(2020) A Bordeaux blend with 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec, matured in small French oak barrels, 35% new, for 16 months. Seems ripe and plush, lots of blue/black fruit, some mint, A hint of violet, and chocolate too. A lot of cedar and graphite character. The fruit is sweet and mouth-filling, lots of blackcurrant, but has that cedar and the touch of clove, very juicy and tight, the tannins and fine sour cherry acid in the finish.
(2020) Half the production of the normal vintage. Named after the trinity of original owners, created to pay respect to Hermitage La Chapelle and Gerard Jaboulet who died at the age of 55. 100% new french oak barriques for 14 months. Lovely berry-ripe fruit, has the perfume again, with those refined red fruits, florals and yet the bacon fat smokiness and ripeness. The palate has a seductive plushness, but that gravelly edge of freshness and the tension of tannins and lip-smacking sour cherry and minerals. Dry but not at all austere - but will have great longevity. Price quoted is lowest at time of review for a single bottle, but other retailers sell by the six-bottle case at around £75 per bottle.
(2020) Pale and attractive, red berries and a touch of candy apple, quite fragrant with rose petal notes and red fruits. Fragrant Sandalwood spices too; quality oak. Packed with sweet, fleshy ripe fruit, what a lovely wine with smooth and ripe character and perfect creamy texture. Balanced and fine.
(2019) Dried herbs and dried cherry, mostly Corvina but 16% of Sangiovese in this wine, introduced by Massimilla’s father due to the family’s Tuscan roots. Dusty and ashy aromas. Good sweet fruit, with 14% Molinara also giving some spice, but good freshness and acid, a fresh style of red.
(2019) A sweet earth character here, more of that dusty cherry from this blend of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara, but a more concentrated style with 30% appassimento from the double fermentation system. That fragrance from the cherry wood is there, with a strong palate showing some coffee and plummy fruit, lots of spice into the well balanced finish.
(2019) From a vineyard bought by the family in 1353. More tobacco and cherry and floral lift and perfume, that slightly ashy quality. The lovely sweetness of ripe cherry and juicy, plump currants, and a beautifully judged residual sugar, but set against it keen, cherry skin acidity and tight tannins, with an underpinning of violet and bittersweet dark chocolate, a deliciously balanced wine. Around 60g/l residual sugar. Price for 50cl.
(2019) From a windy vineyard and 100% limestone and rocky white soil. Dried herbs and a more austere nose, taut and dusty aromatics, immediately appears more serious than the Campolongo, with a dried herbal character. The palate too has a drier character - I suspect a little drier technically, but the profile so different, so much tighter and higher in acidity, tight tannins and a graphite sense of precision to this. Long too and finishing with great fruit concentration, it has fine length and I suspect needs more time when it may well merit a higher score too.
(2019) A blend between 70% Loureiro and Alvarinho (Albariño). Lovely lemon and herb inviting aromas on the nose, fragrant and dry, it is intense on the palate, lovely clean, crisp character with a touch of skin contact grip. Pure citrus finish, lovely. Waitrose stocks this but appears to have moved on to the 2018 vintage.
(2019) Lovely big, dense chocolate and red plum character, creamy and meaty. Cedar and some tobacco comes through, lightening the picture. Seven months in used barrel, but keen, bright, edgy and focused tart berry fruit character, really grippy tannin and keen acidity add plenty of structure to the fresh fruit.
(2019) Four varieties from Cima Corga, led by Touriga Franca. Nice bright colour, red and black vine fruits, primary, dry and with a slight inkiness, dry and liquorice character, lovely fresh acids and smooth tannins.
