Wine Reviews

This hot vintage presents some stewy characteristics of cooked cherry and baked plum. The wine presents typical Sangiovese aromas, but you don’t get the same nuance and detail that you might find in a cooler growing season.

The nose has the fresh, cool, earthy feel of crushed rocks, wild herbs, blood orange and blackberry tea. Tart and sweet berries pop on the palate, while undertones of pepper and citrus add even more energy and acid soars overhead.

The 2022 Sangiovese Vigna del Impero is a small bottling from a parcel planted in 1935. Sweet dried cherry, tobacco, cedar, sweet pipe tobacco and orange peel are nicely lifted. Slightly advanced color and open-knit aromas suggest this mid-weight Sangiovese is best suited for drinking over the next few years. The 2022 is attractive, but it is also a wine that very clearly needs to be enjoyed sooner rather than later.

At 15% alcohol, the 2020 is more about forward fruit and textural intensity than varietal character. Hopefully, the new Valdarno di Sopra DOC will be an impetus for producers to make wines that speak more of place. Certainly, the potential for that to happen is there.

Lovely energy and perfume to this sangiovese, showing cherries, strawberries and cedar. Medium-bodied, bright and long, with stones and white pepper. Very refined and crunchy. Beautiful austerity. From vines planted in 1935.