April 1, 2024 - Slow ox 3 hours. Black currant, cigar box, leather and herbs come through. Full bodied, still youthful with good acidity and length. Still has many years ahead.
January 25, 2023 - Slow ox 30 minutes. This is tightly wound, full bodied, still quite youthful and a little austere. Black fruit, tobacco weed, woodsmoke and herbs come through. Long finish. This will have a long life ahead but I would let it age a bit longer. A longer decant would help too.
January 11, 2023 - One off ($75, with a discount) from Napa cellarage operation #2. On the nose and palate, fairly vibrant notes of black cherries, mixed and primarily dark berries, anise, leather, funky earthiness, mixed ground spice, dark florals and more traditional Tuscan notes of smoke and cedar. Medium dark purple, medium+ bodied, medium to thick legs. Silky, medium and well-integrated tannins, likewise integrated medium- acidity, no heat. Excellent complexity, VG+ intensity and persistence. This came out of the bottle good to go, with a very pleasant and distinct Bordelaisian funkiness that gave it an almost baby Latour feel, so much so that even with the Tuscan notes, this still felt more BDX than Tuscany, with the sangio component playing the role of CF. Elegant, balanced, and sophisticated but not at the expense of power, this cuvee has it all, heading an almost inconceivably strong class of BDX-based IGTs around this price point including Saffredi, Grattamaco, Tua Rita Giusto Notri, LMPG, and not quite as good, but cheaper, Valadorna and Rocco Buriano. This lost the funkiness on night #2, but otherwise, remained completely on point, but lost just a bit of focus on night #3, perhaps because I didn’t decant and there was a fair amount of sediment in the last glass (96-7+ night 1, 96 night 2, 94 night 3) but was still highly pleasurable. Equally fabulous on its own as with octopus Bolognese and pizza. Feels bang on in its drinking window, but also like it has 5-10+ Years of really great drinking left with outstanding structure well integrated but still intact. Kind of wish I bought more, but have so many bottles of the others named above coming out of the walls that you probably shouldn’t feel too sorry for me for not having done so. Resoundingly recommended.
December 10, 2022 - Corked ☹️
May 20, 2022 - Big, ripe and powerful wine, with really bright acidity and finely structured, making this quite pretty. Very good.
March 19, 2022 - Truly a "big" super tuscan, with predominantly Cab Sauv, and lesser quantities of Merlot and Sangiovese. Decanted three hours. Dark red with aromas of ripe fruit, leather and earth. In the palate the Cabernet stands out with powerfull but integrated tannins. Long aftertaste. This is my last 2008, but looking forward to the 2009.
March 6, 2022 - Absolutely beautiful. Cherries, blackcurrant, soft, integrated tannins. Ready for business. But will keep for at least 10 years.
August 24, 2021 - No notes taken. This was a pleasant experience. I like the layeredness of the wine with a broad array of fruit and flowery notes as well as some first tertiary aromas. The tannins are soft and satiny and there is a good freshness, although the acidity is not perfectly integrated. The wine is quite expressive. What is missing here? First, the precision is not as good as I expected it to be and second, the wine has not enough tension, despite the high acidity and the fruit might bit a bit too ripe. At the best moments probably a tad higher, but overall at best on a 89/90 pts level.
Decanting: Not decanted, followed over 4 hours. Needed a bit of air but not much (1h should be sufficient).
January 28, 2021 - Great nose with lots of dark berries and wet forest floor. On the palate dark cherries, blackberries, some black currant, dried rosemary and black tea. Medium bodied with a medium acidity. Good structure and complexity, feels quite round. Tannins are integrated nicely. The finish is medium long.
This is already in a good drinking window but can easily age longer. Drink now until 2029. (IG)
December 27, 2020 - Nase dunkelbeerig, Waldboden. Antrunk weich, Tannine nach 1 Std. Belüftung etwas eingebunden, aber noch sehr präsent. Schön mittelschwerer Körper, etwas Kräuter und sehr gute Länge. Braucht noch ein paar Jahre um voll entwickelt zu sein, sehr schöner eleganter Toskaner.