October 26, 2015 - Solid yet mature garnet. Smoke and wood chips dominate the nose. Stern palate that has some fruit on the attack. Mid palate and finish are extremely austere. Lots of leather and wood. (83)
May 29, 2011 - - Ruby color with fast forming legs and aromas of blackberry and mushroom and has flavours of black olive, blackberry and black currant with a medium/full body. Smooth texture with a long finish - Beautiful color, nose is nutty and herbal, barnyard, mushrooms, some very dark fruit on the pallet with long dry finish.
April 14, 2010 - dark brick red coloring, nose of cherry, tart cherry/earth/leather at end on the palate. medium finish wiith some acidity. Went well with spinach ravioli with marinara sauce.
February 25, 2010 - Deep blood garnet. Sweet sun-baked leather fruit. A touch of nail polish funk. A dirt / tobacco core behind the sweet fruit. Round and robust attack that falls away in pieces leaving a somewhat tart and bitter, quite acidic finish. The beginning and end don’t jive….too bad. Nice wine – good for price, but really no more. The middle / end keep this from scoring higher. Drink up. (85)
August 20, 2003 - Hmm, I didn't like this as much as prior bottles. It featured a surprisingly floral, almost violet nose. The palate is more dry, somewhat leathery and bitter. Lots of structure and drying acid on the finish. There are a lot of interesting elements there, but the package as a whole is not terribly flattering right now. I'm actually visiting this estate next week when I go to Tuscany, so hopefully I will have better experiences with their juice then. I'm not quite sure what happened to this bottle. (Bought on release, stored at 55 degrees etc. In a dumb phase???)
March 2, 2003 - Gorgeous nose of intense cherry & saddle leather/
Palate is silky smooth, tannins largely resolved, good sweetness yet some very present acid really keeps this very bright and on the edge of bitter (in a good way). It held up *really* well with tapenade and later pasta in tomato/eggplant sauce (and needed the food at first), but after a few hours it has really settled down and is sipping quite nicely on its own/
Finish is a bit clipped and simple/
88-89 points.
September 2, 2002 - ($20) Day one: Good Sangiovese dusty dried cherry cranberry nose with an element of floral?. Good plush fruit on the palate with silky mouthfeel. Day two: Took on a strong note of oxidation on the nose while the palate remained essentially unchanged. Long finish where the acids show up more.