My father had chosen to plant Merlot vines in the late 1990s. Since I am not a big fan of this variety, I just opted to have fun watching it grow. Our Come Se (As If) is left to age for a long time in oak barrels, in strict purity, until it loses what I like the least about Merlot: an exaggerated boldness, an overbearing masculinity that risks getting boring after the first glass. But “time is a gentleman”, you know, and I naturally wait until I can get a wine that brings us back to the Montalcino area. Over the years, it tends to lose its toughness and eventually acquires a curious, refined elegance. AS IF … it was a woman!