Over August, I was on holiday just outside Lucca, and although not a lot of wine was drunk, I enjoyed comparing 2 Sangiovese made in completely different styles.
2023 Sassoarollo – is made by Jacobo Biondi-Santi using the families unique BBS clone of Sangiovese – the building brick of the appellation of Brunello di Montalcino. I think the Biondi-Santi wines are superb, I would probably want them in my cellar if I had one, albeit a tad expensive and a bit unreliable – they are unique and arguably the single greatest wine of the appellation. Whatever Soldera is – it is more Soldera then it is Brunello.
However, this bottle was very unremarkable in every way and I only managed to drink half a bottle. It wasn’t offensive, it was just like talking to someone at a party who has nothing to say, as many questions as you try to ask, nothing comes back.
Then a 2019 Vino Nobile from Tenuta Saint Agnese then comes on the scene, stumbles into you, spills some wine on your suit but then launches into digressions on digressions, stories and leaves you thinking – wow, who was that guy?
It’s an estate relatively new to me, I only brought it because I liked the traditional label. It’s kind of too much, but in a nice way, a Nobile for people who like Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but it’s full of flavour and nuance, flirting with a certain raisined character but still keeping it all together – it’s winemaking that suggests a commitment to maximum expression and I absolutely loved it. So much so that I was thinking of getting in touch and buying some direct.
