Antinori (Castello della Sala), Cervaro della Sala, Umbria 2017

This is big and powerful, without being ripe and heavy. So much apple, stone, and hints of toffee. Aromatic. Full-bodied, layered and framed with phenolic tension and a great finish. Muscular and agile at the same time. One of the best I have tasted. Drink or hold.

Thanks to the warm conditions of the vintage, the 2017 Cervaro della Sala takes us back to a time when this wine was denser, more extracted and packed with glycerin-rich fruit flavors like apricot and peach. Of course, the Antinori family has since moved beyond that style, most notably by tweaking the oak regime used on this wine. But the thickness and richness of the fruit in this dry and hot vintage takes us back in time with a hint of sweet nostalgia. This wine is fresh and spicy with stone fruit, mature apricot, honey, saffron and toasted almond. In a normal vintage, some 220,000 bottles are made, but production was lower in the 2017 vintage, resulting in 170,000 bottles instead.