Experience with Castello di Ama's L'Apparita?

I was on vacation recently and met up with an Italian wine collector. We talked about a lot of wine and our favorites, Bordeaux, Brunellos/Super Tuscans, Napa, etc. Anyway - he was telling me that his favorite IGT is Castello Di Ama’s L’Apparita. He even stated that he thought it was better than Masseto. I am thinking about picking some up but wanted to know if anyone had any recommendations on which vintages would be best for drinking now and which would be best for laying down (especially based on price/quality ratio). Thanks for any advice you may have.

Amazing wine and I would agree that it’s probably the best pure Merlot from Italy. I’ve had a few of the more recent vintages, I believe 06 and 09, and both were very pure and elegant and drinking pretty well with a good decant. That being said they could definitely use a couple years to really open up further and are wines that should age very well due of their incredible balance and acidity. Both Robert Parker (Monica Larner) and Galloni give high praises to the wine with scores typically in the mid to high 90’s.

I served a '94 L’Apparita blind to a group last week, there was a lot of discussion about Italy but no guesses of Merlot. It was polished and sweetly fruited and hard to find a nit. Not quite up to Masseto but for the money I’d take this all day.

I had an '88 recently and it was drinking well - not improving but no risk to finish other bottles

Thanks for the help guys - I am going to dive into this pool! Probably will go after some stuff with a little age based on these reviews…