2015 Tignanello, Antinori, Tuscany, Italy

The 2015 Tignanello is a wine of extraordinary finesse. Ample, creamy and voluptuous, the 2015 dazzles from the very first taste. Dark raspberry jam, rose petal mint and wild flowers are some of the many notes that are laced throughout. Intense and explosive, but also remarkably vibrant, the 2015 is one of the finest Tignanellos in recent memory. The 2015 also represents a bit of a shift in winemaking philosophy that favors picking fruit a bit earlier than in the past and also blending earlier than was the case in the previous period spanning 2004-2014, when the components were aged separately and then blended just before bottling. Lastly, at 85% Sangiovese and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2015 has a bit more Sangiovese than is the norm, which contributes to the wine's freshness and energy.

The 2015 Tignanello is a wine that opens, like a fully blossomed rose, right in front of you. This vintage is immediately accessible, generous and opulent. The wine will surely flesh out and gain focus with more bottle age, but one of the best qualities of this vintage is just how beautiful the wine tastes straight out of the gate. The fruit is beautifully ripe with fresh blackberry and cherry nuances, spice, leather, sweet tobacco and smoke. Up until this vintage, the various blending components that make up Tignanello were vinified in separate lots. Starting with 2015, the wine is blended sooner in order to achieve better overall integration. The entire Tignanello estate counts 130 hectares of vines, but the single-vineyard Tignanello that makes this wine is 57 hectares. Some 340,000 bottles were produced.