Regular

The 2020 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Sant'Urbano seduces with a savory and darkly alluring blend of dried black cherries, mentholated herbs, clove and shavings of citrus-laced dark chocolate. It sweeps across the palate with textures of pure silk, showcasing stunning minerality as crisp red berry fruits cascade across a core of stimulating acidity. It finishes incredibly long, leaving a salty flourish and a bitter cocoa twang as grippy tannins frame the experience beautifully. The 2020 possesses an incredibly classic feel.

A classic vintage for Barolo, 2019 is a Barolo with a very strong and austere structure, wines with great aging potential that will give us some of the best bottles of this denomination in the future. Pressenda, one of the most suitable vineyards in Monforte d’Alba, is characterized by the elegance and intensity of its aromas. Ruby red color with garnet reflections in the glass, intense aromas of balsamic herbs, undergrowth and berries on the nose, on the palate firm tannin but enveloping and very ripe, very vertical and elegant texture.

"The 2019 Barolo Pressenda unfolds in the glass with dark red cherry, menthol, licorice, rose petal, mint, sweet spice and orange peel. Firm tannins are pretty forbidding at this stage, but that should be less of an issue with bottle age. This opens nicely with time in the glass."

"The 2019 Barolo Cerviano-Merli is a dark, layered wine. Black cherry, lavender, spice, menthol, licorice, cloves and gravel are some of the many notes that take shape in this dynamic, layered Barolo. Give this a few years to soften."

The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino is youthfully inward and darkly floral with an herbal tinge and hints of crushed ashen stone that give way to vivid black raspberry and exotic spice. This is juicy and spry, with racy cherry-berry fruit and stimulating acidity that creates a sensation of boundless energy, even as a saturation of primary concentration settles in toward the close. The 2019 finishes with incredible length and youthful tension, leaving balsamic spice, sage and licorice notes lingering over a bed of dusty tannins.

Blackberries, menthol, sage, stone dust and cloves define the youthfully restrained 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Loreto. This flows across the palate with ease, silky with depths of ripe raspberry and sour cherry as fine-grained tannins saturate toward the close. It finishes spicy and long, structured yet lively while stimulating the imagination with its future potential. Hints of cocoa, lavender and current leaf linger, seeming to last for well over a minute. Color impressed me.