Wine of the week: a simply astonishing legendary Italian red

(Image credit: 2016 San Leonardo)

published 9 July 2021

2016 San Leonardo, Trentino, Italy

£352.20 excluding VAT for six bottles and £776.40 excluding VAT for six magnums, honestgrapes.co.uk

When we were allowed to venture back into restaurants in May, the very first dinner I attended was at steak-haven Hawksmoor Seven Dials, in London, because on Monday nights it is a fiver for corkage. Feel free to check out my Instagram feed and you will see a bottle of 2004 San Leonardo sitting in a line-up of crazy bottles that my pals and I had been itching to share for over a year. I tasted the soon to be released 2016 San Leonardo a couple of weeks ago and, this time, I am itching to share it with you.

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Owner Marchese Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga decided that this legendary Italian red, Trentino’s finest, deserved an extended period of ageing prior to release and his decision has paid dividends. Made from a blend of cabernet sauvignon, carménère and merlot in very much a Bordeaux style as opposed to a Super-Tuscan or Napa Valley manner, this wine is the epitome of class and restraint and it is just starting to drink, too. At a mere 13% alcohol, it is impeccably balanced and there is so much freshness and brightness on the nose and palate it is astonishing. Ripe cabernet cassis notes joust with greener tones from the carménère and wild lustiness from the merlot, and these elements combine beautifully on the sleek palate. Hurry to secure your stock now.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com).

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Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.