POGGIO AL TESORO | Sondraia | Bolgheri Superiore | 2013
cabernet sauvignon | merlot | cabernet franc
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 yet another Super Tuscan wine – Sondraia Bolgheri Superiore 2013 by Poggio al Tesoro. Bolgheri wine region is nothing less than a dream come true – producing wines that capture the imagination in the heart of Tuscany, where Poggio al Tesoro is one of the most exciting estates that have emerged from Italy in recent years. Their flagship wine being Sondraia – a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc, aged for 18 months in french oak barrels, followed by 9 months of bottle maturation. This wine is a fine example of how a textbook Bordeaux blend can be masterfully crafted from Bolgheri’s terroir. Perfectly ripe grapes and painstaking work in the cellar yield a great wine, that maintains both, harmony and finesse – a style that makes Sondraia a real classic. But enough theory – on to the tasting!
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:
Visual
Deep and noble ruby color with elegant copper hues towards the rim of the glass.
Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with black fruits flavours: black cherry, leather, ripe sour cherry, blackcurrant, violets, ripe blackberry, black plum, black mulberry, cherry seeds, rooibos tea, cherry tree wood and sweet tobacco. An instant later the nose is filled with elegant notes of red pepper, nutmeg, roasted oakwood, vanilla and some subtle hints of cinnamon and anise.
Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It feels complex, noble and seedy, with a well structured body and a nuanced, fruity-and-ripe new world accent. This is a quite bold, tannic and very appealing wine blend, as it tastes tart and woody, with a fine-tannic grip on the mouthfeel. The wine has a fair overall balance, as it feels a bit aggressive, spicy and quite angular, lacking a bit of harmony between all its elements.
Aftertaste
It has a long finish and a balanced, tart and tannic aftertaste.
___________________________________________________________________________
This is definitely a fine Wine of Italy and the overall rating says the same, with 91.7 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 classic Super Tuscan wine blend – ripe, fruity and extracted – a wine that has not yet reached the summit of its prime form, thus, one that requires 3 to 5 more years of bottle ageing. It has a fine tannic grip on the mouthfeel, which leads to a full-bodied mid-palate, firming beautifully on the finish with a mix of fruit extract and oaky notes to gain more grip and traction. This wine is a fine example of how a textbook supertuscan can be crafted from classic Bordeaux varieties and Bolgheri’s terroir. We would recommend to pair it with local italian cuisine, like for example pappardelle con ragù di cinghiale alla toscana (wild boar ragu with pappardelle pasta ribbons). Salute!
WineStatistics tasting results:
POGGIO AL TESORO
Sondraia | Bolgheri Superiore | 2013
grape: | cabernet sauvignon | merlot | cabernet franc |
overall rating: | 91.7 |
maturity: on the rise
conclusion: fine | highly recommended
___________________________________________________________________________
(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 