2008 San Leonardo
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Tasting notes
A gorgeous mix of crushed raspberry and cherry comes together with a dusting of confectioner’s spice and dried florals to create a seductive bouquet on the 2008 San Leonardo. It’s dark and elegant, focused on ripe red and black fruits, becoming spicier toward the close. A complex mix of zesty acids and tannins settle in, showing its youthful structure, but also its energy, sizzling with cooling minerality and mouthwatering tension. The product of a dry year with balanced temperatures throughout, the 2008 is great right now. I expect it will enjoy a very wide and long drinking window.
Critic scores
Average Score
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Vibrant deep ruby. Intense, confident, well melded Bordeaux blend with a notably dry finish. Lots of tang. Only medium weight. For lovers of traditional claret. Others might reproach it for not being ripe enough. (JR)
A gorgeous wine, the 2008 San Leonardo is going to need at least a few years in the cellar to soften. A super-classic mélange of dark red cherry, plum, smoke, leather, cedar, tobacco and licorice takes shape, yet the 2008 remains a bit compact through the mid-palate and finish. The Bordeaux-inspired San Leonardo generally needs bottle age to truly blossom. I imagine that will be the case here as well.
To be released in 2015, the 2008 San Leonardo is a wine in its infancy. The nose is immediately redolent of dark cherry, blackberry, leather, tobacco, mint and eucalyptus leaf. You will also appreciate the floral tones of pressed rose and almond blossom that lift from the glass. The harvest schedule played out on time with Carmenère coming in at the end of September and Cabernets Franc and Sauvignon towards the beginning of October. The 2008 vintage is especially marked by a duality of floral and menthol notes that rise from the glass with brilliant intensity. The 2008 vintage needs ten year or more to find its proper footing.