2012 Le Ragnaie Rosso di Montalcino

Community Tasting Notes (19) Avg Score: 91.1 points

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  10/7/2020 - BillBell73 wrote:

  A bit bretty, tight, and clipped on the finish. This vintage never really resonated for me, perhaps I consumed them too soon.

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  9/21/2020 - forceberry wrote: 90 Points

  An organic Rosso di Montalcino, fermented spontaneously and macerated for 30 days on the skins in concrete tanks, after which the wine is pressed into Slavonian 2500-liter botti casks to age for 24 months. 14% alcohol.
  
  Moderately translucent pomegranate red color with a developed figgy hue. Vibrant, sunny and slightly evolved nose with aromas of wizened cherries, some sweet figgy fruit, a little bit of lifted VA, light raisiny tones, a hint of leather and a touch of bloody meat. The wine is ripe and very juicy on the palate with a medium-to-moderately full body and pretty intense flavors of sour cherry bitterness, some tart lingonberries, a little bit of ripe cranberry, light ferrous notes of blood, a hint of volatile lift and a touch of brambly raspberry. The streak of sour cherry bitterness seems to grow towards the finish, while the high alcohol lends a little bit of warmth to the mouthfeel. The overall feel is quite tough and tightly-knit with the high acidity and moderately grippy medium tannins. The finish is noticeably bitter, somewhat grippy and quite lengthy with intense flavors of sour cherries, tart lingonberries, some leathery notes, a little bit of dusty earth, light crunchy cranberry tones, a ferrous hint of blood and a touch of balsamic VA.
  
  A nice and sophisticated Rosso di Montalcino with a dead-serious, structure-driven overall feel. There's some sense of evolution here, as the fruit flavors are starting to show some raisiny tertiary notes, but structurally the wine is still very much a mere baby as the tannins are still very much unresolved and the taste is pretty much dominated by a quite prominent streak of sour cherry bitterness, which is accentuated by the high acidity. This is quite enjoyable stuff, if you like your Sangiovese very tough, angular and old-school in style. However, I wouldn't call this particularly approachable or drinkable - at least not yet. As a whole, the wine is pretty similar to a classic, traditionalist Chianti Classico with some age. Most likely the wine will continue to improve for some years and keep for many years longer. Good stuff.

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  1/17/2019 - Italiana Likes this wine:

  Clear ruby. Fairly well balanced, with some edge to the acidity. Nice sangiovese.

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  12/23/2018 - BillBell73 Likes this wine:

  A good but not great wine - very tight and linear with very little fruit and no secondary or tertiary flavors to add interest. What you have at this stage is a bit of dark cherry fruit with high acidity and fairly astringent tannins. Maybe it is in a dumb phase and will wake up with age but it isn’t very rewarding right now.

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  10/29/2017 - Italiana Likes this wine:

  A wow! For my taste, quite the pleasing (and highly affordable) bottle. Dark ruby, full, savory aromas, rounded red fruit backed by a touch of acerbic citrus peel, tannins just right for me. Based on my previous, if somewhat limited, experience with this producer, Le Ragnaie will join my short list of wines to buy on name alone--no need to wait for critics to weigh in.

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