(barrel sample - no commercial bottling)

98 Points Wine Spectator
97+ Points Wineloverspage
95.8 Points Cellartracker Average Score

"What an amazing wine...perfectly balanced between rich, luscious peaches, honey, and nectar and acidity/lemon...went perfectly with chocolate cake, banana tart, and semifreddo. 99 Points."
Cellartracker.com Review (2010)

750 g/l r.s., 17.3 g/l acids, 4.5% alc. 374 bottles produced. The mahogany-brown with amber-yellow reflexes colour may be due to ... zero addition of sulphur. Immediately reminded Albino and me of the legendary 1947 Esszencia with its melange of black tea, bitter chocolate and nutmeg from the oak, plus what seemed like a (pretty!) minor Aceto Balsamico volatility, to sweet dried fig and date, but also some more tropically-primary tangerine and dried apricot at the core. Likely to be a candidate for perfection in the long run ... With prolonged airing virtually unchanged except that the acidity seems lower now, while the mouthfeel has become superbly round and smooth. Liquid mahogany." Rating: 97+
Wineloverspage

"An incredibly complex and rich wine, with myriad tastes and smells, but the wine suffers a bit from an overwhelmingly syrupy mouth feel followed by a tang/tartness finish. The nose gives off aromas of persimmon, honey, fig, brown sugar, and caramel while the viscous liquid tastes like canned peaches and raisins. I don't know if more time in the bottle will tame the syrup...the wine is delicious with fruit for dessert but is just a bit too honey/rich/sweet. ADDITIONAL INSIGHT -- we drank half the bottle, so I had another glass of room-temperate wine 24 hours later, and the wine tasted much more balanced and structured and was quite delicious...still a bit sweet but much less syrupy a day later. We decided to undertake a little test, so we poured a glass for the refrigerator and kept a glass out on the counter. An hour later, we tasted the two glasses and proclaimed the room temperature one superior...the cold one lost the depth and complexity. Our conclusion: open the bottle the night before a tasting or at least decant several hours before and then serve the wine just slightly chilled (perhaps 10-15 min in the refrigerator). 95 points."
Cellartracker.com Review (2007)

"Brown syrup; extremely viscous. Smells like figs, caramel, orange marmalade, honey, exotic fruit flambé. Extremely sweet (550 g/L!!!), moderately acidic, with moderate alcohol. Great length and persistence, but I expected greater complexity; it is too simple. How does one rate this wine??"
Cellartracker.com Review (2007)
Tasted at Bibenda Day 2007 (AIS, Parco dei Principi, Rome)