Robin Lee profiles Tuscan producer Podere Il Carnasciale’s Il Caberlot.
To be a “cult wine” is a tantalizing target. The hunt is always on for that mystical beast. On noble steeds with festive harnesses bedecked with fanciful descriptors, impressive qualifications emblazoned on their livery, the panoply unfolds. Wine producers with their consultant enologists lead the way, prancing through fairytale realms in search of that luminous, incomparable wine of their desire, followed closely by bespectacled wine merchants, rakish sommeliers, and boozy wine drinkers trailing behind. What was that creature darting through the woods? Did you see it? Was it a unicorn? A griffin? A chimera? Might it even have been the elusive Caberlot?
Among all the world’s contenders for the prize of the most outlandish wine “story,” Il Caberlot is up there with the very best. Although it is no two-headed beast, it still cannot fail to raise a smile. Made from a proprietary grape variety that is believed to be a natural cross between Cabernet Franc and Merlot (though this has never been tested or verified and is just an impression, a surmise), Il Caberlot was described by the late Nicolas Belfrage MW as “the most famous cult wine you’ve probably never heard of.” This unique wine is produced at Podere Il Carnasciale in Valdarno di Sopra in the province of Arezzo, a still miraculously bucolic, unspoiled, and therefore exceptionally beautiful corner of ever-splendid Tuscany. There are now five plots of Caberlot, across 4.5ha (11 acres), all organically cultivated but trained in different ways.
Valdarno di Sopra has been a DOC only since 2011, though wine has been made on these verdant hills since Etruscan times, and it was commended in a 1427 Florentine registry for its high quality potential. Nevertheless, wine from this area of Tuscany has never been distinguished by any specific characteristics that set it apart. That can be considered a good thing, of course; the wine made here is typical of Tuscany. Yet this is also a dilemma for those vying on the world stage for the title of “icon” wine. Tuscany is crisscrossed by myriad confusing, overlapping, superfluous denominations with the same wine styles, all of which want to stick their heads above the parapet and be noticed by the distant multitudes. They do not want to be undiscovered gems.
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In fact, the secret that Tuscany’s wine producers do not want us to know is that just about all the wine made in Tuscany is very good indeed. Tuscany has a quite distinctive, robust style—whether the wines are Sangiovese, blends with other local varieties, or made from Bordeaux varieties—and it is this way sui generis, without trying too hard. Whether thanks to the high diurnal range (warm days and cool nights during the growing season), the friable galestro soil, the green fragrance of the surrounding nature, or a combination of these factors—the terroir, as it were—Tuscany is conducive to this kind of wine, and it pretty much makes itself if you don’t get in its way. Inevitably, it is always the wines that are trying too hard to be something they are not that are less good. And even those are not so bad, if you can forgive some overoakiness and a hefty price tag. Wine in Tuscany is like figs in Greece, or heather honey in Scotland: It’s prolific and consistently delicious. The problem for the more ambitious producers, however, is that if the wine is so good without needing anything done to it, then how do you sell it for a high price? And how do you make your “brand” stand out? This is now the existential challenge.
Il Caberlot is released only in magnum, though since 2013 a few 75cl bottles, “demi-magnums,” have been produced for restaurants only. It is a small-production wine—around 2,000 magnums are produced each year, as well as around 8,000 bottles of its second wine, Il Carnasciale. As for the mysterious eponymous grape variety: It is thought to be a natural crossing of Cabernet Franc and Merlot—or perhaps it is just Cabernet Franc. The owner of Il Carnasciale, Moritz Rogosky, a couturier by background, recounts that he was once on the verge of sending vine material for DNA analysis, but at the last minute he changed his mind and decided against it, choosing instead to keep the mystery alive.
Authenticity, beauty, and mystery
Il Caberlot is the brainchild of Wolf and Bettina Rogosky, Moritz’s parents. Originally from Germany, the Rogoskys bought the Carnasciale property, which was a ruin, in 1972. He was a successful copy writer and went on to be the creative director of advertising agency GGK. In the 1980s they decided they should plant a vineyard at Carnasciale, having sought advice from winemaking consultant Vittorio Fiore, from Trentino-Alto Adige, who introduced them to Romagnan agronomist Remigio Bordini. Dr Bordini proposed the hitherto unknown grape variety that would end up being known as Caberlot. He had come across this variety in an abandoned vineyard, now lost, in Colli Euganei near Padua in the Veneto region in the 1950s. The mystery grape apparently combined the best characteristics of Cabernet and Merlot. Since this was the time when the Super-Tuscans made from French grape varieties were grabbing all the headlines, it must have seemed like the golden ticket.
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In the quarter-century since Il Caberlot first appeared, there have been significant changes in the Tuscan wine scene. Most important, it is no longer a given that to be considered high in quality, a wine should be like wine from Bordeaux. If anything, winemakers today are more inclined to look to Burgundy for inspiration, and the highest enthusiasm is reserved for individualistic wines from unique or historic vineyards. In Tuscany, much like everywhere else, the so-called autochthonous or indigenous grape varieties are in fashion (even though this is a nebulous and unscientific criterion, especially in Tuscany, a region that has been cultivated by human hands, traversed, and re-traversed for millennia). Even Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which arrived on the scene somewhat more recently, have a long-standing and legitimate claim to be considered naturalized, as they have been well established in some parts of Tuscany for more than 100 years and are responsible for some of the best and most prestigious wines in the region.
Since it is by choice that Rogosky does not know what variety Caberlot really is, this is an inherent part of the story of the wine. It is also an interesting and novel approach: Who cares what the variety is, if we like the results? The thinking is that, whatever it may be, Caberlot is unlikely to be a completely “new,” unheard-of grape variety.
Although Caberlot may have no native link to the particular place where it has now taken root, and was brought somewhat arbitrarily from somewhere else now unknown, it has, arguably, “gone native” by now—much like its owners, who originally came from somewhere else, passing through other places on the way, but having settled in Tuscany, which is now their home. The only problem here is that the Super-Tuscans, which is the commonly used moniker for Tuscan wines made from French grape varieties, are somewhat out of fashion. On the other side of the argument, Rogosky’s steadfast perseverance and defiance of superficial trends—his loyalty to his parents and their legacy, and his determination to realize their dreams—projects confidence and conviction. Rogosky’s father, Wolf, passed away suddenly in 1996. His mother Bettina, however, is very much alive and still involved in running the estate, while his daughter Carla-Elle is also now happily involved. They still retain Bordini as a viticultural consultant but took on Peter Schilling, from Germany, as winemaking consultant in 2002, while Marco Maffei has had full-time responsibility for viticulture and winemaking since 2012.
Il Caberlot has a devoted following. The name of the wine and even the label design represent a monumental, intergenerational effort to create a wine that is different—indeed, unique—a wine aimed at private collectors on export markets who hunt for exceptions, unusual rarities and interesting oddities and are happy to pay more than they would otherwise for a cult wine. Il Caberlot is also a good choice for wine drinkers who are new to Italian wines and who want wine from Tuscany but are used to drinking wine from Bordeaux.
When the Rogoskys first came to Tuscany in the 1970s, most of the local wines were not very good. The malolactic fermentation was not well understood and often did not take place. The local wines were rough and often faulty. Now, compared to then, however, the quest is not so much for something new and different, or wine that is refined and sophisticated, but for a wine that is typical and that expresses the feeling of its particular place. What people seek now is the best expression of the place, a superior example of what is typical, a wine that is the same as all the other wines made in the neighborhood but is made with more care and fewer chemicals.
Tuscany, for better or worse, is not Bordeaux. When the idea of Il Caberlot was first dreamed up, the world believed that Bordeaux was the pinnacle of quality and that the greatness of a wine would be determined by how much it was like a Bordeaux. That is no longer the case. Bordeaux today is, if anything, neglected and unloved, and more people want wine from Tuscany. This, in the end, cannot be anything other than very good news for Il Carnasciale. There is no need to worry about what will become of it and its fortunate owners.
The cult of the cult wine has had its time. Unexpected juxtapositions are not what matters. Authenticity and beauty are inextricably linked, and the criteria that determine them are, as ever, one and the same.
Tasting
Il Carnasciale 2021 (13.5% ABV)
In this warm vintage, the second wine from Il Carnasciale is a medium-ruby color, with explosive aromas of juicy Santa Rosa plum balanced with Tuscan cigar, bay berries, fennel seeds, dry rosemary, and lavender. Some dry tannins on the finish add elegance, with just a hint of austerity. 2025–26. | 91
Il Caberlot 2020 (13.5% ABV)
A brooding, impenetrable, ruby-colored wine, with herbal notes of black pine, holly berries, and ivy trailing from the glass. Hints of sweet basil and hibiscus herald a vibrant acid structure. The tannins are present but fine-grained and elegant. Overall, a remarkably light body for such a structured wine, suggesting that this vintage of Il Caberlot is still evolving and will make excellent drinking once fully integrated. (All magnums are already aged at the property for 16 months prior to release.) 2029–40. | 93+
Il Caberlot 2015 (13.5% ABV)
Dark and brooding in the glass, then black cherry and mint excite the nose as this beautiful wine unfolds in the glass. As it opens up, whiffs of tea-tree oil, myrtle berries, and sandalwood permeate and warm the bouquet. The palate is like juicy red tuna meat with lashings of soy sauce. There is so much going on here, but it remains a medium-bodied wine, with chewy tannins that give it real substance. (The wine is aged in French oak barriques, 50–60% new, and fûts, most from Burgundy, before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.) An intense and concentrated capolavoro (masterpiece). 2025–40. | 95
