TENUTA DI ARCENO | Il Fauno di Arcanum | Toscana | 2012
merlot | cabernet franc | cabernet sauvignon | petit verdot
WineStatistics will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss one. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations. The logic is simple – the more we taste, the more we learn.
Tonight we are going to review another very special wine, as this is a real Super Tuscan – Il Fauno di Arcanum Toscana 2012 by Tenuta di Arceno. The constant search for perfection makes this wine a real classic, considered by many connoisseurs as one of the blueprints Super Tuscan blends. Tenuta di Arceno is one of the rising stars of Tuscany, where cabernet franc has proven to be the variety best suited to the estate’s diverse soils and topography, and is the true signature of the estate, as it thrives in both warm and cool vintages. Il Fauno di Arcanum is a Bordeaux-style blend that embodies the diversity of the estate – a blend of merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot. But enough theory, without further ado, let’s move on to the tasting!
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:
Visual
Deep and noble garnet color with bright ruby shades towards the rim of the glass.
Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with red fruits and savory flavours: leather, violets, ripe sour cherry, beetroot, chorizo, redcurrant, prosciutto crudo, ripe cranberry, blackberry, ripe red plum, red mulberry, cherry seeds, rooibos tea, cherry tree wood and sweet tobacco. An instant later the nose is filled with very elegant notes of nutmeg, red pepper, anise, vanilla, roasted oakwood, cinnamon and some subtle hints of barnyard.
Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It feels velvety, noble and elegant, with a very well structured body and a nuanced savory-meaty accent. This is a very complex, harmonious and extremely appealing wine blend, as it tastes seedy and refined, with a ripe-tannic grip on the mouthfeel. The wine has a good overall balance as it feels a bit tart, savory and leathery, with very subtle oaky notes.
Aftertaste
It has a very long finish and a velvety, seedy and grippy aftertaste.
___________________________________________________________________________
This is definitely a great Wine of Italy and the overall rating says the same, with 92.4 points scored it is right there, among the best wines we’ve tasted so far. Please click on the chart icon on the left in order to get to the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines we’ve tasted to date.
Conclusion: this is a blueprint Super Tuscan wine blend – elegant, velvety and very harmonious – a wine that has reached the summit of its prime form, yet a wine that can still benefit from a couple more years of bottle ageing. It has a fine and ripe tannic grip on the mouthfeel, which leads to a velvety full-bodied mid-palate, firming beautifully on the finish, where the nuanced meaty-savory flavours glide alongside those subtle oaky hints and gain more grip and traction. This wine is surprisingly versatile and extremely appealing, thus it can pair well with a wide range of italian cuisine, like for example creamy tomato and chorizo rigatoni or a classic white bean pasta alla Toscana. Salute!
WineStatistics tasting results:
TENUTA DI ARCENO
Il Fauno di Arcanum | Toscana | 2012
grape: | merlot | cabernet franc | cabernet sauvignon | petit verdot |
overall rating: | 92.4 |
maturity: in its prime
conclusion: excellent | (a must try)
___________________________________________________________________________
(c) The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. There are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.
WineStatistics 