TASCA | Tenuta Regaleali | Vigna San Francesco | Cabernet Sauvignon | 2016
cabernet sauvignon

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Next to the vineyards grow olive trees, wheat fields and almond trees. In the vegetable gardens, in the pastures and in the orchards, men and women work the seasons and give birth to the best products of Sicily. Each with its own character, each with its own rhythms. Today, the biggest challenge is to preserve these places and leave them intact to our children, in a sign of constant attention to the protection of every single ecosystem.

Tonight we’ve decided to review a wine that we were eager to try for quite some time – a genuine cabernet sauvignon wine from Sicily – Tenuta Regaleali Vigna San Francesco Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 by Tasca d’Almerita. Cabernet Sauvignon is grown all over the world in a wide range of climates and regions and it can produce wines that are very high in tannins and acidity – wines that can mature and develop for many years in the bottle. Cabernet Sauvignon is also a late ripening grape variety, which means that it is best suited for warm climates, where it is capable to produce wines that can reach into realms of perfection. The cabernet sauvignon variety was planted for the first time in Sicily at the Regaleali Estate in 1985 and today it produces one of the best wine of Italy – the Vigna San Francesco Cabernet Sauvignon. This particular wine is produced from grapes that are sourced from a single vineyard, grown on the top of the San Francesco hill, with a south-west exposure, at a 570-meter altitude, on sand, loam and clay soils. The wine has been aged for 18 months in new 225-liter french oak barriques (Allier and Tronçais) made from fine and medium grained oak staves. But enough with all that theory – that said and without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results.
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
concentration: deep & opaque
colour: ruby
clarity: clear & noble
hue/rim: garnet

//Olfactory
intensity: powerful
fruit profile: red fruits | black fruits
__red fruits: sour cherry | wild cherry
__black fruits: black cherry | blackcurrant | black plum | blackberry | aronia berry
fruit character: overripe

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | earth | other
__spice: black pepper | nutmeg | cloves
__oak: roasted oakwood | sweet tobacco | black tea | tobacco | liquorice
__earth: black soil dust | compost | turf | truffle
__other: penicillin mold | hints of violets
__wood: new / medium roast
aroma: primary | secondary | tertiary

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: med(+)
alcohol: high
tannin: high
__grip: velvety & ripe
body: round & full
balance: fine
__dominant: alcohol & tannin
complexity: complex

//Taste
fruit profile: black fruits
fruit character: overripe
non fruit: oak & earth
finish: long
aftertaste: velvety & seedy

//Scoring
TASCA | Tenuta Regaleali | Vigna San Francesco | Cabernet Sauvignon | 2016
variety: cabernet sauvignon
country: Italy
region: Sicilia
rating: 95.7

//Conclusion
maturity: on the rise | close to its prime
verdict: great | a must try wine | a wine that has all the traits to become legendary

//Rating

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This is definitely a great wine of Italy and, with a total of 95.7 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Verdict: this is an outstanding cabernet sauvignon wine that is still on the rising slope, somewhere between 2 and 4 years away from the summit of its prime form: firm, ripe and complex, with well integrated acidity, a nuanced fruity-earthy profile and very grippy yet velvety tannins – this is a cabernet sauvignon wine that is reaching into realms of perfection. It tastes rich, round and well structured, with overwhelming alcohol on the palate and a very appealing, bitter-seedy finale – a wine that defies the stereotypes that a full-bodied cabernet sauvignon wine cannot be elegant. The wine definitely needs a bit more time in the bottle to round up, yet it already has all the prerequisites to be considered amongst the best vabs the world of wine can offer. This is a wine that is mixing power with finesse – a mesmerizing mixture of overripe black fruits and very nuanced hints of Sicilian terrior represented by notes of penicillin mold, as well as tertiary flavours of truffles and violets. For the best experience, we would recommend to pair this wine with meaty dishes that are rich in smooth textures and natural irony hints, like for example venison carpaccio or a sicilian grilled steak. Cent’anni!

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