Wine Advocate (96)

The 2013 I Sodi di S. Niccolò is 85% Sangioveto (a more antique name for Sangiovese) and 15% Malvasia Nera from a single vineyard. This wine opens to a darkly saturated appearance and shows ruby, garnet and purple highlights. The bouquet is powerful but seamless at the same time with smooth transitions between dark cherry, spice, tobacco and moist clay. In the mouth, this wine shows dense extraction, but it never feels too weighed down by that mass. Instead, the freshness of the fruit and the natural acidity give the wine a bright and buoyant personality. Aged in barrique for 30 months, this is a delightful Tuscan red.

Vinous (98)

The 2015 I Sodi di San Niccolò is just stratospheric. That's pretty much all there is to it. Plush, deep and explosive, the 2015 possesses magnificent depth. The 15% Malvasia Nera gives tannic backbone and energy to balance the wine's natural richness. Sweet red cherry, cedar, smoke, tobacco and licorice build in a racy, flamboyant Sodi that hits all the right notes. In a word: stunning!

Vinous (98)

Castellare's I Sodi di San Niccolò is the single most overlooked high-end wine in Tuscany today. The 2016 picks up where the 2015 left off. A rush of inky dark fruit, lavender, spice, licorice, gravel, blueberry and menthol builds as the 2016 shows off its exceptional balance and pedigree. Readers will have to be patient, as the 2016 needs a few years in bottle to fully come together. Even so, the 2016 has been nothing less than spectacular on the two occasions I have tasted it so far. In a word: monumental.

Vinous (97)

The 2018 I Sodi di San Niccolò is the most elegant Sodi I have ever tasted, and I have tasted them all. Sodi can be quite the bruiser in its youth, as the tannins are often imposing, but the 2018 is impressive because there is more than enough fruit to balance things out. Dark cherry, plum, lavender, spice and gravel build in a Sodi endowed with mind-blowing purity and exceptional finesse. Superb!

Vinous (97)

The 2018 I Sodi di San Niccolò is the most elegant Sodi I have ever tasted, and I have tasted them all. Sodi can be quite the bruiser in its youth, as the tannins are often imposing, but the 2018 is impressive because there is more than enough fruit to balance things out. Dark cherry, plum, lavender, spice and gravel build in a Sodi endowed with mind-blowing purity and exceptional finesse. Superb!

Wine Enthusiast (98)

Sunbaked earth, mature black-plum, fragrant blue-flower and leather aromas mingle with balsamic whiffs of camphor on this full-bodied, delicious red. Made with 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Sangiovese, the creamy palate is earthy and full of flavor, boasting juicy blackberry, raspberry, dried mint, cocoa and licorice. Taut velvety tannins provide plenty of support and finesse. Drink through 2035.

Vinous (98)

The 2016 Sammarco is a dense, flamboyant wine. Inky red fruit, spice, cedar, tobacco, menthol and licorice are some of the notes that build in a statuesque Sammarco that dazzles from start to finish. A wine of stunning textural richness and intensity, Sammarco is translucent, sculpted and full of character. All the elements are so well balanced. Rose petal, cedar, tobacco and mint linger on the eternal finish. The 2016 is a magical wine that can be, surprisingly, enjoyed now or cellared for a number of years. Time in the glass just brings out its energy and vertical drive. Sammarco is quite possibly the single greatest value in high-end Italian wine. Don't miss it.

Wine Advocate (95)

The 2016 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Lorenzo is immediately more inky and balsamic in terms of aromas. As soon as you lift the wine to your nose, you get pretty tones of blackberry, cassis, rosemary essence, licorice and a touch of medicinal herb. I love when Sangiovese produces those elegant aromas, and for that reason, this wine stands tall among the three single-vineyard expressions from Marco Pallanti and Castello di Ama. It shows fiber, richness and lasting structure with a very well-managed quality of tannins.

Wine Advocate (95)

The Mazzei family is introducing quite a few new and ambitious changes to its portfolio this year. This wine is one of them. Previously known as Mix 36, it represents a complicated blend of 36 biotypes of Sangiovese, all planted in an experimental vineyard not too far from the estate's high-technology winery. With this vintage, the wine has been upgraded from IGT status to Gran Selezione, at the top of the Chianti Classico quality pyramid. The 2017 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vicoregio 36 offers great purity and focus. The bouquet is redolent of wild blueberry, spice, cola, grilled herb, blue flower and tilled earth. There is a pretty menthol-like note on the close.

James Suckling (97)

Wonderful aromas of flowers, plums, terracotta and white pepper. Intense, yet ever so subtle. Medium to full body, firm and silky tannins and a long and intense finish. Shows excellent length. Drink after 2021.

Wine Advocate (94+)

The 2018 La Salvación is the only white produced by César Márquez in his personal project. It's pure Godello from two plots—one plot in Arganza regrafted from old Mencía to Godello 12 years ago and some 15% to 20% from another plot in Villafranca where there are some Godello old vines in between the Mencía. The destemmed grapes fermented and matured in 500-liter oak barrels, where the wine rested with the lees without bâtonnage for around one year. The wine was a little closed and shy and needed some time to take off—it's subtle, elegant and insinuating. In the future, he might do a single-vineyard white once he finds the right plot. The palate is serious and soil-driven, tasty, almost salty, with very focused flavors. 2018 delivered a good crop, and 1,358 bottles were produced. Each vintage has been different (2015 had flor, 2016 was sharp, and 2017 was a little more exuberant), and this is the most serous and complete to date. It should age nicely in bottle.

Wine Enthusiast (97)

Red-berry, wild-rose, crushed mint and dark-spice aromas are front and center on this fragrant red. The full-bodied palate is concentrated but also boasts finesse, offering layers of raspberry jam, smooth licorice and tobacco alongside a backbone of enveloping, velvety tannins. You'll also detect the warmth of alcohol but the succulent fruit stands up to it. Drink 2024–2036.

James Suckling (100)

The opulence of fruit and complexity of earth, meat, mushroom and cedar is breathtaking. It’s full-bodied, deep and powerful with so much intensity and depth. Chewy and layered, it goes on for minutes. Give it even more time. Try after 2023.

Wine Enthusiast (99)

This savory stunner has enticing scents of violet, rose and wild berry that gain complexity alongside notes of leather, camphor and sandalwood. The elegantly structured palate is all about precision, featuring juicy cherry, blood orange, star anise and tobacco framed in taut, refined tannins. Bright acidity keeps it energized.

Wine Enthusiast (98)

Aromas of ripe dark-skinned fruit, forest floor, rose and wild mint shape the enticing nose. Elegantly structured and full of flavor, the linear, focused palate delivers mature Marasca cherry, blood orange, licorice and tobacco set against a backbone of refined tannins. Drink 2023 though 2035.

Wine Advocate (96+)

The Cortonesi 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Poggiarelli draws its fruit from a vineyard planted in the 1970s and replanted in part during the 1990s. Its fruit has made this designate wine since 1998, and like many of the Selezioni (and the Brunello cru expressions), this wine shows a pretty mineral character that lifts above the bright red fruit. It's absolutely true that these special sections from Montalcino are always recognized by their terrain or soil-adjacent aromas. In this case, I can smell those flinty or gravel-like tones from the schistous Galestro rocks. That special aromatic signature is followed by dark fruit and balsam herb, firm tannins and bright acidity. This is a limited 4,000-bottle release.

Jancis Robinson (17.5)

Superb. The acidity is geometric, triangular, feisty, orange-blossom fragrant, direct. The fruit is orange and passion fruit bleeding into plums and tea leaves and sage and mint and thyme and scribbles of pencils and late-summer nights and the finish is like walking through a just-harvested hay field when the first cool rain of autumn is falling soft as mist. Love this. It's delicious, delicious, delicious. I tasted it right at the end of a very long tasting – seven hours on my feet – and it quite literally revived my flagging soul.

Jancis Robinson (17.5)

Succulent, polished fruit in beautiful balance. This is enough to inspire a rash of multi-vintage blends, no? Walter may disapprove of the incursion of those Bordeaux grapes but it's a really lovely drink, grown, presumably, not that far from Tenuta del Trinoro. Very long and nuanced. Beautiful texture and freshness. Lip smacking! How wonderful to find this under £20 a bottle. No prizes for label design but I'd much rather all the effort went into making a lovely (and ready) drink. Not a wine for long keeping. Just drink it. Very good value.

English critic Matthew Jukes has declared that Lionel's wines are 'worth their weight in gold', and we certainly think that is the case with this Cupano Vino Rosso 4th Edition NV. This is made from a blend of barrels that taste excellent but do not feel ready in time when Cupano blended their Montalcino releases so they were left aside. Instead of waiting to use it for a Brunello that might disrupt the usual annual releases of the estate wines, it has instead become a upmarket 'vin de copains' - wine for friends.

 

This 4th Edition comes from the 2018 and 2019 vintages and is made from 80% Sangiovese that would normally be used in their Brunello di Montalcino or Rosso di Montalcino and 20% Merlot that would usually be used in their superb Super Tuscan Ombrone. With the power on the nose and palate that Cupano is usually associated with, this shows all the wonderful Sangiovese character one could want without the oak that a young Brunello would show.

waiting to use it for a Brunello that might disrupt the usual annual releases of the estate wines, it has instead become a upmarket 'vin de copains' - wine for friends.

 

For each new Vino Rosso release, famous french artist Gerard Fromanger paints a special new label and this 4th edition is the most impressive yet. While production has been upped from the last release, this 4th Edition is still made in tiny quantities with only 830 six packs made.

Wine Advocate (96)

Following the new classification of wines, the 2019 Villa de Corullón is a Vino de Villa (village), produced with grapes from 6.71 hectares divided into 200 small plots they own on slate-rich soils at 500 to 950 meters in altitude. It's 91% Mencía, 1% Alicante Bouschet and 8% white grapes from old vines (50 to 90 years old) that are organically and biodynamically farmed, and the wine will be certified in the coming years. The partly destemmed grapes fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts for 43 days and matured in barriques and foudres for 10 months. It has a "moderate" 13.5% alcohol, the lower part of the range, as they aim for 13.5% to 14% alcohol in the finished wines. This is a great blending exercise, as the wines are blended mostly before putting it in barrel. It's a subtle and elegant Corullón, with great balance and freshness; Ricardo talked about some tannins that are very fine. It's a fluid vintage for this bottling, a little herbal, versatile and complex. It seems to have more character than the Moncerbal than it has had in other years. This could be one of the lightest and most elegant vintages of Corullón, with a different texture from the rest of the 2019s. There were 20,344 bottles and some other formats produced.

Wine Advocate (94)

The 2011 Reserva is produced from their cooler vineyards grown at altitudes of 800-900 meters, from an assortment of small plots planted before the 1930s. The Tempranillo is mixed with other grapes totaling almost 10% in this vintage, half of it white Albillo and a significant amount of Bobal among others. They selected the grapes from the plots they thought would provide more freshness, especially in a warm year like 2011. The full-clusters fermented in open stainless steel pools where they are foot-trodden. The wine is transferred to barriques and put in the cold cellars where they age slowly and go through malolactic the following spring. This is a serious wine where the aromas are subtle and more soil-driven and austere, slowly revealing notes of violets and damson cherries with great depth. The palate is medium-bodied, with refined, silky and fine-grained tannins and a superb sensation of harmony. This is really outstanding for a year such as 2011. The 4,000 bottles produced were filled in May 2014. Drink 2015-2020.

Wine Advocate (96)

The 2014 Reserva is the winery's flagship wine, a wine produced to showcase the vineyards from the village La Aguilera next to Aranda de Duero in the province of Burgos. It's produced with the field blend dominated by Tempranillo from old vineyards in different parts of the village picked and fermented together. The full clusters were foot trodden and fermented in concrete vats with indigenous yeasts, and malolactic was very slow (it took eight months in 2014!) in oak vats. The élevage was extended to 31 months in French oak barrels of different sizes and ages. The wine has an herbal twist that provides freshness, and the oak feels very integrated. It has a magical perfume, in a great classical Ribera del Duero, with more body and structure; it has almost the same freshness as the 2013 but with more depth, compensated by complexity. It opens up nicely in the glass. It should age for a very long time in bottle, but it's already approachable. 9,850 bottles and 167 magnums were filled in May 2017.

Wine Advocate (97)

Quite different from the 2015 was the 2016 Reserva, a red from a cooler year with good yields, so they were able to increase production of this wine over twofold and increase the quality! It took some seven months to complete fermentation, and the élevage in barrel lasted some 29 months. It has an incredible nose, violets and something musky, intriguing, complex and nuanced, mysterious and difficult to define, with some notes reminiscent of soy sauce. The palate is seamless and with terrific balance, a silky texture and very fine but chalky tannins. This is an amazing Ribera del Duero. 18,834 bottles and 519 magnums produced. It was bottled in April 2019.

Wine Advocate (97)

2017 was a low-yielding year, so I also tasted the 2018 Reserva, their flagship red wine that wants to be a representation of the village of La Aguilera—fine, serious and elegant. It's 95% Tempranillo with the remaining grapes found interplanted in their oldest vineyards at an average of 880 meters in altitude on limestone, clay and sandy soils. All the clusters ferment together with indigenous yeasts in concrete, where they are foot trodden, and malolactic was carried out very slowly (11 months) in oak barrels where the wine matured for a total of 27 months. It has a somewhat shy nose but is very elegant. The wine was recently bottled, and that can make it a little closed and subtle, and it clearly improves with air as it sits in the glass. It's still young, and the palate reveals lots of energy; the flavors are very pure and the wine precise and delineated. The tannins are very fine and provide for a chalky texture and an almost salty twist in the finish. This is very in line with the 2016. 15,250 bottle and 101 magnums produced. It was bottled in February 2021.

Wine Advocate (95+)

Fattoria dei Barbi is one of the historic, grandfather estates of the appellation, and this important point comes to mind every time I have the honor of reviewing their new releases. The wines always show a distinctly traditional side that is just part of this estate's DNA, and I'd like to think that this defining characteristic would not change even if a concerted effort was made to do so. Territory speaks loud in the 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. The wine offers purity and deep layering with alternating tones of dried cherry, dark spice, cola and crushed flowers. Only 4,000 bottles were made.

Wine Advocate (98)

The consistency and depth of this wine is just incredible. Like the Carla 6, the 2016 Giorgio Primo shows an inky dark color, almost totally black, with penetrating fruit and long waves of rich fruit flavor throughout. George the First casts mesmerizing spells of spice, tar and smoke. This is a blend of 50% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot. This is another outstanding effort from Fattoria La Massa and its eccentric but visionary founder, Giampaolo Motta. Some 16,000 bottles, magnums, double magnums and other large formats were created.

Wine Advocate (97)

Wow, there is a very impressive freshness here that defies the heat of this vintage. The 2017 Saffredi does not seem like a 2017 at all. Now celebrating its 30th birthday, Saffredi is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Petit Verdot. Thanks to the vineyard's proximity to the sea, leaving leaves on the vines and the sharp diurnal shifts of the area, the fruit was able to ripen in a balanced manner despite the hot and dry summer. The team at Fattoria le Pupille knew they would have to be ready to harvest early and lose some their yields, and they did. In the end, production was down 25%, but the result is a fresh, thick and beautiful red made with ripe fruit and dark concentration. This is a great effort from Fattoria le Pupille. This wine will be released in November.

James Suckling (97)

A fantastic nose to this with currant, sage, rosemary and rose-petal character. Sweet tobacco and spicy chocolate, too. Very complex. The palate shows lovely depth of fruit with blackberries, blackcurrants and fine tannins. It’s racy and refined with a direct, focused palate. Just a baby. A blend of cabernet sauvignon 60%, merlot 32% and petite verdot 8%. This needs at least two or three years to soften. Try in 2023.

Wine Advocate (98+)

The 2016 Fontalloro is the best vintage of this landmark wine that I have tasted thus far. This is a very elegant vintage, with more volume in the mouth and precise notes of tar, licorice, camphor ash, resin and Indian spice. In a race between the highly competitive 2015 and 2016 vintages, I give a slight advantage to this wine. The warmer 2015 vintage shows more richness and exuberant fruit. However, this wine from 2016 offers a more focused and chiseled delivery. I am hopeful that this wine will continue to evolve and sharpen as it ages in the bottle. This is a beautiful wine to put aside in your cellar for ten years or more.

Wine Advocate (98+)

The 2016 Fontalloro is the best vintage of this landmark wine that I have tasted thus far. This is a very elegant vintage, with more volume in the mouth and precise notes of tar, licorice, camphor ash, resin and Indian spice. In a race between the highly competitive 2015 and 2016 vintages, I give a slight advantage to this wine. The warmer 2015 vintage shows more richness and exuberant fruit. However, this wine from 2016 offers a more focused and chiseled delivery. I am hopeful that this wine will continue to evolve and sharpen as it ages in the bottle. This is a beautiful wine to put aside in your cellar for ten years or more.