Tenuta San Leonardo, Arte A San Leonardo, 2018

100 points Luca Gardini, wine writer for L'Espresso and Forbes
Coinciding with the launch of the exceptional 2018 vintage (which already boasts 100-point score from Luca Gardini), the estate is releasing a limited edition of only 200 presentation cases, containing three individually numbered bottles of 2018 San Leonardo with an exquisite label design and brochure by artist Simone Berti.
“The first edition of “Arte a San Leonardo” saw the involvement of artist Simone Berti (1966) who, at the end of a residency that developed over several moments during 2022, created an Artist's Book and an artist Label to dress a limited number of bottles of San Leonardo, 2018 vintage.”

“The theme of Berti's research is “L’attesa non è tempo sprecato” (Waiting is not time wasted), a reflection on the role of time and its various manifestations in the life of man and in that of nature, in the evolution of an artistic idea and in that of a product such as wine.”
Marchese Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga

 

San Leonardo is closer to a great Left Bank claret than Sassicaia (its closest and most appropriate comparison amongst the Supertuscans) described by the late Nicolas Belfrage MW as “more akin to Bordeaux than Bolgheri”. Jancis Robinson MW echoes this calling San Leonardo “Surely the most successful Bordeaux blend of Northern Italy”, a wine of “astoundingly consistent quality… beautifully low-key and like the most refined red bordeaux imaginable”.

By the way, it has received ‘Tre Bicchiere’ from Gambero Rosso for an extraordinary nineteen vintages consecutively and was also numbered among the Guide’s ‘Fifty Wines which changed Italy’. Meanwhile, tying back in with the arch-Supertuscan, The Wine Advocate’s Monica Larner acclaims it “…one of the great wines of Italy… Sassicaia and San Leonardo seem like brothers separated in childhood” and James Suckling agrees saying “This blockbuster Bordeaux Blend from Trentino is clearly the Sassicaia of the north.”