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- James tastes on while the restaurant buzzes with customers.
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- Nick focuses on some Adelaide Hills pinots.
The tasting highlights of the past week take an Italian flavor as James looks at the latest releases from some of Tuscany’s most consistent producers as well as continuing our tasting of Piedmont’s new release Barolo and Barbaresco wines.
Tua Rita Redigaffi 2018 (98 points) led the way as a convincing Tuscan red this week, proving its ability to match the region’s very best wines. The “juicy and sexy” Redigaffi is “opulent with polish and presence”, wrote James, while another Tuscan red, the Orma 2018 (96 points) is a wine of “beauty and balance”.
The powerfully layered tannin structure and deep flavors on the palate of the 2018 Tuscan reds can also be seen in the Tenuta Sette Ponti Oreno 2018 (97 points). This blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot has power and precision. The Tua Rita Toscana Giusto di Notri 2018 (96 points) also delivers impressive concentration and power whilst remaining “balanced and focused.”
A pair of 2017 wines from Luce della Vite also showed strongly: the Toscana 2017 (97 points) and the Toscana Lux Vitis 2017 (97 points). The Lux Vitis really is a “triumph for the vintage” according to James whilst the Toscana “shows energy with a velvety texture.” Representing a different facet of great Tuscan wine, the San Felice Chianti Classico Il Grigio Gran Selezione 2016 (96 points) delivers complex, earthy Chianti style with aromas of smoke, meat, wet earth, black fruit and black truffle as well as “beautifully polished, caressing tannins.”
From Piedmont, the consistently exceptional Pio Cesare Barbaresco Il Bricco 2016 (98 points) impressed with a “very structured and linear” style that will prove itself for many years to come. This is a long-aging Barbaresco from a great vintage. The Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Riserva 2013 (96 points) represents a “traditional” style, delivering nebbiolo’s classical pairing of strength with beauty.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the Adelaide Hills wines are impressing with two very stylish and concentrated pinot noirs from the 2019 vintage. This is a great vintage for Adelaide Hills pinot noir, a landmark of sorts, and one that furthers the region’s ambition to be rated among Australia’s top pinot noir locations.
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- The d’Aremberg single-site wines demonstrated the power of very old vines.
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- Two of the stars of last week’s tastings came from Luce.
The Ashton Hills Pinot Noir Reserve 2019 (97 points) is “so succulent and smooth-honed with finely layered tannins” and the Murdoch Hill Pinot Noir Phaeton 2019 (97 points) offers “sleekly refined tannin” in a “long, fresh and intense” palate. Both wines also show vibrant aromatic intensity and innately complex fruit character.
Chester Osborn’s 2014 d’Arenberg Amazing Sites collection has a total of 14 individual, site specific bottlings and this week’s tasting of the entire collection demonstrated the power of very old vines to really shine. The d’Arenberg Shiraz McLaren Vale J.R.O. Afflatus 2014 (96 points) is from vines planted in 1912 and is a site that bends shiraz into an exotic zone of “persimmon, pomegranate and passion fruit” aromas with “smooth and layered” old vine tannin structure. Look our for the full tasting report coming soon.
Another southern hemisphere syrah is our final wine with Chile’s Errázuriz Syrah Aconcagua Costa Las Pizarras 2018 (96 points) also delivering “unique aromas of blackberries, sweet herbs and bay leaves with wet earth and violets” as well as “tar and slate undertones” to the palate. This inaugural release is impressive.
It is great to see both familiar and newer faces in the highlights this week. Enjoy!
– Nick Stock, executive editor
