On any given day. That’s typically a sports related saying about how a game can have a decidedly different outcome from one day to the next. The saying does have applications to wine, too, however. In this era of the critic, a wine’s evaluation can have a lasting effect on the particular wine’s following. We have made the point many times that critics are people, too. They have good days and bad days, happy days and angry days. Wines go through a constant evolution as well and last week’s so-so can be next week’s knockout. Given people, wines, biodynamic calendars, barometric pressure, bottle variation, relativity, etc., etc., the whole process is pretty fluid. Yet the score lives indefinitely.
That is our only explanation for this wine, the sexiest version of Sassicaisa’s Guidalberto we can recall, getting only 91 points. The Tenuta San Guido Guidalberto Toscana 2015 is a fruit bomb with layered flavors of dark red fruits tinged with leather, anise, earth and spice. It is big, broad and generous in thee mouth with an almost sappy palate feel and more richness on the palate than any Guidalberto we can recall. Lush, layered, downright hedonistic for a Cabernet-based Italian red (it’s 60 % Cabernet Sauvignon and 40 % Merlot), this one impressed us right out of the gate.
Even more curious is that this one only garnered a couple of points better than the rather uninspiring 2014 (a difficult vintage in all fairness). The words are encouraging enough from Wine Advocate, “The 2015 Guidalberto opens to a darkly saturated garnet hue. It shows similar concentration and power in terms of its aromatic delivery. Aromas are shapely and round with dark fruit nuances followed by leather, spice and dark tar…You feel the lush softness of the second grape as the wine glides smoothly over the palate. It takes on more weight in the glass.” The conclusion? A little baffling.
Maybe this wine is too sexy for Bolgheri, but we certainly don’t see that as a flaw. This is a pretty flashy, rather accessible, very delicious effort. Sometimes we don’t agree with the critics. This is one of those times. We like this a lot.
There was another point in the Advocate article, “The 2015 vintage promises good things in Tuscany and this wine offers an informal sneak peek at what we can expect from the celebrated Tenuta San Guido vineyards in Bolgheri.” No argument there, but this offers more than just a ‘sneak peek’….$39.98