Ridge Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 vs Tenuta San Leonardo, San Leonardo 2014
Compare current tracked prices, stockists and core specifications. One of these is currently out of stock across tracked merchants.
| Availability | Out of stock | In stock |
|---|---|---|
| Best current price | — | £74.60 |
| Current stockists | — | 1 merchant |
| Producer | Ridge Vineyards | Tenuta San Leonardo |
| Style | Red | Red |
| Grape | Cabernet Sauvignon | Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Size | 750ml | 750ml |
| Where to buy | No current tracked offers |
Ridge Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
Drought-breaking winter storms replenished ground-water reserves at Monte Bello. Warm, summer weather ripened grapes for an October harvest. Significant tannins showed in the earliest fermentations so they reduced the pump-overs to avoid over-extraction. For this wine they blended the lots showing softer tannins and great fruit intensity. Though approachable now, this wine will continue to develop greater complexity over the next ten years. Harvested from the Monte Bello Vineyard made from 75% cabernet sauvignon, 21% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 1 % peitit verdot.
Tenuta San Leonardo, San Leonardo 2014
After banging the drum for the Guerrieri Gonzaga family’s remarkable (and remarkably consistent) Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend for the last fifteen years, we relish each new endorsement and instance of critical appreciation and Jancis’ is the just the latest in a long line of articles from major critics. As a reminder... The wines of San Leonardo are more akin to Bordeaux than Bolgheri with their balance and purity and (said the late and greatly respected Italian specialist Nicolas Belfrage) " can have an elegance-cum-depth capable of taking on the best clarets of the world ". Jancis clearly agrees, noting latterly the wine’s “ astoundingly consistent quality ” and how each vintage is “ beautifully low-key and like the most refined red bordeaux imaginable ”, determining it is " Surely the most successful Bordeaux blend of Northern Italy ”. The Wine Advocate’s Monica Larner calls it “ … one of the great wines of Italy… Sassicaia and San Leonardo seem like brothers separated in childhood ” after James Suckling had previously made the comparison referring to San Leonardo as “ The Sassicaia of the North ”. The comparison is more than skin deep as San Leonardo’s owner Marchese Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga, a rare example (at the time) of a professionally-trained aristocrat-oenologist, spent time at Tenuta San Guido back in the 1960s helping create Sassicaia with legendary consultant, Giacomo Tachis, whom he subsequently employed at his own estate. The estate has received the top ‘Tre Bicchiere’ rating from Gambero Rosso for an unprecedented seventeen vintages, and has twice been voted by aggregate Italy’s top wine release of the year (jointly with Sassicaia, to continue the comparison). Antonio Galloni weighs in saying “ The Guerrieri Gonzaga’s are one of the great families of Italian wine. Over the years, the Guerrieri Gonzaga’s have produced a number of stellar Bordeaux-influenced reds at San Leonardo, many of which I have had the privilege to taste. ” Meanwhile his collea
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