1998 Vigna D'Alceo
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Tasting notes
Rampolla's 1998 Vigna d'Alceo is a sexy wine that brings together the dark blue/blackish fruit of the 1996 with the more open, resonant personality of the 1997. All the elements take shape beautifully in the glass in a wine that is peaking today, but also has the depth of fruit to last for another ten years, perhaps longer. The very early faint signs of tertiary complexity are beginning to take shape in the glass. Given its slender personality, my sense is that the 1998 won't last forever, but it is a very pretty wine to enjoy today.
Critic scores
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Robert Parker
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
A fine offering is the 1998 Vigna d'Alceo. An opaque purple-colored blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and small quantities of Syrah and Petit Verdot, it is a large-scaled wine with exceptional elegance and complexity as well as more power and richness than the Sammarco. A sweet entry on the palate is followed by abundant quantities of smoky, complex, black currant fruit intermixed with lead pencil and vanillin flavors. Medium-bodied, beautifully knit, and suave, it possesses sweet tannin. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2017. Importer: Vias Imports, New York, NY; tel. (212) 629-0200
A fine offering is the 1998 Vigna d'Alceo. An opaque purple-colored blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and small quantities of Syrah and Petit Verdot, it is a large-scaled wine with exceptional elegance and complexity as well as more power and richness than the Sammarco. A sweet entry on the palate is followed by abundant quantities of smoky, complex, black currant fruit intermixed with lead pencil and vanillin flavors. Medium-bodied, beautifully knit, and suave, it possesses sweet tannin. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2017. Aug 2000, www.robertparker.com
Ruby with purple highlights. Powerful aromas of spicy blackberry and vanilla. Concentrated and structured on the palate, with forceful flavors of ripe cassis and sweet oak carrying through to the finish. Tannins are substantial but round. Not as seductive or caressing as the 1997 or, in particular, the 1996, but entirely convincing. The top wine of the house by now, from new, densely planted, terraced vineyards, but the first year, 1996, was distinctly better than the following two, which seems rather odd.