2020 Toscana Sangiovese

The most vivid crushed cherry gives way to rose pastille, sweet lavender and nuances of clove and exotic spice as the exuberant 2020 Toscana Sangiovese comes to life in the glass. It displays pure class on the palate. It’s silken and soothingly round with a pretty mix of ripe strawberry and blueberry that swirl throughout, as crisp mineral tones and a contrasting tinge of sour citrus add unparalleled depth. Incredibly complex yet juicy and spry, the 2020 leaves crunchy tannins that firm up the impossibly long finish without slowing its momentum. I don’t recall ever tasting a young Soldera that showed this much energy and verve. It’s already so pleasurable yet has the balance to mature beautifully over the coming decades.

Tasted from a 65-hectoliter cask, the 2020 Sangiovese is plush and fruity at this stage, although it’s starting to reveal its mineral underpinnings, with dark blackberry notes, graphite, and violets. Medium to full-bodied, it offers a velvety texture, with ripe and refined tannins, a good deal of meaty richness through the mid-palate, and a seamless structure. There’s both purity and refinement across each of the samples tasted. The 2020 showed a good deal of completeness already prior to bottling and I expect it will have a good deal of cellaring potential. This January, I was able to meet with Monica Soldera, who operates her family estate in Montalcino today. Having grown up in Milan, her father Gianfranco Soldera began his professional career as an insurance broker before setting out to establish his winery in June 1972, and he remained at the helm until he died in 2019 while working in the vineyards. He worked very closely with his numerous and esteemed friends, such as Giovanni Conterno, Josko Gravner, Mauro Mascarello, and Bepe Rinaldi, to establish his methodology in the vineyards and cellar. The property consists of 23 hectares and includes ten hectares of Sangiovese and eight hectares of forest, with a large focus on biodiversity. They work closely with the University of Florence, and walking the property, you’ll find multiple stations throughout the vineyards that transmit data to their teams. In the vineyard, Yuri Romboli leads the team and works closely with his alma mater at the University of Florence. Graziella Soldera has curated one of the most significant and thorough gardens, spanning over two hectares, that includes hundreds of species of roses, trees, and plants from around the world. They are no longer a part of the Consorzio, though nothing has changed in terms of their production methods. They opt to label their wines as 100% Sangiovese to shine light on them as singular wines rather than featuring the appellation. In the cellar, they work with large Slavonian oak casks with spontaneous fermentations. Each of these three wines were tasted from cask in the estate cellar.

Tasted from a 65-hectoliter cask, the 2020 Sangiovese is plush and fruity at this stage, although it’s starting to reveal its mineral underpinnings, with dark blackberry notes, graphite, and violets. Medium to full-bodied, it offers a velvety texture, with ripe and refined tannins, a good deal of meaty richness through the mid-palate, and a seamless structure. There’s both purity and refinement across each of the samples tasted. The 2020 showed a good deal of completeness already prior to bottling and I expect it will have a good deal of cellaring potential.