Tenuta San Leonardo 75cl – 2017

This wine packs a great deal of flavour into its characteristically medium-full, 13% alcohol frame. Plum and summer berry fruit sit alongside savoury spice and cigar box notes. There is copious very fine-grained tannin and a supportive acidity that will provide structure as the flavours unfurl over the next 5-30 years.

The capricious weather of 2017 has made the latest release of San Leonardo both thrilling and scarce. Quality-wise, 2017 marks the third in a hat-trick of remarkable vintages at Tenuta San Leonardo. Following on from the plush 2015 and the elegant 2016, the 2017 offers a notably rich, spicy style backed by a profound structure. A rainy February charged the soil with water – fortunately, as after a cool start to summer, the weather then turned hot and dry, with large temperature swings helping develop aromatic complexity. September moderated the effect of the summer heat beautifully, with warm sunny days and cool nights allowing the grapes to finish maturing while retaining all-important acidity. The price exacted by Mother Nature for these ideal conditions came in the form of two violent hailstorms on the 6th and 8th of August, which destroyed part of the crop. The total production of San Leonardo 2017 is therefore just 38,000 bottles, half the size of a typical vintage.

Tenuta San Leonardo in Trentino has been home to the Guerrieri Gonzaga family for over three centuries, but it is only since the second half of the twentieth century, when Marquese Carlo took over, that this estate began to take wine production seriously. Following a spell spent working at Tenuta San Guido with Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, creator of Sassicaia, he was inspired to see if the clay-limestone soils of his family estate could yield similar results to those achieved by his mentor. In 1978 the first Cabernet Sauvignon vines joined the Merlot and Carmenere that had long been planted and in 1982 the first vintage of the flagship San Leonardo was produced, rapidly taking its place in the pantheon of Italy’s greatest wines.