San Leonardo Tenuta San Leonardo 2018

Tenuta San Leonardo is a chapter in the history of Italian wine. The ancient hamlet housed a monastery something like a thousand years ago: since 1724 it has become the home of the Marchesi Guerrieri Gonzaga, a family that has always been linked to viticulture on this territory. Marquis Carlo is the current owner, the family's first true winemaker: enamored of the great wines of the French tradition, he engaged in study trips between France and Tuscany, where he had established a fruitful acquaintance with Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, patron of Tenuta San Guido and his oenological mentor. For more than fifty years Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga has devoted the totality of his attention to the family estate. His son Anselmo now picks up the reins of the estate, inheriting the same love for wine and for this corner of Trentino.

"San Leonardo" is the estate's iconic Bordeaux blend, born in 1984 from the intuition of one of Italy's most distinguished winemakers, Giacomo Tachis. A classic wine, extraordinarily elegant and long-lived. Borghetto all'Adige, a hamlet of the municipality of Avio: until 1918, this Vallagarina town was the seat of the Austrian customs on the border with the Kingdom of Italy. Today, on these soils with a volcanic matrix and conducted organically, Tenuta San Leonardo cultivates historic Bordeaux grapes to make its flagship red wine: Carmenere, planted as early as the mid-1800s; Merlot, present since the early 1900s; and Cabernet Sauvignon, planted in the 1970s. The separate winemaking process first follows Bordeaux tradition: spontaneous fermentation in concrete for about 15-18 days, with daily pumping over and delestage; aging for a period of 24 months in new, second- and third-passage French oak barrels. The blend includes 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Carmenere and 10% Merlot. An achievement that lends itself to evolution over several decades.

"San Leonardo" wears a very elegant deep ruby red color and shows a fluid and inviting rotation. The olfactory notes are dark and absolutely classic: floral of peony and wilted violet, fruity of black cherry and plum, spicy of clove, nuance of tobacco and mentholated. The palate is powerful and very fine: from velvety softness and integrated tannin, it moves through a gently herbaceous note, closing in a dry finish with saline persistence. A great Bordeaux interpretation, to be spent with roasted red meats, aged cheeses and traditional mountain pasta dishes.