1996 Il Carbonaione
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Tasting notes
Early season, perfect flowering and summer slightly cooler than usual. A satisfactory harvest. Crumbly cork. Dark crimson. Intense, well-evolved, quite interesting nose. Lots of ripe fruit here. Rather claret-like in structure and still with lots of fine tannin. Still quite youthful. Good vigour. (JR)
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Cherry cake, a sugar-dusted fruit ripeness on the nose. Textured mouthfeel, high acidity and bitter chocolate with perhaps a smoky tobacco note on the finish. (RH)
The 1996 Carbonaione, from a poorly-regarded vintage, is somewhat lean and compact relative to the best vintages of this wine. All things considered, it offers outstanding balance and freshness in a linear style. It may continue to hold for some time, but its potential for improvement seems exhausted at this stage.
One of my favorite new wines from Tuscany, this 30-acre estate, owned by Vittorio Fiore and Adriana Assje, produces wines from a clone of Sangiovese called Lamole. The wine is aged in small 350 liter foudres for 18 months prior to bottling. Yields are extremely low, averaging approximately 1.2 tons of fruit per acre (about 20 hectoliters per hectare). Every vintage to date has been impressive. The 1996 Il Carboniaone is powerful, with textbook aromas of cedar, new saddle leather, and spice. Moreover, it boasts a spectacularly concentrated black cherry and berry fruit-dominated personality. The new oak is noticeable, but this is a wonderfully full-bodied, multilayered, exciting wine. The 1996 gives the impression of having lots of structure. Anticipated maturity: now-2012. A Leonardo Locascio Selection, Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620