The long hot summer is coming to a close, making way for fresh fall days. Here’s a smattering of new reds to match the changing colours.

Carlomagno Primitivo 2019 — Puglia, Italy ($18 through Opimian Wine Club)
Full disclosure: You might not still be able to find this wine—an offering from Opimian Wine Club—but it is an intriguing one if you can get your hands on it. Primitivo is essentially Zinfandel, although the Italian clone tends to ripen earlier, meaning you get much less of that vapourous alcohol punch than Zinfandel can often deliver. This particular version is produced via a unique partial appassimento method—instead of grapes picked once they were ripe in mid-August, the stalks were twisted, leaving the bunches to slowly dry on the vine for 10-12 days before being picked, allowing them to lose roughly 30% of their weight through evaporation, meaning more concentration, and a tad sweeter. You can tell it’s still very young—you don’t tend to see a lot of one-year-old Italian reds of any quality making their way across the border—but it’s extremely drinkable right now, showing vibrant acidity, soft tannins and a semi-sweet reductive cherry and strawberry, with notes of coconut, vanilla and nutmeg, and a midweight body that makes it quite sippable without food. Good value. 88.5

Abbotts & Delauney A tire d’Aile Carignan Old Vines 2017 — Pays d’Oc, Southern France ($18.95)
Here’s a more full- than medium-bodied Carignan, which is typically used as a blending grape. But this effortlessly stands on its own—powerful, featuring almost overripe dark fruits (blackberry and black currant), with crushed violets and mouthwatering smoked meat adding to the complexity. You can really appreciate the depth of fruit and secondary flavours created by these old vines (some more than 50 years of age). Smooth, well-made stuff from this boutique winery in the Languedoc region of Southern France. New to Ontario stores this year, it offers extremely good value and should age well too, if you’re so inclined. Pair it up with everything from duck to pork to lamb. 90

Vicente Faria Gloria Reserva 2018 — Douro, Portugal ($16.95)
A polished—both texturally and from a winemaking standpoint—blend of 40% Tempranillo, 30% French Touriga and 30% Touriga Nacional. Oak-aged for a year and featuring some soft-edged tannins, look for notes of soft smoke, shoe polish, pencil shavings, blackberries, black currants and blueberries. The winery says you can age this medium-bodied puppy up to 20 years, which seems crazy-long at this price point, but I’d pop the cork within the next five years. Or tomorrow is just fine too. Pair it up with a big juicy burger. 88

Rocca delle Macie Chianti Classico Riserva Familia Zingarelli 2017 — Tuscany, Italy ($24.95)
I hate the term ‘punching above its weight,’ but this Chianti Classico is Sugar Ray Robinson, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao all rolled into one. Featuring 90% Sangiovese and 5% each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot—a selection of the best grapes from the four estates of Rocca delle Macìe—and aged on oak for two years, it oozes deep, rich, dark fruit, with evocative forest floor scents rising from the glass, a firm structure and medium tannins. An exceptionally valued, silky Chianti Classico. 91

Lungarotti San Giorgio 2016 — Umbria, Italy ($51.95)
It’s been four years since harvest—including a year on oak with the rest of the time in the bottle—but this equal blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese isn’t close to unpacking yet.
Very tight, with plum, black cherry and raspberry fruit, baking chocolate, dusty, leathery and earthy, this is a full-bodied red I’d sit down and revisit in a few years. Or at least decant for a couple hours if you want to drink it now. I can’t figure out whether the oak is masking the fruit or it all just needs more time in the bottle to relax, although I tend to lean to the latter. And given the ample presence of acidity, structure, fruit density and tannins, it’s assured that this concoction is age-worthy. (Incidentally, you could hide a shot glass in the unusually oversized gap at the base of this ultra-heavy bottle). 91