A ridiculously stunning wine so stupidly young it nearly defies comprehension. Impenetrable ruby, horribly glass-staining and with no thinning at rim, it offers up in the nose an equally ridiculous concentration of black cherry and complex–almost California-cab-like–nuances. Black and dense both in nose and vision, it layers deep licorice and vanilla, cassis, myrrh and warm blackberry slowly and decidedly out of the bouquet, the 2-hour decant only scratching the surface of contained elements. Bloody and ripe, a moldy grapefruit warming the earthiness binding wet-rock chalk and petrichor to spicy fruit roiled in asphalt, leather and toasty green-brier.

Across the street from Sassicaia and slightly higher in elevation, this is Bolgheri from a small producer done with cab-franc, and the results are mind-boggling. Yes, it’s Super Tuscan. Yes, it’s rich and ripe. Yes, it displays fairly lavish oak. Italy for the California palate for sure, and yet the structure displayed will cross your eyes orgasmically while causing tongue calisthenics.

Tasting it brings two things instantly to bear: An initial attack displaying ALL the notes from the nose, followed nearly instantly by raspy adolescent structure Napa would only DREAM of. Tomato vine offers only slight classic vegetal, the acid and deep woodsy briar controlling all else. Rich and supple for brief moments, the glimpse of cherry popping in and out of the abrasiveness for show-stopping scenes bordered with curtains of shocking tannin. SOOOO sweet and glorious all across the palate, a peppery coolness nudging the mouth-shredding backbone in heated ways almost impossible to put into words. Tannin arrives mid-palate and crescendos into chalky obfuscation of fruit deep into finish. And yet: the ripeness carries through.

This is a 30-year wine, 1/3 the price of the neighbors and you NEED to taste this wine in 2050. Can you wait that long?

2017 TENUTA SETTE CIELI ‘Scipio’ CF Toscana IGT Italy 15.0

https://www.settecieli.com/
https://wilsondaniels.com/winery/tenuta-sette-cieli-2/