“Everyone thinks their local vineyard is the best.”

“Forced acidity”

“Harvesting fruit al dente.”

“Subsoil ideology.”

“Half the vineyard is very excellent; the other half: not so much…”

“Not my favorite oak regime.”

“Wine quality is not subjective. That’s unpopular, I know.”

“Making wines like this makes no sense simply because of Bordeaux’s appeal.”

“Oak is an *ok* flavor.”

“Let’s heap vanilla on a myriad of problems.”

“Grapes are so-so, but magic is in the skins. The puzzle is taking what you want and leaving what you don’t.”

“I don’t label my association because the wine is not up to potential.”

“Hi-alc and vanilla is a magical combination.”

“Sensorial value might be being a bit too narrow.”

A few soundbytes from a ZOOM this morning with James Marshall, the new, young proprietor of Tenuta Licinia in Tuscany, a winemaker obsessed with subsoil and honest wines expressing everything they can. You’re not going to hear #influencer or even #winewriter mouthing these concepts, as they largely go against 99% of wine-marketing. But this guy gets it. So… I decided to go straight for his 2021 before stepping back to the previous winemaker’s 2019 also provided. To see–to paraphrase Thoreau–if going to live in the woods equated with living deliberately. Based on his theories, I can probably guess what the 2019 tastes like.

Ridiculously young, black and impermeable, ink-staining glass and a nose tight with powerful, sequestered fruit under plentiful greenery and rubber boot. This is a BDX blend, but it reeks of Italy. Tastes like it too: leaving #winebro’s chub-rub Super-Tuscans shallow with ripe-icity and oak vagueness. The tannins are powerful, far more acclaimed than the Merlot-heavy offering I sampled two nights ago. This actually feels like old-school Napa, before homogenization left their Tay-Tay fluff on every surface. The wine is so CONCENTRATED, but subtlety abounds, causing mass-marketing complaints but a true wine-freak’s perfect storm. And yet–through all the comparisons–it *feels* like Italy. There’s that unmistakable funk of rusticity: here drawn out into modern, educated proportions. Buy a case and drink one every two years.

2021 TENUTA LICINIA ‘Sasso di Fata’ Cab/CF/PV IGT Toscana 14.5

https://tenutalicinia.com/