▴ San Leonardo, 2017
San Leonardo, 2017 , Tenuta San Leonardo
The new vintage release from Tenuta San Leonardo continues to confirm their reputation as a producer of one of Italy’s most refined and elegant wines. I have always considered San Leonardo as a connoisseur’s wine. Maybe because it is not in the stable of the super Tuscans (its vines are off the beaten track to the north in Trentino), it isn’t as talked about as Italy’s other great Bordeaux blends, although it certainly should be. In 2017, only 38,000 bottles were made, half the size of a typical vintage, due to violent hailstorms which destroyed part of the crop in August. This is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Carmenère, 10% Merlot, fermented in small concrete vats and matured for 24 months in French oak barrels and a further 24 months in bottle before release. The wine has an enticing aroma of bramble and cassis fruit, on the palate there is youthful power, but controlled. There’s a deep core of tumbled black and plum fruit, quite generous, with savoury notes of graphite, tobacco, and cedar wood. There is a defined muscularity to the wine, so if you wish to drink it now, it needs time in the glass to develop. After half an hour in the glass. the wine opened up and ripples turned to waves, elegant and aristocratic, long, and quite beguiling. For now (with patience) and cellar for many years. 13%
Price: from £77-£87 per bottle
UK stockists: Lea & Sandeman, Vinissimus, Millesima
Review Dec 2022, SK