May 7, 2024 - Must be in a closed phase. Took more than 30 min to revial more complexity. Color a bit tired red/brown, quite lean and dry taste and medium long. Expected more nose, taste and aftertaste. Blind tasted. Helped with food.
April 12, 2024 - Great battle between 2015 and 2016 vintages (RP: 2015:94, 2016:94; WS 2015:92, 2016:95). Those are two extremely different wines. The 2015 is dominated by dry wood at this stage. There is a lot of fruits underneath but the overall balance is not there right now, even after more than 3 hours of carafe. I will give it a rating of 92 now with a probable rating of 94+ in a few years. Not close to be ready to drink.
The 2016 is a wonderful wine right now. Very rich but with smooth tannins and lovely fruits. Great balance already, it has a little more acidity and much less dry wood tannins. It is still a young wine but I like it very much right now. I rate it 94 now with a potential of 95 in a few years.
The overall experience was great as I thought those two vintages would be very similar but boy I was wrong.
March 23, 2024 - Not sure if special mouthwash caused it but the flavours were very muted. Disappointing
February 24, 2024 - 1 hr decant. Nice balance of flavors and youthfulness with depth. In a perfect place for my palate.
January 20, 2024 - Exceptional bottle. Venturi aerator into decanter for about 90 min. Was singing, balanced and smooth with a 30 second finish. Much better than the previous two bottles I opened last year. Giovanni is onto something.....
January 7, 2024 - so smooth great dark but muted cherry plum with just a touch of acid on the finish..went well with carbonara
December 9, 2023 - So I wanted to check in on another 2016. Since I have more than a case this bottle was sacrificed. I slow oxed it for 24 hours and then into a decanter for another few. Initially it just overwhelmed me with the sent of ripe red cherries. The acids and tannin attack me but as the wine sat they receded. The cherries are still prevalent but cloves, hot rocks, baking spices and some smoke emerge. This is a wine in extraordinary balance. It’s going to evolve for a long time and just get better. Glad to have more but even at today’s price it’s still worth seeking out.
A few hours on - this continues to unfold and strut its stuff. A bit of cinnamon, coco powder and orange rind start to show. Very compelling. Based on this showing I can’t imagine where the Tenuta Nova will be.
November 25, 2023 - Excellent
November 19, 2023 - Light ruby, fine concentration all the way to the rim. Classic Brunello nose dominated by sour cherries, warm earth, some tobacco and a whiff of newly baked bread. Medium to full bodied attack, very smooth tannins up front combined with a tobacco and minty flavor. The mid palate is dominated by cherries and tobacco, while the aftertaste closes the whole thing up quite nicely with some tones of mint. Good balance between sweet cherry fruit, velvety tannins and acidity. The wine is, however, somewhat unexciting, professionally made, smooth and welcoming, but without any of those "edges" that makes up very good Brunellos. This wine is somewhat overrated.
September 25, 2023 - Still young and need more time. Red cherries and some leather. Great balance and sofisticated wine