The Marchesi Antinori 2019 Tignanello was born in a classic growing season that saw some cooling summer rains and relatively stress-free conditions. This is an elegant and extremely polished wine made with mostly Sangiovese and... Read More
Deep purple-black colored, the glass needed a fair bit of swirling to unlock this wine's wonderfully pure scents of baked black plums, blackberry pie and boysenberries, leading to an undercurrent of fruitcake, Indian spices,... Read More
The 2009 La Joie (14.5% natural alcohol, and a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot and Malbec) boasts an opaque purple color along with abundant notes of wood spice, barbecued... Read More
The 2010 La Muse (14.4% alcohol) is a blend of 84% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. One of the more soft, opulent, precocious wines I have tasted from this estate, it exhibits abundant notes of spicy oak,... Read More
The fruit for this blend of 61% Cabernet Franc, 31% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec came from Chalk Hill (58%) and Alexander Valley (42%). Pierre Seillan believes the Chalk Hill fruit provides a truffle-like... Read More
Another big red is the 2009 Le Desir, a blend of 74% Cabernet Franc, 13% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Malbec. The densest, most tannic, and most forbiddingly backward of the 2009s, it exhibits an inky/purple color along... Read More