92 Robert Parker
To be released in 2015, the 2008 San Leonardo is a wine in its infancy. The nose is immediately redolent of dark cherry, blackberry, leather, tobacco, mint and eucalyptus leaf. You will also appreciate the floral tones of pressed rose and almond blossom that lift from the glass. The harvest schedule played out on time with Carmenère coming in at the end of September and Cabernets Franc and Sauvignon towards the beginning of October. The 2008 vintage is especially marked by a duality of floral and menthol notes that rise from the glass with brilliant intensity. The 2008 vintage needs ten year or more to find its proper footing. <br/><br/>When I first started learning about Italian wine and its legendary icons, there was another wine that loomed as large as Sassicaia in my imagination. That wine was San Leonardo from Tenuta San Leonardo in Trentino. As my education continued, however, I found that my initial impression of its perceived notoriety had been somewhat inflated. While Sassicaia enjoys worldwide name recognition, San Leonardo’s status is limited to a knowing group of wine connoisseurs few of whom live outside Italy. <br/>This is where my fascination with the Bordeaux blend made among the jagged peaks of the Dolomites began. Sassicaia and San Leonardo seem like brothers separated in childhood. Both are Italian incarnations of a French wine philosophy practiced expertly by consulting enologist Giacomo Tachis. Both are born to great families of Italian nobility (two families that are related by blood). Sassicaia saw its first commercial release in 1968 and San Leonardo in 1982 and both wielded everlasting influence on what was, at the time, a nascent wine culture. Both are bigger than their territorial roots: Sassicaia brought fame and fortune to Bolgheri in coastal Tuscany (not the other way around). San Leonardo put the mountainous Trentino region on Italy’s enological map. Despite their shared genealogy, these brothers would develop distinctly diverging personalities. One is from the beach and the other from the mountains. One basks in the spotlight and the other shies away. My curiosity lay with the quiet one. <br/>Marchese Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga and his son Anselmo generously organized a complete vertical tasting of the 22 vintages of San Leonardo created since 1982. A tasting of this magnitude had never been prepared for an American audience and I tasted from the third to last bottle of 1985 housed in the historic cellars today. The samples were transported one week in advance so they could settle and tasted at the family residence in Rome, just off Piazza Navona. <br/>From a broad perspective, what struck me most was the steady stylistic consistency of the wines over the course of three decades. The wines never veer far from a central set of core values that included elegance, finesse and freshness. The blend has consisted of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and a grape later identified as Carménère, all vinified and aged separately. Of the estate’s 300 hectares, 25 are vineyards located 150 meters above sea level. Some vines are planted with the traditional Pergola Trentino overhead trellis, but the largest plot sees Guyot and spurred cordon-trained, high-density rows. Sandy and gravel-based soils characterize this location on the left bank of the Adige River about 45 kilometers north of Verona. For those who have traveled this route, Tenuta San Leonardo is located in that dreamlike sliver of geography where the flat plains of the Veneto rise to the dramatic Dolomites at the southern perimeter of Trentino. It is a stunning site because your entire perception of a horizontal landscape is suddenly flipped over into a vertical one within just a few kilometers. <br/>That impressive stylistic consistency endures despite winemaker changes. Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga studied winemaking in Bordeaux and Switzerland and relied on his close friends Piero Antinori, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta and Giacomo Tachis (a bi
92 Wine Spectator
92 points | $80 | 5,416 cases made | Red Flavors of cassis, dried marjoram, spicy mineral and red licorice are tightly knit with creamy tannins and fresh acidity. Sculpted, medium- to full-bodied and elegant. Drink now through 2028.—A.N
