2012 Italy

As it is every year, the 2012 Flaccianello della Pieve represents a selection of the best fruit from the best vineyards (excluding, of course, Vigna del Sorbo that is dedicated to its own wine). The five parcels span various soils types and exposures, and the youngest vines are 20 years old. Because the fruit selection process is so detailed, the darkest and smallest clusters are carefully chosen.

As a result, the fruit is rich in polyphenols, thick extract and extra aromatic intensity. The 2012 vintage saw yields reduced by as much as 20%, meaning that fruit selection was even more severe in this vintage. This beautiful wine shows abundant richness and generosity with toned mineral nuances that are wrapped within bold flavors of dark fruit and spice. The wine is rich and velvety in texture.
Drink 2016-2030
94/100 points Monica Larner, eRobertParker.com #221 Oct 2015  

We are once again fortunate to be able to offer the opportunity to buy three of Roberto's top Baroli. This year we are featuring the 2012 vintage and we are offering the wines in a mixed 12 bottle case.

This case contains:

5 x 75cl 2012 Barolo Rocche dell’ Annunziata
5 x 75cl 2012 Barolo Cerequio  
2 x 75cl 2012 Barolo Brunate

Cooler on the nose than many previous vintages, with polished toasty sweet oak and dark cherry behind. Plenty of concentration on the palate, ripe red and black fruit, some glossy, spicy oak notes, crisp acidity and some fine-grained tannins rounding it out. Definitely one for the cellar, this will reward patience and will be at its best from around 2020.
Chris Pollington, Private Account Manager

The 2012, is a classic Bordeaux blend, as Ornellaia has always been, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot making up the lion’s share of the cepage and Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot adding complexity. Cabernet Franc is becoming recognised as one of the most successful varieties for Bolgheri and the quantity in the blend of all the major wines in the region seems to be increasing. It may well be that Bolgheri is one of the world’s best sites for this often overlooked variety.

The stony, chalky minerals of this renowned site in Serralunga d’Alba come through on the nose and palate, adding to the precision lent by defined tannins and clean acidity. Layers of crunchy red fruit, smoky spice and rich plums hint at the complexity to come with time in bottle. 

“There is only one Bruno Giacosa. No one will ever make wines like these. It's as simple as that.” Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

This gloriously feminine expression of Nebbiolo exudes purity and clarity. The nose is reminiscent of crushed dried petals, crunchy redcurrant and cranberry, layered with savoury undertones. The acidity is bright and finely balanced with the toned tannins. More approachable in its youth than Rabajà and Asili, it will still age with grace. Drink 2018-2024. 

Deep ruby. Grilled herbs and coffee complicate ripe, smoky black fruits on the nose and palate. Soft and fleshy in the mouth, showing a high-pH mouth feel. The youthfully chewy, long finish features smoky tannins. One of the more successful Guado al Tassos of recent memory.
Ian D'Agata, vinous.com December 2014

A new vintage of Sassicaia is always a treat and is never a disappointment. Cool, yet ripe Cabernet fruit provides great promise for the wine to come. On the palate that delicious coolness is there again, but there’s no hint of the hard edge that one might expect from such a cool wine, in fact ripeness of fruit is abundant. It’s more about the restrained sophistication of the style of this wine, incredibly elegant and fine, this is very impressive. All is perfectly in balance; fruit, acidity and fine tannins, nothing dominating. This isn’t a blockbuster of a wine, but if you are looking for something elegant and restrained with real breeding, this classic Sassicaia is for you.
Chris Pollington – Private Account Manager

 

Now firmly amongst the greats of the Italian wine scene, Tignanello’s origins lie in a single vineyard Chianti Classico Riserva ‘Vigneto Tignanello‘ made for the 1970 vintage. Even at this point it broke new ground by being the first Sangiovese aged in small oak barrels, and the die was cast from the 1971 vintage, when it became a Vino da Tavola della Toscana and was named Tignanello after the vineyard from where the fruit originates. Over the following eleven years Tignanello gradually evolved into the wine we recognise today – a wine that no longer follows the rules laid down by Chianti Classico Disciplinare.

This is a Tignanello vintage with wonderful purity of fruit on the nose first and foremost. Pure, unadulterated bramble, hedgerow fruit – exquisite! Behind that initial and impressive wave of fruit there are complex layers of nutmeg, black tea and Asian spices. This continues apace on the palate, and also where the Sangiovese really comes into play. The taut structure and fine tannins build neatly through the midpalate where more layers of hoi sin, dark coffee and subtle meatiness. The finish is textbook Tignanello, refined yet focussed and wonderfully long. Drinking from 2018 onto 2030.
Gary Owen, Fine Wine

Tignanello releases are always of huge interest – a superb Super Tuscan red which still offers significant value. This 2012 release demonstrates the quality and consistency of the Antinori estate very well indeed. The nose offers generous dark fruit, black cherry and cassis with notes of clove and dried herbs. The palate is laced with fine acidity giving real energy and vibrancy, very moreish. Fine, silky and eminently approachable now, but there is more to come of course and more layers will emerge over the coming years. Drink 2018 – 2028.
Martyn Rolph, Fine Wine 

Solaia is derived exclusively from its namesake vineyard, Solaia—meaning sunny one—a 10-hectare, southwest-facing site that is comprised principally of marl soils and albarese rock.. The Marchesi Antinori firm produced this wine for the first time in the 1978 vintage with an initial blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Cabernet Franc, a blend repeated again in 1979.

Solaia is a 50 acre (20 hectare), southwest-exposed vineyard of the Tignanello estate situated between 1150 and 1320 feet (350-400 meters) above sea level on stony soils consisting of calcareous clays and limestone rock. The Marchesi Antinori produced this wine for the first time in the 1978 vintage with a blend consisting of 80% Cbernet Sauvignon and 20% Cabernet Franc, repeating the initial production in 1979. In the following vintages 20% of Sangiovese became part of the blend and certain corrections in the ratio of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc were made as well until the current composition of the blend was defined and became definitive. Solaia is produced only in high level vintages and was not produced in 1980, 1981, 1983,1984, and 1992.

The Isola et Olena Estate, run by Paolo de Marchi, is a property that has seen a dramatic rise in quality over the last few decades. Paolo's family, originally from Piedmont, purchased the estate in the 1960s. His attention to detail in both the vineyard and the winery was the driving force that turned quality around.

The wines have Cepparello at their head, a barrique-aged Sangiovese classified as an IGT - because at the time of its creation in the 1980s a wine comprising 100% Sangiovese could not legally be labelled as Chianti. This is a fabulous Super Tuscan at an incredibly good price and a wine that can age 10 – 15 years if one so wishes.

Isole e Olena’s Sangiovese Super-Tuscan Sangiovese never fails to please. Beautiful ripe Sangiovese nose of black cherries intermingled with hints of spice. Big and rich on the palate with savoury black cherries, grilled meats and loganberry notes, framed by crisp acidity, fine tannins and a lick of warmth from the alcohol. A very impressive Super-Tuscan which could be drunk now, but would reward 5-10 years in the cellar for the components to knit together and gain complexity. A great lesson in what great Sangiovese from Chianti Classico is capable of producing.
Chris Pollington, Private Account Manager

Of Giovanni's two sumptuous Cannonau wines, this is more accessible, born of a higher, 'cooler' (relative to Sardinia!), younger, more humid and hence more fertile vineyard called 'Elisi'. It sits on the side of a hill, well ventilated, has a great view and is notably more clay-rich granitic, hence giving a fruitier wine. Such was the vintage, with a cool spring and hot summer that the wine sports a super-ripe, yet fresh loganberry fruit nose; it's so enchantingly, violet fragrant - a hallmark of Cannonau (from Mamoiada) - with crunchy, 'essence', suave, sotto-bosco (wild blackberry) compote flavours,similar in profile to Chateauneuf du Pape, with which it shares Cannonau/Grenache. Only 3,500 bottles made.
David Berry Green

Stefano’s desire to produce an Amarone with more freshness is clear in this elegant, yet full-bodied wine. Aromas reminiscent of stewed, sweet plums and wild herbs are supported by chocolate and roasted coffee. The mouth-feel is silky in texture and the weight of fruit buffers the tannins. Excellent balance.
Drink from 2016-2035.

Yields were down 20 percent at Bartolo Mascarello in 2012 due to a hail storm that hit the Rocche dell’Annunziata vineyard. This, combined with a comparatively short maceration of 20 days and minimal racking, have contrived to make Mascarello’s 2012 Barolo one of the most delicate, ethereal and Pinot-like in recent years. With air, this rose-petal Barolo is timid, creeping slowly out into the limelight. Maria Teresa aged the wine partly in the two new 50hl garbellotto botti, giving it a sandalwood edge to the rose, coal tar and orange-skin notes. There’s great finesse on the palate, with cool, red-berry crunch and sapid, svelte lines: this is racy yet served on a cushion of sweet red fruit. Such lift!

This remains a very traditional expression of the elevated La Serra vineyard in La Morra. Compared to the Brunate, La Serra is always more perfumed, breezy and ethereal, with incense and notes of dried grass. The 2012 vintage is especially discreet, scented with distinct notes of cassis, hay and tea-tree. This is slender on the palate, sylph-like even, with delicate notes of quinine, spices, kirsch and cassis. This will come round earlier than the Brunate.

Utterly distinct from San Lorenzo, first bottled in the great 1978 vintage, Fratelli Alessandria’s 2012 Monvigliero sings of the vineyard’s steep, white-talc slopes, with its pale, red-rose colour, and rose-petal scent, along with vintage-specific notes of violet creams. In spite of the violently hot August, Alessandria’s chalky Monvigliero kept its cool – helped no doubt by the family’s decision to de-leaf less and less in the face of a changing climate – and so giving us a haunting, ethereal, fresh, mandarin-skin and rose-petal beauty, wrapped up by the finest of (Verduno) tannins and a salty lick.

Ripeness and refinement define this Cannubi and its complexity is already evident – sour black cherry and ripe plum are interwoven with tar and more savoury, herbal notes. There is no denying the concentration and weight of phenolic matter across the palate: this is long and powerful.

Until 31st August 2017 this product is discounted by up to 30%. Prices shown include discount; no further discount will be applied at checkout.

Bright ruby in colour, the texture and intensity of the Via Nuova is enhanced by a fine tannic structure and cool acidity. Layers of red stone-fruit and dried flowers absorb the influence of the French oak, which brings added complexity and spice to the wine. The fruit for this cuvée is predominantly from the clones of Michet and Lampia. 

Savoury overtones on the nose, the fruit resides beneath currently. Again characteristic purity evident on the palate. Fine and toned. Tight with focus on the finish. Classic Villero, all about the purity and finesse, the one to drink while you wait for your Santo Stefano and Monprivato to mature. Drink 2017-2030+.
Katherine Dart MW – Italy Wine Buyer

Giuseppe Mascarello & Figlio surely ranks as one of Barolo’s finest producers. The family business dates back to 1881. All the wines are traditionally made using a combination of epoxy-lined cement and stainless-steel cuves, before being aged in large Slavonian botte; capturing the vineyards' full expression.

This wine is high toned on the nose, hinting at the complexity to come. There are notes of red cherry, tea, dried rose and dense minerals throughout. Berries lift the attack. Structurally it is exemplary – long, elegant and complete. Drink 2020-2040+.

An alluring smoky, earthy, cherry & fruits of the forest laden nose. Background notes of espresso, mocha and tobacco. Complex and enticing.  The palate is medium plus bodied, powerful and rich and yet with a cutting / well balanced acidity that gives it beautiful lift, making the length go on and on.  Mouth filling and yet excellently poised, very attractive now but will reward another 5 + years cellaring.  An excellent example of what can be achieved with the meeting of great vinous minds alongside great terroir.
17/20 Stuart Rae, Commercial Manager (Private Accounts)

Soft and spicy, the 52% Merlot component clearly dominates the bouquet at present. Quite savoury and saline on the palate, Merlot is evident again, but the Cabernets and the Petit Verdot make themselves noticed too with a touch of blackcurrant and cedar, crisp acidity and grippy tannins, which means it will have a long and interesting life ahead of it. A classic Italian Bordeaux-blend wine.
Chris Pollington, Private Account Manager

From its inception in 1981, Tenuta dell'Ornellaia very quickly gained international recognition and established itself as a world-class producer. Located in the medieval village of Bolgheri, made famous by the presence of the pioneering estate Tenuta San Guido, this coastal area of Tuscany had already established itself as a region whose finest vineyards were able to produce wine of the highest calibre. For many, the wines of Tenuta dell'Ornellaia now rival those of Tenuta San Guido’s Sassicaia, however many feel that its wines offer a more ‘international’ expression of the terroir of Bolgheri. As you would expect, Le Serre Nuove is produced primarily from the fruit of the estate’s younger vineyards, and aims to combine the pedigree of Ornellaia itself, with the intensity of outstanding terroir balanced by freshness and approachability.

A blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. First introduced with the 1997 vintage, resulting from the decision to carry out an even more rigid selection during the blending phase of the base wines which give life to Ornellaia. Produced primarily from the younger vineyards, the wine combines the pedigree of the flagship wine with freshness, accessibility and softness together with a structure, balance and intensity typical of the great terroir of the Estate.

Antonio Galloni enthuses about the 2012 saying -“It was a hot, dry year, but with some rain at the end. The 2012s showed more freshness and vibrancy than the 2011s. In top vintages it is the hidden gem in this line-up from a price to quality perspective." Another very salient point he makes is “I have little doubt that current vintages of Le Serre Nuove are actually better wines than the early vintages of Ornellaia.”