January 22, 2024 - Sangiovese and Brunello tasting for my 38th birthday (Wine Taste Gdansk): 👀 Deep garnet color.
👃 Incredibly complex nose, balsamic, sweet candied fruits (but suiting the overall profile), earthy, meaty, cigar, forest mushrooms.
👅 On the palate it had a little too much smooth feeling, even with high acidity it seemed a bit over the edge.
🏁 Non very long finish, another sign of aging. Drink NOW!
March 18, 2023 - Yet again I'm taken aback by the ability of top-tier Sangiovese to retain its power and vibrancy at 25 years and beyond.
Initially popped and poured (cork in good condition, with very slight leakage), the 1997 Cepparello presented itself with a dark and lovely color, a delicate garnet rim and almost no signs of advanced age.
On the nose, chocolate, herbs and leather, but slightly mute at first. In the mouth, fruit was locked up, hiding behind surprisingly firm tannins. Again, hard to believe this wine is entering its 26th year.
After the initial taste, we opted to decant - and about 60 minutes in, the wine rounded out beautifully, displaying layers of dark fruit, mocca, leather and thyme. Tremendous structure and a delicious, opulent mouth-fill with a 30+ seconds finish.
Excellent, and still packing so much punch, I feel this still has another decade in it, easily. My only regret was not decanting sooner, perhaps even 4-5 hours would be required at this stage to truly unlock this wine.
Even so, a very strong performance meritting 92 points on the night.
February 24, 2023 - Complex and layered. Time to drink
February 24, 2023 - D'une jeunesse insolente..
February 13, 2023 - Presented itself as a grumpy uncle when I pulled the cork and poured a glass.
After an hour or so, as the wine reached room temperature, it got more friendly and interesting.
Cherries and plums, forestfloor, wet tea leaves, beefstock, tomato tapenade, cinnamon and warm chestnuts.
Drinking very nicely now.
July 14, 2022 - This was a part of 1997 and 1999 Tuscan tasting including 3 Brunellos and 2 Super Tuscans, same producers from each year. The 1997 was the wine of the night. Very dark colour; no sign of over 25 years of age. Forward nose of blackberry, red cherry ,and forest floor with violets, almost perfumed . The palate is intense, yet very balanced in total balance. Long finish.
August 4, 2021 - My last bottle of the 97 Cepparello concludes a perfect pattern of an oxidative bottle being followed by a very good one like this (all bottles from the same batch and storage). Having said that, just as I was going to write that this Pnp bottle tastes at least 10 years younger than 97, I am starting to pick up one or the other more evolved note particularly on the nose as the wine gets more air. Overall clearly a great Cepparello, which from this particular bottle is good for another 10 years but given my experience with the other half, I would drink now
August 1, 2021 - Typical sangiovese nose. Start to mature but long life ahead. Good stuff
July 17, 2021 - Hmmm… seems like this wine is 50-50…another oxidative bottle, musty acidic notes. Hope my remaining bottle(s) will not be like this
March 28, 2021 - Did not wait too long with my next bottle as the last one was showing oxidative but this was wonderfully fresh and clearly back to old form (see note from 2020). Benchmark Sangiovese in my eyes, and only very few Brunello can match Cepparello’s quality and longevity. Solid 93