Clear non-staining garnet.  Full round rich vanilla oak and deep fruit in a sultry nose belieing the power residing beneath.  Mushroom bedding and nutmeg frosting peppers the bright burning fruit and girls locker-room with fresh water and garden hose.

I still remember perfectly my first exposure to this bottle.  It was in a high-end Italian resty with a 5 or 6 page winelist bogged down in layers and layers of expensive Italian wines I did not have the education or patience to wade through.  Why I picked it I don’t know–maybe it was the strange name fairly easy to pronounce but most likely it was a reasonably-priced Super-Tuscan   It was 20 years ago and my love affair with Crognolo occurred instantly upon snelling and has blossomed over the years.  I have always been blown away by the depth and intensity and absolute youth and immediately began procuring a fair vertical for the cellar.  Although it is typically heavy Sangiovese, it not only appeals to my California palate, but the power built into this wine has always wowwed me.  Don’t forget this is Kobrand, marketed heavily in good grocers and wine-shops, easy to find ANYWHERE for 35 bucks and I think my fav IGT ever ever.

In the mouth, it settles down for a split second–sweet and gentle–before that trademark ache of youth gives me the Crognolo thrust I have become addicted to over the years.  All the nutty smooth beauty of the bouquet ride in on green-tinged wings and translates itself onto the palate hard and firm.   These things need 5 years MINIMUM–something almost impossible to do, considering how flat-out YUMMY they are to drink young.   Brilliant acid and an ever-present tannic structure packed with crushed-rock minerality, bitter and firm while still balancing disgustingly-rich fruit, mint and herbaceous qualities on this precipice of structure.  Wrackingly dry and mouth-consuming, the ripe fruit lingers for ever and ever.  Truly a wine capable of greatness in almost any vintage.

2009 TENUTA SETTE PONTI Crognolo Toscana IGT Super Tuscan Sang/ME  14.0


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