Country:
Italy Region: Trentino-Alto Adige
Type: Red Style: Bold Smooth
Drinking: 2020 - 2040
100% Carmenère This is a wine produced only in the very best years from 35-50 years old vines from 1ha vineyard. Initially mistaken for Cabernet Franc, Carmenère represents today the ‘fingerprint’ of Tenuta San Leonardo. A minimum of three years in the bottle are necessary to ensure that Carmenère exhibits its full character and intriguing complexity. ‘It’s the variety that’s linked to our land. It has a strong character that somehow combines elegance with a slight rusticity’ (Marchese Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga).
Tenuta San Leonardo in Trentino has been home to the Guerrieri Gonzaga family for over three hundred years, but it is only since the second half of the twentieth century, when Marchese Carlo took over, that this estate began to take wine production seriously. Following a spell working at Tenuta San Guido with the creator of Sassicaia, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, 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 Carmenère that had long been planted, and in 1982 the first vintage of the flagship San Leonardo was produced. The wine has changed very little since then. The estate covers an overall area of 300 hectares, of which the vineyards, planted to red grapes beginning at an elevation of 150 metres, amount to 30 hectares. Merlot is planted in pebble-rich soils that were once the bed of a tributary of the Adige, while Cabernet Sauvignon and the old vineyards of Carmenère are in predominantly sandy soils. All are well-drained, low-fertility soils that yield wines with truly unusual levels of anthocyanins, and not just for the Trentino. In 2015, San Leonardo launched a project of conversion to organic viticulture, which concluded successfully in late 2018 with the award of official certification. In the same year, the BWA Friends of Biodiversity organisation certified San Leonardo as a Friend of Biodiversity, testifying to San Leonardo ́s deep commitment to preserving the character of its growing area. Recent vintages display the same timeless elegance and subtlety as the first, traits that are echoed through the rest of the range, and that have helped secure San Leonardo’s place in the pantheon of great Italian wineries.
- Carmenérè
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| Who | Score |
Start |
End |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eric Guido Vinous.com Nov 2020 |
94/100 | 2022 | 2038 | avory, sweet, spicy and fresh, the 2015 Carmenère di San Leonardo is pulling me closer and closer to the glass with its seductive bouquet, mixing depths of cherry and young strawberry with cracked black pepper, rosemary and sage, as white smoke combines with the slightest hint of brown sugar to set off all of the pleasure sensors in the brain. This is elegant and refined, showing silky textures playing host to tart red and a hint of black fruit, with noble tannins, as inner florals and savory herbs resonate for up to a minute, leaving just a hint of blackberry in their wake. This is a selection from San Leonardo’s oldest vines of Carmenère, and it’s a stunner! |