Tenuta San Leonardo, San Leonardo, (Magnum) 2019 Wine (150cl)

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After banging the drum for the Guerrieri Gonzaga family’s remarkable (and remarkably consistent) Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend for the last fifteen years, having finally sampled the brand-new 2019 the other night with Club Members, to say we're buzzing about this new release would be an under-statement. "A noble offering from the estate: Perfumed, supple, elegant, fine-boned, and balanced to perfection. There is rarely any fat on San Leonardo and the 2019 is no exception. Graceful, peppery red berry fruits and plums, violets, mint, and spicier, darker notes of cherry, cedar, and tobacco on the nose. The attack is savoury-edged and sapid, and fans out on the mid-palate with forest berries, tamarind, cacao nibs, and freshly milled pepper. Juicy acidity and long, lean tannins drive to an energetic, lifted finish." Tom Harrow, Head Wine Guru 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