Bacco’s Wine Club January 2026
Pictured: Sean O’Callagan of Tenuta di Carleone
Tenuta di Carleone - Il Randagio Toscana Rosso
Sean O’Callaghan—who’ll describe himself, with a wink, as a “one-eyed rascal”—works in rarefied air in the Tuscan countryside, quite literally. Tenuta di Carleone sits in Radda, the highest subzone of Chianti Classico, where elevation brings cooler temperatures, longer growing seasons, and a natural sense of lift. It’s a place that tends to reward transparency over amplitude—wines with line, brightness, and detail rather than bulk.
O’Callaghan first made his name in Chianti at Riecine before building Tenuta di Carleone as a tightly focused, two-person project. His core wines—his Chianti offerings—lean fully into Sangiovese, and the point is not to modernize the grape but to let Radda speak clearly through it. We’ve had the pleasure of featuring his Chianti Classico in the club in the past, and this time around, we’re putting the spotlight on Il Randagio, or “the stray”, due to its focus on the two non-native varietals of the region, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.
In a warmer zone, that blend can easily drift into something plush, sweet-fruited, and oak-led. Here, at altitude, it lands differently. Il Randagio keeps the profile taut and savory: Cabernet Franc’s herbal lift and graphite-like edge, Merlot bringing shape and mid-palate without turning the wine soft. The result feels more “composed” than showy—Tuscan in its structure and dryness, but not trying to play the Chianti Classico game.
In other words, this isn’t your ordinary Super Tuscan.
The Nitty Gritty:
Country: Italy
Region: Tuscany
Subregion: Chianti
Farming: Organic, Biodynamic
Soil: Alberese Limestone and Galestro Sandstone
Blend: 50% Cabernet Franc 50% Merlot
Pictured: Fausto Altariva of Fattoria Moretto
“Moretto is to Lambrusco what Tempier and Terrebrune are to rosé. It reminds me of the best reds of Bandol and Tuscany, with herbs like thyme, and a sort of dusty mineral quality, like you find in some of the top Bordeaux and Tuscan wines.”
Fattoria Moretto - Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Secco
Lambrusco is used to being the butt of the joke—the also-ran to Prosecco, and more often derided than Franciacorta, Italy’s official answer to Champagne. But in the right hands, Lambrusco is something altogether different: a wine of real purpose and deep local identity, shaped by food, place, and tradition. Nowhere does that matter more than in Emilia-Romagna, the heartland of Italian cuisine, where Lambrusco has always been a table wine first and a sparkling curiosity second.
Fattoria Moretto began as a passion project for Domenico Altariva in the early 1970s, when he started planting vineyards dedicated to Lambrusco Grasparossa, one of the historic varieties of the region and indigenous to Castelvetro. Sitting just outside Modena, Castelvetro’s hills and clay-rich soils give Grasparossa its signature depth and structure—more intensity and grip than other Lambrusco styles, and a natural affinity for dry, food-driven wines.
What started as a modest husband-and-wife operation grew slowly, guided less by ambition than by continuity. The Altarriva family worked the land as their parents had before them, farming naturally, avoiding pesticides, and trusting the strength of their vineyard sites rather than chasing yield or polish. That commitment shows clearly in the wines today: Lambrusco that is dry, savory, and grounded, with dark fruit, gentle tannin, and a brisk, cleansing finish that makes immediate sense at the table.
Moretto’s Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Secco isn’t interested in rewriting the category—it’s interested in reminding you what it can be when treated seriously. Chilled, poured generously, and paired with food, it becomes less a novelty and more a necessity: a wine built for prosciutto, Parmigiano, rich pastas, and the everyday rhythms of a meal shared.
The Nitty Gritty:
Country: Italy
Region: Emilia-Romagna
Subregion: Castelvetro
Farming: Organic
Soil: Alberese Limestone and Galestro Sandstone
Varietal: 100% Grasparossa
Pictured: Claude-Emmanuel and Louis-Benoît Desvignes of Louis Claude Desvignes
Louis-Claude Desvignes was a very particular kind of Beaujolais vigneron—restless, quick-witted, and seemingly incapable of standing still. Tastings in his cellar were as likely to include laughter and asides as they were bottles pulled from every corner of the domaine: experiments, comparisons, older vintages offered purely for context. The energy was light, almost playful. The seriousness of the wines never was.
Desvignes passed away in 2021, having already handed the estate over to his children, Claude-Emmanuelle and Louis-Benoît, the eighth generation of the family to work these vineyards in Morgon. Emmanuelle joined in 2001, and Benoît in 2004. While the core identity of the domaine has remained intact, their stewardship has quietly sharpened it. Today, all production is estate-bottled, the vineyards are certified organic, and the family has begun exploring small, focused bottlings that highlight individual lieux-dits within Morgon.
The Desvignes holdings have long centered on Morgon’s most serious ground. Much of the fruit for the estate’s wines comes from the Côte du Py, widely regarded as the beating heart of the appellation. If Morgon were formally classified, this hill would sit at the top. Its decomposed schist soils—and, in certain parcels, added clay—give the wines their depth, structure, and capacity to age, setting them apart from the lighter, more immediate expressions found elsewhere in Beaujolais.
That pedigree comes into particularly clear focus with Château Gaillard. Once blended into the estate’s broader Morgon cuvée, this 1.03-hectare plot of south-facing, old-vine Gamay proved distinctive enough to stand on its own beginning in 2020. Planted on sandy granite soils near the Fleurie border, the vines—now around 80 years old—deliver fruit with concentration, firmness, and a sense of gravity that feels unmistakably Morgon.
In the cellar, the approach is traditional and restrained: largely whole-cluster fermentation, gentle extraction, and élevage in concrete. The aim is not to soften Morgon’s edges, but to frame them. When young, Château Gaillard shows dark cherry, raspberry, and blackcurrant, carried by a structure that feels composed rather than heavy. With time, the wine begins to “pinotize,” taking on the savory, earthy notes—cocoa, coffee, forest floor—that have long made Morgon one of Beaujolais’ most age-worthy crus.
This is Gamay with intent and patience built in. For Wine Club members, it’s a reminder of why Morgon occupies such a singular place in the region: a wine that drinks beautifully now, but rewards those who give it a little air—or a little time—and one that bridges the space between Beaujolais and Burgundy with confidence rather than comparison.