Inky dark in appearance, the 2020 Solaia is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with smaller percentages of Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese. This vintage unfolds to exuberant richness and thick layers of blackberry and plum. The tannins are sweet and expertly crafted, adding both depth and fruit weight. The 2020 vintage is quite bold, and it plays its best cards in terms of texture and mouthfeel. It’s a bigger, more accessible wine compared to the last two vintages on the market. Spice, toasted coffee bean and more dark fruit color this full-bodied Tuscan red. Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
Newly on the market now, the 2020 Tignanello shows a gorgeous bouquet with an upfront and accessible personality. Right off the bat, you get dark cherry, dried raspberry, spice, toasted almond and citrusy blood orange. The blend is normally 75% to 80% Sangiovese with 7% Cabernet Franc. The grape in between, making up 13% to 18%, is Cabernet Sauvignon. This vintage is very pretty and won’t require a long wait. The tannins are sweet and silky. “Tignanello proves itself as a great vineyard site in both the challenging and the classic years,” says Managing Director Renzo Cotarella. Annual production falls between 300,000-350,000 bottles. The Wine Advocate Monica Larner, Published: May 31, 2023,
Bibi Graetz has long been tinkering with his formula for this wine, and this vintage represents a new chapter. The 2020 Testamatta is a blend of Sangiovese from old and new vines, with a priority on cooler growing conditions (and even a few northern exposures). In the wake of climate change, and in the pursuit of elegance, Bibi is changing his approach. He also has a new vineyard property near Fiesole, and the introduction of these grapes (from a breezy, high-elevation site) are what gives Testamatta its beautiful clarity, sharpness and lifted bouquet. The new Fiesole fruit makes up about 30% to 35% of this wine. The results are vibrant, transparent and fresh both in terms of acidity and aromatic intensity. This is a wine in transformation and a wine to watch. Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
The 2020 Masseto, 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, is medium to deep garnet-purple in color. It slowly emerges from the glass with notes of plum preserves, blueberry compote, and chocolate-covered cherries, leading to a gorgeous perfume of star anise, lilacs, mocha, and tar. The palate is full-bodied and super-concentrated, with layer upon layer of black fruit preserves and savory accents, framed by wonderfully ripe, rounded tannins and beautifully knit acidity, finishing very long and opulent. This is classic Masseto! Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent
The 2020 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is made with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with small percentages of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It opens to an impenetrable, full-bodied approach with dark fruit, pencil shaving, toasted oak, Spanish cedar, campfire ash and iron ore. For sure, this is an especially concentrated and oak-driven vintage of this iconic wine. It absolutely requires more aging time. It feels quite tight and firm in its youth. The concentration is abundant. Monica Larner, May 2023, The Wine Advocate
Ruby red with purple reflections, Le Volte dell' Ornellaia 2020 has a vinous bouquet, releasing a complexity of aromas ranging from ripe red fruits, to Mediterranean scrub, up to delicate notes of tobacco and spices. The mouthfeel is soft and silky, but at the same time supported by a lively acidity that gives us a crisp, persistent finish. Winemaker's
The Tenuta San Guido 2020 Bolgheri Sassicaia speaks to those who seek a more voluptuous, opulent and, ultimately, more accessible wine. This vintage is a precise reflection of Coastal Tuscany, as opposed to a more generic "Tuscan" wine from elsewhere in this large central Italian region. You taste the ripeness and soft fruit weight that comes from a coastal appellation with especially bright luminosity and warm Mediterranean offshore breezes. Sassicaia from the cool vintages is a famously reticent or withholding wine in its earliest years, requiring a long lead time before it eases into an ideal drinking window. That's definitely not the case here. This wine is beautiful and compelling straight out of the gate, showing a lovely mix of dark fruit, oak spice, balanced freshness, textural richness, soft tannins and an expertly contained 14% alcohol content. The wine's immediate character is what distinguishes this vintage, and I wouldn't get too fussed by exaggerated cellar-aging ambitions. The wine awards sheer pleasure in its current form, with dazzling primary fruit and soaring intensity over the near and medium term. Jan 06, 2023, The Wine Advocate, Monica Larner
The Marchesi Antinori 2019 Tignanello was born in a classic growing season that saw some cooling summer rains and relatively stress-free conditions. This is an elegant and extremely polished wine made with mostly Sangiovese and smaller parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Here too, the small blending element of Cabernet Franc has been slowly increasing in recent years. The 2019 vintage was born with a good amount of power and tannic structure, and maceration times were slightly reduced as a result. This less extractive approach shapes a polished and elegant wine with plenty of bright berry fruit, cherry, dried mint, blue flower, blood orange and rusty earth. The palate is more compact and streamlined. It shows beautiful grace. After this, the next vintage to watch is the highly anticipated 2021. Issue 261 End of June 2022, The Wine Advocate, 30th Jun 2022, Monica Larner
Showing inky dark concentration, the flagship Tenuta di Biserno 2019 Biserno is a rich, beautiful and brooding wine. There is so much life and intensity in this vintage that is packed tight with black fruit, spice, tar and sweet tobacco. The aromas are presented with seamless transitions, and the finish is exceptionally long. This wine shows ripeness, but it also offers elegance, and that’s not an easy overlap to make. This wine should hold past the 20-year mark. End of July 2022, The Wine Advocate, 29th Jul 2022, Monica Larner
Gaja did not make its cru wines from Barbaresco (like Sorì San Lorenzo) in 2019 because the vineyards suffered repercussions one year after severe hail storms struck in 2018. Because of the irregularity found across the various sites, the best fruit was carefully selected and put into this wine instead. The 2019 Barbaresco is striking and beautiful as a result, with enormous depth and clarity. This is a generous wine with ample structure, lots of vibrant acidity, sweet tannins and a bright core of primary fruit. Gaia Gaja tells me that she considers 2018 to be more structured and vertical; however, but I love the richness and texture of this wine. 294, The Wine Advocate, Aug 24, 2023, Monica Larner
This bottle opens a new chapter for one of Italy's most celebrated and collected wines. The first vintage made entirely in its dedicated state-of-the-art winery (and the first vintage with a 10% dabble of Cabernet Franc added to what has historically aways been a pure expression of Merlot), the Masseto 2019 Masseto has two main themes at heart: concentration and elegance. And managing those two seemingly contrasting elements requires a little bit of magic. That's the Masseto magic we look for. The 2019 vintage delivers it in spades with lovely concentrated fruit, blackberry, integrated spice, tobacco, crushed slate, pencil shaving and lots of texture and fiber to push a lasting mouthfeel. The wine's richness translates into density and power to the palate, meanwhile the bouquet reveals fluidity and new sides as the wine opens in the glass. The finish is tapered and focused. Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
With an intense ruby-red colour, Ornellaia 2019 has a bouquet full of intriguing spicy and balsamic notes, including aromas of black pepper, sage and aromatic herbs. The wine is both full-bodied and vibrant in the mouth, filling the palate with its dense and elegant tannic texture and ending with a persistent and beautifully crisp finish. Winemaker's
The latest release from Tenuta San Guido is the 2019 Bolgheri Sassicaia. The bouquet is up front and very expressive from the get-go. It offers a generous display of crunchy, dark cherry that hints at the extra concentration and fruit weight obtained in the 2019 growing season. This vintage will be remembered for the crisp richness of the fruit and its important textural imprint. It also shows fine elegance, bordering on the ethereal, with berry aromas, tarry earth and brushes of balsam herb or grilled rosemary. Sassicaia always shows an almost-glossy finely knit quality to the polished mouthfeel, and I find it again here next to fresh acidity and firm tannins. Mouthfeel in 2019 is the wine's strongest suit. The 2019 is one of the prettiest and most balanced editions of Sassicaia we've seen this past decade, along with the back-to-back duo of 2016 and 2015. The 2019 marries the precision of the 2016 with the rich fruit weight of the 2015. Jan 14, 2022 The Wine Advocate Monica Larner
The Marchesi Antinori 2018 Solaia reveals a silky and elegant personality, and the wine steps away from some of the more robust fruit weight and dark concentration that we've seen in the past. This elegant vintage prizes fruit purity and focus with black plum, cassis, blue flower, pencil shaving and lots of sweet spice from the oak that recalls clove and toasted almond. The blend is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with smaller parts Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese. The fruit is harvested at the Antinori family's Tenuta Tignanello at the heart of the Chianti Classico appellation. The percentage of Cabernet Franc used in the blend is the ultimate Solaia wild card. In this vintage, the Franc has been increased to 7%, and that number is expected to be even higher in 2019 as the vines get older and the fruit more complex. Production of Solaia is 65,000 bottles in this vintage. This is a beautiful wine, but if pressed I must admit a preference for the 2018 Tignanello (the other celebrated wine crafted at this property). The 2018 Solaia is delicious on all fronts as expected, but the 2018 Tignanello struck at my heart strings. Either way, these are stunning results. August 2021 Week 4, The Wine Advocate, 24th Aug 2021, Monica Larner
This wine brought to mind precise imagery of tailcoats, striped dress pants, wingtip collar shirts and other gentlemen's fashion choices from the Roaring Twenties. Sporting a retro but classic personality, the Marchesi Antinori 2018 Tignanello is quite the dapper and jovial wine that hits the market just as much of the world is emerging from a dark chapter of lockdowns and coronavirus curfews. I love the optimism that springs bright with such clarity and detail from within this blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The 2016 vintage was a benchmark for sure, but I prefer the 2018, thanks to that tinge of nostalgia or emotion that is so deftly rendered in this cool, long growing season.The 2018 vintage offers a deconstructed Tignanello upon first inspection because you can clearly make out the varietal typicity of the grapes, especially the green spice and white pepper of the two Cabernets, along with aromas of crushed limestone that recall the white rocks carefully placed in the vineyards to protect the rows. The wine's fruit weight is contained and polished, and there are no exaggerations, excesses or loose ends. The results are calculated and exacting, especially if you consider the tannic management (with aging in both new and used Hungarian and French oak for up to 16 months) and the quality of the elegant mouthfeel. With time in the glass, those deconstructed elements converge to create unity and balance. The Tignanello vineyard is 57 hectares and sits at a breezy 390 meters above sea level with alberese and galestro soils. Those elevations proved important for shedding excess humidity at the end of this 2018 growing season. Production for this excellent wine is an impressive 345,000 bottles. May 2021 Week 1, The Wine Advocate, 6th May 2021, Monica Larner
The 2018 Biserno is a beast of a wine (packaged in a heavy glass bottle) that fills the room with its perfumes as you pour the wine into your glass. The bouquet is thickly layered and rich with potent notes of ripe blackberry and blackish plum followed by baker's chocolate, spice and dark mahogany or cigar box. Excellent work has been achieved to tame the tannins, and the wine offers a long, polished feel and an impactful, full-bodied presence. The blend of fruit used here (from a seven-hectare parcel) is 28% Cabernet Franc, 32% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot. Production is 30,000 bottles. October 2021 Week 1, The Wine Advocate, 7th Oct 2021, Monica Larner
The 2018 Barolo Acclivi is savory in character with crushed stone, dark herb and blackcurrant. This wine represents a blend of fruit from Verduno, including old vines in Monvigliero, Neirane, Bocato and Rocche dell’Olmo. There is a special softness and silkiness to the Acclivi that we see in this vintage just as we have seen it in past editions. June 2022 Week 3, The Wine Advocate, 23 Jun 2022, Monica Larner
Here's an exciting new addition to the growing Comm. G.B. Burlotto family of wines. The 2018 Barolo Castelletto opens to a soft and delicate inner core that is framed by wild cherry, licorice and rose. The wine is beautifully tapered and streamlined on the palate, with very polished and silky tannins. It is great taste to this effort by the "King of Verduno," (a.k.a. proprietor Fabio Alessandria) and the structured fruit from Monforte d'Alba. June 2022 Week 3, The Wine Advocate, 23 Jun 2022, Monica Larner
Within the context of this set of new releases from Comm. G.B. Burlotto, this wine stands far apart. The 2018 Barolo Monvigliero is linear and light, but it also shows good fruit weight. This is exactly the classic duality of Monvigliero (a village that traditionally incorporates whole clusters in fermentation). Spice, cola, licorice, grilled herb and dried cherry appear to lift over a fine and delicately tapered mouthfeel. June 2022 Week 3, The Wine Advocate, 23 Jun 2022, Monica Larner
Made with fruit from Cannubi Boschis, the Luciano Sandrone 2018 Barolo Aleste is plump and ripe, but this wine also shows a more delicate character that is its ace card. The aromas are filigreed and fine with dark fruit, spice and licorice. The effect is integrated, and the wine shows a lovely, softer personality to balance out this mildly concentrated expression. June 2022 Week 3, The Wine Advocate, 23 Jun 2022, Monica Larner
This is extremely perfumed with flowers, cherries and blackberries, as well as hints of lavender. It’s full-bodied, yet so refined, linear and racy. Pure silk. The texture is every so polished. Succulent and subtle fruit at the end. New wood showing now. A sophisticated Masseto that shows balance and harmony. Builds with tannins at the finish. Needs time to come completely together. Try after 2025. James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
"The 2018 Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia is everything a second wine should be. Open-knit and silky, with impeccable balance and tons of sheer appeal, the 2018 is exquisite today. I would prefer to drink it on the early side in order to capture all of its freshness. In some vintages, Le Serre Nuove can be a bit imposing; in 2018 is all charm and seduction." Antonio Galloni, Vinous
I had reviewed this wine just a few months prior and my impression has remained pretty much the same. One difference I did notice at this more recent tasting of the 2013 Bolgheri Sassicaia is the bouquet. It has shifted to slightly more delicate and finessed aromas of pressed flower and blue violets. You do of course get that solid core of dark fruit and spice that characterizes this famous Tuscan blend. But that extra time in the bottle has awarded wiggle room for profound precision and focused detailing. The wine's complexity emerges slowly with subtle notes of savory spice and tobacco. There is power and depth here, especially in terms of the mouthfeel. As the wine evolves in the glass, it begins to show ethereal tones of road paving, tar and licorice. This Sassicaia should go straight into the cellar. 230, The Wine Advocate, 28 Apr 2017, Monica Larner
A release of about 5,000 bottles, the Brovia 2017 Barolo Rocche di Castiglione offers a very elegant take on a wild and hot vintage that was not always easy to tame. The wine's aromatic profile can be described as ripe for sure because you get a generous dose of fragolino di bosco (wild strawberry), peach and orange blossom. Like the Villero, that ripeness is mitigated by the pretty mineral note that frames the bouquet. That dusty crushed limestone is more prominent in the case of the Rocche di Castiglione. However, the mouthfeel is a touch more compact and slenderer in the case of this wine. The tannins are silky and fine, but it would be nice to come back to this bottle in five years or more when the wine has had the chance to flesh out further. The Wine Advocate, Jun 17, 2021, Monica Larner
Brovia is emerging as one of the most faithful interpreters of the Castiglione Falletto territory. The 2017 Barolo Villero is very true to the vintage, showing that slightly lighter garnet appearance that is a common characteristic of this growing season. There are sure hints of ripe fruit, with wild strawberry and candied raspberry followed by sweet almond and delicate spice. That ripeness is offset and put into context thanks to the special mineral note that is ultimately what puts this wine into pretty focus. The wine is very smooth in texture, with tannins that are especially silky and subdued (a difficult achievement in this hot and dry vintage). The 5,000-bottle release Villero is more structured than the Rocche di Castiglione. The Wine Advocate, Jun 17, 2021, Monica Larner
The Comm. G.B. Burlotto 2017 Barolo Acclivi (with 7,000 bottles produced) represents a blend of selected fruit from various sites around Verduno, including old vines in Monvigliero, Neirane, Bocato and Rocche dell’Olmo. The wine shows that electric and jazzed quality that we see from the other wines in this portfolio, only here you get additional concentration and structure at the back. That muscle power is actually quite contained, but given the context of these super fine and nuanced wines, Acclivi shows special determination. To the palate, this wine delivers a more lasting structural and textural impact. 17th Jun 2021, Monica Larner, (June 2021 Week 3) Wine Advocate
The 2017 Barolo Monvigliero opens to a fine and light ruby color. This whole-cluster wine is elegant from all sides no matter how you approach it. To the bouquet, it offers smooth berry and spice, with lots of blue flower, dried lavender and lilac. A second aromatic layer centers on dry stone, limestone and some crushed white pepper. To the palate, it shows fine but tight tannins that are still nervous, like a closed fist. What I find most interesting about this warm-vintage expression from Monvigliero is that although the floral imprint is intact, the bouquet is broad enough to make room for spice, cherry and grilled herb. It feels like this bouquet operates on a bigger platform in 2017, but it requires patience nonetheless. Production is 7,500 bottles. June 2021 Week 3, The Wine Advocate, 17 Jun 2021, Monica Larner
Lots of dried black fruit on the nose and palate, together with hints of black licorice, toasted walnuts and gentler notes of dried flowers and herbs. Full-bodied palate that’s very silky to start, then the firm, very fine tannins kick in a bit and pick up the fruit, carrying it through the long finish. Approachable once the tannins have softened sufficiently, which will be in about two years. But this is really destined for the cellar. James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
Pungent nose of violets, amarena cherries, dried figs and lightly charred oak. Some toffee notes emerge with air, together with more pressed flowers. Not so much full-bodied as full-flavored, with silky, fine and polished tannins. Very young and driven at the moment. Lacks the depth and complexity of more fortunate vintages, but still shows exceptional quality. James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com
Made with certified-organic fruit, the 2017 Brunello di Montalcino is an impossibly graceful wine from a challenging vintage. This bottle defies the odds—and the dry heat of the growing season—to reveal soft layers of cherry, cassis and more vibrant fruit. It glides clear over the palate with silky momentum, and you only notice the tannins at the very end. Even those should soften and integrate as this collectible wine continues it bottle evolution. Production is 19,000 bottles. The Wine Advocate, Feb 18, 2022, Monica Larner
Rose petal, verbena flower and lilac open the spectacular bouquet of the Comm. G.B. Burlotto 2016 Barolo Cannubi. This wine is aromatically stunning. It shows fluid movements and deep inner sensuality, wrapping carefully over the palate with delicate softness and silkiness. Incredibly, I kept this open bottle in my cellar for days, and it revealed a beautiful new side every time I came back to check on its progress. There is a touch of chalkiness on the tannins, but the wine finishes with length and impressive persistence. It is fermented in open oak casks and aged in botte grande. Dried cherry, cassis, plum, apricot, spice and blue flower add to the wine's aromatic intensity. This is one of the most beautiful wines to emerge from Italy in the last decade, and tragically only 4,000 bottles were made. July 2020 Week 3, The Wine Advocate, 23 Jul 2020, Monica Larner
Made with whole-cluster fermentation, the Comm. G.B. Burlotto 2016 Barolo Monvigliero opens to distinctive intensity with floral notes backed by forest berry and bramble. Including the grape stems in fermentation imparts a slightly herbaceous character with eucalyptus and balsam herb. I also pick up on some freshly milled white pepper that reminds me of the Nebbiolo-adjacent Pelaverga grape that is also commonly planted in Verduno. The wine opens slowly to reveal grilled herbs, toasted chia seed and pistachio nut. More than obvious fruit, the core of the wine offers wild rose, lavender and pressed flowers. Production is approximately 8,000 bottles. July 2020 Week 3, The Wine Advocate, 23 Jul 2020, Monica Larner
The 2016 Barbaresco Costa Russi is a very botanical wine in terms of its aromas, with lovely perfumes of rose, elderflower, sambuco and anise seed, along with a touch of glycerine. It then follows up with some sweetness that feels very embracing in this wine. This is the more ephemeral, delicate and floral member of the extended Barbaresco family from Gaja, with a crunchy tannic bite, but nothing too severe. There is a really good vitality and energy to this very expressive wine. Costa Russi remains the smallest of Gaja's single-vineyard wines, and Gaia Gaja warns that there will be considerably less of it starting with the 2017 vintage. Production for this wine had always varied greatly to begin with, due in part to the fragile nature of the 80-year-old vines, but about half of those were removed and replanted. It will be a while before the new vines are old enough to go online. So, with some 10,000 bottles made in 2016 and 6,000 bottles in 2015, we can count on those numbers to be split by half over the next three to four years, for sure. 294, The Wine Advocate, Aug 09, 2019, Monica Larner