Community Tasting Notes 52

• drrobvino wrote: 94 points

  September 24, 2023 - 1st bottle from a 6 pack, just gorgeous out of the gates. Decanted and consumed over an hour or so with dear friends.
  If my research is correct, this is a little over 1/2 Sangio, with 1/3 Merlot and the remainder Cab Sauv.
  Lovely, savory, tight and deep, this Super Tuscan is sexy and knows it.
  Tasted alongside a 2016 Sassacaia, which served up a double lesson in Italian pedigree for sure.
  Red and black fruits, espresso grounds, cigar box, moist soil and hot road tar.
  The finish lasts and lasts, with savory rhubarb pie and a room full of drying tobacco leaves.
  Drink through 2033+.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 92 points

  August 1, 2023 - Third of 3 (from 2 lots, 2 years apart, and I’m not sure which this was), as mentioned in my 3/23 TN. In that note, I mentioned how that bottle had advanced (well, really declined) from my 8/21 bottle, and I wondered where this third bottle would land. Alas, it’s closer to #2 than #1, but with the main difference that it came out of the bottle well-integrated and good to go. With that in mind, I kept the cork in, and it presented well, with a nice mix of red and black fruit, decent structure, completely integrated, a good sipper and also surprisingly solid with chicken bulgoki. Held up a bit better on night #2 than the prior bottle, but still some slippage in intensity, which wasn’t all that powerful to begin with. I’d put this at 93-94 night #1, 91-92 on night #2 and say if you have any, drink them now, which is a long way from where I was 2 years ago when this wine took hours to balance out of the bottle and stayed stout over 2 years. It’s post peak, IMO, but still very enjoyable, especially off the PnP, but if the last 2 bottles are any indication, going in only one direction. Considering the hot vintage, perhaps not surprising, but in light of the almost transcendent first bottle, disappointing. 92+

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• mfimiani47@gmail.com Likes this wine: 93 points

  June 21, 2023 - Picked this up from the winery after a beautiful tour. This was ripe and fleshy. It kept on getting wildly more complex as we let it decant (over 2.5 hours). A very nice wine.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• sfwinelover1 wrote:

  March 24, 2023 - Second bottle of this, although since the 8/21 TN, I’ve bought an additional bottle, so I’m not sure if it was from the same lot. Very different experience, though. Similarly, this came out of the bottles led by tannins and acidity so that it really needed about 2.5 hours of air to hit drinkability. It had a really nice window of about 90 minutes during which, even if it didn’t quite hit the heights of the prior bottle, it verged on excellence, particularly with chicken, sausage, veggies and red sauce pasta. But then, unlike the prior bottle, it began losing steam, and on night #2, it’s pretty much done. An interesting contrast with the immediately previous ‘04 Cain 5, a likewise CS-dominant BDX blend (yeah, this has more CS and sangio, but more alike than not) from the aughts in a more “old world” style.That wine started thin, but filled out, getting better and better over 3 nights and was the clear winner between the 2 (I know the retail is considerably higher, but it drank like it was more than worth it).
  
  Hard to score or to know what advice to give, since it was pretty much unscorable out of the bottle, 93-94 during its best window, but barely a 90 by night 2, so overall, if scoring, 91-92. Likewise, that it had so much structure off the pour would make me think that it had years to go, but the quick fade thereafter would lead me to the opposite conclusion. I’m ruminating on what to do with my last bottle and pulling my drinking window.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• micsauer Likes this wine: 94 points

  March 15, 2023 - Improved considerable from the bottle I had a few years ago. At its peak in my opinion. Super smooth and full. Complex aromas.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

Pro Reviews 3

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2009
• Type Red
• Producer Castello dei Rampolla
• Varietal SuperTuscan Blend
• Designation Sammarco
• Vineyard n/a
• Country Italy
• Region Tuscany
• SubRegion n/a
• Appellation Toscana IGT
• UPC Codes 5706579176430, 716898504017, 8032738130010

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 35 (2%)
• In Cellars 1,042 (60%)
• Consumed 651 (38%)

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