My first super tuscan and it really was not great. Closed at first but I was hopeful a long decant would work. After about 5-6 hours I tried again but same lack of balance and slight astringency. Some normal Bordeaux on the nose, bit of black and red fruit, cassis, and surprisingly some raw white mushroom. This was about all it had to give, none of the silkiness on the palate I was hoping for and can’t even say it had the tannins to promise much more with ageing.
I had several 2nd/3rd growths from the 2000s recently and well as 2010s Cab Sauv/Bdx blends from the new world; this was the priciest and worst of the lot. Possibly it wasn’t stored correctly, but it’s not that old. Closed period in its development? I’m not sure.
Can’t imagine that a producer of this reputation can put out something of this meh quality, so something must have gone wrong. Tough to sink another couple hundred into a 2016 to find out, when I can just a good 2000s vintage super second.
Score 88
by tehbamf
5 Comments
I would hope it’s just in an awkward closed phase of its life – which isn’t too much of a surprise given a lot of BDX 2018s are closed at the moment – but beyond one superb bottle of 2011 Sassicaia I had a few years ago my experience isn’t that far off yours. It’s definitely not worth the money – but you should be getting a very silky mouthfeel.
Personally I think the hype train on the super Tuscans has made them wildly overpriced for what they are. Tignanello for example is a delicious wine, but no way in hell is it worth £120pb
I bought a case a few years ago at £70pb and managed to wangle some discounts to get it down to £55pb and that was at a sweet spot – but the current pricing is bonkers for a mass production wine.
It’s a theme across all Super Tuscans though. Brancaia Ilatraia and Il Blu are both lovely wines and used to be £30 and £40, respectively. They’re now twice that and they’re not twice as good!
Probably a sleepy phase, or slightly corked. I personally wouldn’t open one until eight years old, but that still wouldn’t align with some of the off-putting notes you describe (hence why I say maybe slightly corked, which is a thing). Sorry to hear in any case – I have two bottles of ‘21 in hibernation, which is supposed to be a fantastic year, I am looking forward to.
I could be wrong but I believe 2018 was a pretty mid vintage for Tuscany. ‘19 and ‘20 were way better.
Agreed, they’re definitely over-hyped! Have had some very good bottles but not worth the money, even more so with their second wine
I’ve only had it once and I thought it was delicious. Too bad it wasn’t spectacular.