Tenuta San Leonardo, San Leonardo, 2016 - Half Bottle
Tenuta San Leonardo, San Leonardo, 2016 - Half Bottle
- 37.5cl
- 13.5%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Merlot
- Organic
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Optimal drinking window: Now - 2040
After banging the drum for the Guerrieri Gonzaga family’s remarkable (and remarkably consistent) Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend for the last fifteen years, we relish each new endorsement and instance of critical appreciation and Jancis’ is the just the latest in a long line of articles from major critics. As a reminder...
The wines of San Leonardo are more akin to Bordeaux than Bolgheri with their balance and purity and (said the late and greatly respected Italian specialist Nicolas Belfrage) "can have an elegance-cum-depth capable of taking on the best clarets of the world". Jancis clearly agrees, noting latterly the wine’s “astoundingly consistent quality” and how each vintage is “beautifully low-key and like the most refined red bordeaux imaginable”, determining it is "Surely the most successful Bordeaux blend of Northern Italy”.
The Wine Advocate’s Monica Larner calls it “… one of the great wines of Italy… Sassicaia and San Leonardo seem like brothers separated in childhood” after James Suckling had previously made the comparison referring to San Leonardo as “The Sassicaia of the North”. The comparison is more than skin deep as 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 helping create Sassicaia with legendary consultant, Giacomo Tachis, whom he subsequently employed at his own estate. The estate has received the top ‘Tre Bicchiere’ rating from Gambero Rosso for an unprecedented seventeen vintages, and has twice been voted by aggregate Italy’s top wine release of the year (jointly with Sassicaia, to continue the comparison).
Antonio Galloni weighs in saying “The Guerrieri Gonzaga’s are one of the great families of Italian wine. Over the years, the Guerrieri Gonzaga’s have produced a number of stellar Bordeaux-influenced reds at San Leonardo, many of which I have had the privilege to taste.” Meanwhile his colleague at Vinous, Eric Guido, after a 28-vintage vertical, says “If you enjoy classic Bordeaux, if you enjoy the energy and verve of Italian wine, and if you crave experiencing history in a bottle, then you should seek out Tenuta San Leonardo”. He also concludes “I frankly don’t remember the last time I found so much pleasure in tasting for hours on end”.
What the critics say:
"A wine to drink at least 10 years from now, the 2016 San Leonardo is positioned to be enjoyed in the far long term. Like its Tuscan cousin from Bolgheri, Sassicaia, San Leonardo from the mountainous north of Italy is always a wine that starts off quietly but that grows in intensity and complexity as it completes its bottle evolution. This elegant vintage reveals beautiful tones of dark berry fruit, spice and freshly milled white pepper. The wine is exceptionally balanced, fresh and long. I can't wait to come back to this vintage 10 or 20 years from now."
"Another year in bottle has added unexpected depths and dimension to the 2016 San Leonardo. It wafts up with an alluring bouquet of smoky black currant and plum skins, complicated by savory herbs, hints of white pepper and fresh tobacco. It's hard chiseled edges have formed into smooth contours now, velvety yet youthfully dense, washing mineral encased dark red and black berries across a core of brisk acidity as a combination of saline-minerals and grippy tannins add tension toward the close. This finishes incredibly long yet also structured, begging for time in the cellar, as hints of licorice and earth tones grumble under an air of inner violet florals. The potential within the 2016 San Leonardo is off the charts, yet it will require a good amount of time to come fully into focus. Bury your bottles deep."
The San Leonardo estate sits in the Valle Lagarina at around 200 metres above sea level, where the Adige river valley creates a corridor of warmth that allows Bordeaux varieties to ripen reliably despite the Alpine latitude. Soils are a mix of alluvial gravels, limestone, and clay — free-draining and mineral, lending the wines their characteristic freshness and structure. The combination of warm days, cool nights, and mountain-influenced air means the grapes retain natural acidity that would be hard to achieve further south, which is precisely what gives San Leonardo its nervy, elegant profile.
San Leonardo falls under the Trentino DOC, one of Italy's northernmost red wine appellations, covering the autonomous province of Trento and running down into the Valle Lagarina. The DOC permits a wide range of varieties including Bordeaux grapes, which have found a particularly convincing home here. Unlike the better-known Alto Adige DOC to the north — which leans more heavily towards aromatic whites and Pinot Noir — Trentino tends to produce fuller-bodied reds with alpine freshness, and San Leonardo is the estate that has done most to put the region on the international map for age-worthy red wine.
The 2016 vintage in Trentino arrived as a textbook reminder that the Dolomites create their own weather rules. Spring brought steady warmth without the dramatic swings that can rattle vines at altitude, whilst summer delivered just enough rain to keep the soils from parching in the valley floor vineyards. The harvest stretched comfortably into October, allowing the region's high-altitude Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay sites to ripen slowly whilst retaining that mountain-fresh acidity that makes Trentino whites so distinctive.
What emerged was a vintage with real backbone and personality. The Pinot Grigio shows more texture and mineral drive than the lighter 2015s, whilst still keeping that crisp, alpine character that we love about this corner of northern Italy. Chardonnay from the better producers has genuine depth without losing its mountain freshness, and the handful of serious reds—particularly Teroldego—show surprising concentration. Most whites are drinking beautifully now and will hold until 2024, though the best Chardonnays have another few years of development ahead of them.
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