. Natural slow oxidation of the wine, and
2. Natural temperature control, the cool air filters into the wine from the outside of the egg and this cools the inner wine.
Also these vessels are inert and add no flavours to the wine. All the vessels are certified for use by the relevant Food Standards Authority, and all the vineyards with whom I work have adopted organic standards in both their vineyards and winery, and most are certified. Indeed some are certified biodynamic.”
For over 30 years in early November the Merano Wine Festival has taken place in the Alto-Adige region in Northern Italy, this year we decided to participate for the first time. All wines (maximum 5) have to be reviewed and selected in a blind tasting carried out by the WineHunter team of experts. The results are in:
DIPLOMA OF EXCELLENCE RBW WINES
2018 Veneto Pinot Nero GOLD
2020 Veneto Garganega IGT ROSSO
2015 Brunello di Montalcino DOCG ROSSO
2017 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG ROSSO
2018 Chianti Classico DOCG ROSSO
ALL of our wines achieved in excess of 90 points with the top selection being Pinot Nero made in partnership with our good friends at Contra Soarda- 96.
This years Festival is held from 3 – 7 November in Merano and we hope to see you there to taste our medal winning wines.
REMEMBER in the U.K. we only sell our wines direct, that way you get a better price. Contact details for both U.K and Italy are below.
SALUTI!
HOW DOES THE WINEHUNTER AWARD WORK?
There are eight expert panels with at least three members each. They blind-taste forty wines in each round of tasting. Every bottle is opened at least two hours beforehand, to let the wine breathe and open up.
The experts are told a few key details about each wine. They’re told where it’s from, which grapes it’s made from, how it’s made and the vintage – but the producer is kept secret. The wines that score really high are then tasted by the Central Committee of Merano. It consists of Helmuth Köcher (the founder of The WineHunter) and two other senior experts.
After tasting the wine, the expert panels assign scores out of 100 based on the way the wine looks, the way it smells and the way it tastes. The best wines – those that score more than
WINES MADE BY “THE EGGMAN “ IN TUSCANY, VENETO AND SICILY
Our PYRAMID of wines shows all the wines currently bottled of which stocks are stored in our warehouses in Tuscany and London so we can deliver any mixture directly to customers in Italy and England.
“ONE STOP SHOPPING”
JUST RELEASED ETNA ROSATO 2022
ANOTHER MEDAL 2018 IGT
100% Sangiovese – no oak matured 24 months in Porcellanea ceramic egg shaped vessel.
GLOBAL MASTERS SANGIOVESE 2023 Blind Tasting BRONZE MEDAL
To add to Bronze medals awarded to Chianti Classico Riserva 2016, Pinot Nero 2018 and Silver medal to Brunello di Montalcino 2015 in previous Global Masters tastings AND 91/100 to Gran Selezione Chianti Classico 2017 in Decanter tasting last year.
Winemakers Club Italia makes wines under its RBW brand label in wineries situated in Veneto, Sicily and Montalcino as well as Radda in Chianti and Castellina in Chianti.
Together with Setriolo in Castellina MERLOT 2019 was matured for 2 years in my original Magnum 675 ceramic egg made in Barossa Valley, Australia.
In Veneto in partnership with Contra Soarda VENETO BIANCO 2020 and PINOT NERO 2018 both matured in Clayver trio ceramic vessels . Yes, of course they are egg shaped!
In Sicily we have just bottled ETNA ROSSO 2019, 100 per cent Nerello Mascalese grown on the northern slopes of Mt Etna.
In Montalcino, BRUNELLO 2015 made in partnership with Fattoria dei Barbi and, of course, 100 per cent Sangiovese.
EACH YEAR I MAKE A ONE OFF SPECIAL WINE, A LIMITED PRODUCTION OF BOTTLES MATURED IN MY CERAMIC EGGS WHICH I AND MY COLLEAGUES BELIEVE MERITS BEING MADE INTO A SPECIAL BOTTLING ON ITS OWN.
2017 was a unique blend of grapes consisting of 46 per cent Merlot, 36 per cent Alicante Bousquet and 18 per cent Sangiovese matured in my original Magnum 675 Australian egg for 12 months and made in partnership with Setriolo in Castellina in Chianti.
A big bold wine due to the large amount of Alicante Bousquet which is a very tannic grape variety. Sold out within 3 months of release, but I have kept back a few bottles to monitor its ageing over the next 10 years when I still think it will be a fantastic drop.
2018 100 per cent Sangiovese, no oak matured for two and three quarter years in a ceramic egg shaped vessel made by Porcellanea in Barbaresco in Northern Italy. Normally this wine would be blended into my Chianti Classico but throughout our regular tastings of this vintage this wine leapt out.
2019 95 per cent Merlot and 5 per cent Alicante Bousquet again made in partnership with Setriolo and matured in that same Aussie egg for 2 years. Just 800 bottles to be released in the autumn of 2022. Silky smooth Merlot and no oak – pure fruit and definitely Merlot grape on the palate.
Final comment- interestingly all 3 wines have no oak, a pure definition of the grapes and their individual distinctive flavours. ENJOY!
Chianti but only from grapes in Chianti Classico region, between Florence and Siena. Chanti is Sangiovese; Gran Selezione has to be 90 per cent Sangiovese. In 2014 the Consorzio of Chianti Classico invented Gran Selezione. In simple terms Chianti Classico matured for 30 months. Chianti Classico has to be matured for 12 months; Riserva for 24 months and Gran Selezione 30 months. Riserva is a tough sell mainly because its price is twice that of Classico and nobody really understands what it is. So Gran Selezione was invented to provide Chianti producers a way of reducing their unsold stocks of Chianti Classico Riserva by redefining it. But would additional ageing necessarily improve the quality of the wine to justify the increased price of normally 30 per cent over the Riserva? Frankly, in my opinion, the whole thing was misconceived and has proven to be a failure. Maybe the Consorzio thought that they had to compete with Super Tuscan and so have a Gran.
SECONDLY, WHY HAVE I MADE A GRAN SELEZIONE?
I would like to say “to prove my point” but the honest answer is that we had some Riserva juice left – just 400 litres maturing in a Clayver ceramic egg, so I said to my good friends Mauro and Fabio let us make a Gran Selezione – just 500 bottles. So we aged it for a total of 36 months and then added a little (5 per cent) of Sangiovese matured in a Mittelberger Italian oak tonneau, and bottled on 8th November 2021. So there you are, I have made a GRAND wine! Maybe I should have called it a Super Tuscan!
RBW Gran Selezione Chianti Classico 2017
Score: 91/100
THERE ARE NO INCREASES IN PRICES!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Q: why do you put your signature on each bottle? A: Because each bottle contains wine personally blended and made by me.
