2016 San Leonardo

Vigneti delle Dolomiti

Cabernet-based wine from Trentino

“The potential is off the charts”

97+ WA / 96 VM / 95 DE / 95 FS

$79.89 (750ml) ETA 3-7 days - Buy Now

12% Below Market Average!

I remember the first time I tasted wine from the far southern tip of Trentino, just where it juts down into the Veneto, from a wine that was at the time called “G. Gonzaga.” Living up here in the northwest I knew it had nothing to do with the small college with the good basketball team. I didn’t know the history of the estate of San Leonardo, nor the Guerrieri Gonzaga family’s stewardship of the estate for over 200 years. But I remember being taken by the wine, I think it was the 1997 vintage, at how elegant and nuanced, powerful but not intense it was. And even at a very young age you could really see the potential of the wine.

We just tasted the 2016 vintage, now simply called “San Leonardo,” and it took me back to that first taste. This wine is so well balanced, and really just needs time to open up. Maybe a few years in the cellar, or longer? I tasted a bottle that had been open only a few hours and it was just starting to come out of its shell. Even in the glass you could sense it was changing and evolving. I loved it!

It is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Carmenère, and 10% Merlot, and we have a few cases available to us. Think of it as a wine like Sassicaia, but from the temperate part of southern Trentino. I would highly recommend that you get a 6 pack or two for your cellar and “Bury your bottles deep!”

2016 San Leonardo Vigneti delle Dolomiti

$79.89 (750ml) ETA 3-7 days – Buy Now

97+ WA / 96 VM / 95 DE / 95 FS

A wine to drink at least 10 years from now, the 2016 San Leonardo is positioned to be enjoyed in the far long term. Like its Tuscan cousin from Bolgheri, Sassicaia, San Leonardo from the mountainous north of Italy is always a wine that starts off quietly but that grows in intensity and complexity as it completes its bottle evolution. This elegant vintage reveals beautiful tones of dark berry fruit, spice and freshly milled white pepper. The wine is exceptionally balanced, fresh and long. I can't wait to come back to this vintage 10 or 20 years from now.- Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate

Another year in bottle has added unexpected depths and dimension to the 2016 San Leonardo. It wafts up with an alluring bouquet of smoky black currant and plum skins, complicated by savory herbs, hints of white pepper and fresh tobacco. It's hard chiseled edges have formed into smooth contours now, velvety yet youthfully dense, washing mineral encased dark red and black berries across a core of brisk acidity as a combination of saline-minerals and grippy tannins add tension toward the close. This finishes incredibly long yet also structured, begging for time in the cellar, as hints of licorice and earth tones grumble under an air of inner violet florals. The potential within the 2016 San Leonardo is off the charts, yet it will require a good amount of time to come fully into focus. Bury your bottles deep.-Eric Guido, Vinous Media 

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