Tenuta San Leonardo, San Leonardo, 2013
Tenuta San Leonardo, San Leonardo, 2013
- 75cl
- 13.5%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Merlot
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Drinking window: 2026 - 2044
"…one of the great wines of Italy… Sassicaia and San Leonardo seem like brothers separated in childhood." Wine Advocate, December 2014
"Surely the most successful Bordeaux blend of Northern Italy" Jancis Robinson, August 2012
The wines are more akin to Bordeaux than Bolgheri with their balance and purity and (says leading Italian critic Nicolas Belfrage) ‘can have an elegance-cum-depth capable of taking on the best clarets of the world‘. San Leonardo’s owner Marchese Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga, a rare example (at the time) of a professionally-trained aristocrat-oenologist, spent time at Tenuta San Guido back in the 1960s and subsequently employed the same legendary consultant, Giacomo Tachis, as Sassicaia for a time.
San Leonardo’s outstanding Bordeaux blend has received ‘Tre Bicchiere’ from Gambero Rosso for an extraordinary fourteen vintages consecutively and was also numbered among the Guide’s ‘Fifty Wines which changed Italy’. Latterly the critics have got on board with great write-ups from Jancis Robinson, The Wall Street Journal (to whom we introduced the estate) and the Wine Advocate giving recent vintages of San Leonardo 94-97 point scores.
"One of my personal favourite Italian wines, unquestionably the top winery in the region and renowned as one of the most consistent – stylistically and qualitatively – in the whole of Italy, YET its wines remain extremely well-priced by comparison to more widely publicised names."
Tom Harrow, Honest Grapes Wine Director
What the critics say:
"The flagship wine from this celebrated Trentino estate was not produced in 2012. We do have the stunning 2013 San Leonardo on the market now. This vintage is large in scale and has immediate intensity, and I am somewhat surprised by the volume and seamless bouquet that appears this early in the game. This vintage shows balanced ripeness with plummy fruit aromas that are carefully contrasted against spice, leather and fine tobacco. The blend is Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère and Merlot, and San Leonardo is always aged in barrique for four years (of which only 25% of the barrels are new). This is a bottle to keep long (extra long) in your cellar."
"San Leonardo reported that 2013 was one of their most balanced years in the set of recent vintages, and from the bouquet alone, I can already say that I agree. Here I’m finding a classic expression of cool-climate Bordeaux varieties, with fresh blackberry and raspberry, complemented by peppery florals and wild herbs. Smoky minerals add even further depths. The sheer density of fruit is remarkable. Polished yet fleshy and ripe, juicy acids guide with gorgeous inner florals and mounting fine-grained tannins toward the long and youthfully structured finale. This is enjoyable to taste today, yet also well-positioned to mature beautifully for many decades in your cellar. Fans of San Leonardo shouldn’t be without the 2013."
The vineyards sit on gravelly, well-drained alluvial soils deposited by the Adige river, at around 100-200 metres above sea level in the Vallagarina valley between Trento and Verona. The surrounding Dolomite mountains funnel cool alpine air down over the vines each evening, preserving freshness and lending the wine its distinctive herbal, almost mountain-fresh lift despite the ripeness of the Cabernet-based blend.
San Leonardo is bottled as IGT Vigneti delle Dolomiti, a designation that gives the estate freedom from the more rigid requirements of Trentino DOC while still signalling its mountain pedigree. The looser rules allow the Guerrieri Gonzaga family to grow and blend Bordeaux varieties as they see fit, which is exactly what has let the wine develop its own identity rather than conforming to local norms built around native grapes.
2013 in Trentino was a vintage that asked for patience, and rewarded those who gave it. A cool, slow-building growing season pushed flowering back and kept ripening unhurried right through to fruition, with a late harvest that let the Dolomites' marked day-night temperature swings do their usual work on acidity and aromatic lift. It wasn't a vintage of plenty or of effortless charm; grapes that struggled to find full ripeness in warmer years here found exactly the conditions they wanted.
Teroldego and Lagrein, the valley's own red grapes, came through with real backbone, thanks to firm acidity and tannins that needed time to settle. Chardonnay and the aromatic whites built for Trentodoc fizz fared especially well, the longer hang time delivering the precision these base wines need. This was never a vintage for drinking young, and the best reds from 2013 are only now hitting their stride, while the sparkling wines built on this fruit have had the structure to age with real grace until 2025 and beyond.
