Make sure to try this wine
Sotirio, Podernuovo a Palazzone, 2017
4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP
Sotirio, Podernuovo a Palazzone, 2017 (57 EUR/62 USD in Sweden) red dry wine, Tuscany, Italy, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (95 points of 100 points) (02-12-2023 by Nenad Jelisic)
That this wine was chosen as the Best Wine of approximately 400 wines that were available to taste at the Italian Wine Day 2023, that it was chosen as the Wine of the Month December 2023 and that it was chosen to be one of the 10 Best Wines 2023 says a lot about this wonderful wine. Sotirio Podernuovo a Palazzone 2017 is an austere and nuanced wine. Austere thanks to its wonderful tannic structure and nuanced thanks to its wonderful balance between its tannins, fruitiness and acidity. In the aroma, dried fruits such as dark cherries and plums, sweet spices such as bay leaves, cardamom and vanilla, cocoa and sweet tobacco emerge clearly. Ripe dark cherries, sweet spices, coffee, sweet tobacco and dark chocolate clearly emerge in the flavour. The wine has a very good tannin structure and acidity. These two in combination with good fruitiness and wonderful balance between these three give a really good aging potential of at least 15 years i.e. until at least the year 2038. The wine is really good already, but it will be even better in a few years.
A wine like this with wonderful tannic structure and acidity will go really well with grilled duck breast with port and cherry sauce and potato stoemp (roughly mashed potatoes with vegetables and cream) or with pasta carbonara or with grilled beef fillet/entrecôte with café de Paris sauce and potato gratin or with reindeer stew with buttery mashed potatoes or with grilled pork chops with grilled red peppers, red onions and tomatoes and Béarnaise sauce or with hard cheeses such as Cheddar, Svecia, Västerbottensost, Parmesan and Grana Padano. Sotirio Podernuovo a Palazzone 2017 should be served at 18 to 19°C in Bordeaux glasses, if possible, from Orrefors, Kosta Boda, Spiegelau or Riedel. Another option is to serve it at 16°C (when room temperature is above 22°C) and then enjoy it as it begins to grow in the glass. The wine benefit from one hour decanting, but it can also be drunk without decanting If the wine is so wonderful when the vines were "only" 10 years old, one can imagine what will happen in a few more years.
Sotirio Podernuovo a Palazzone 2017 consists of 100% Sangiovese. The grapes for the wine come from a four-hectare vineyard in Tuscany. The soil consists of clay with limestone strips. The grapes are picked by hand. The yield is a low 40 hectoliters per hectare. After very careful selections in both the vineyards and the winery, the grape bunches are soft pressed. Some of the grapes are kept intact to be able to carry out a partial carbonic maceration with the aim of highlighting the Sangioveses’ aroma and taste. The grape mass, which consists of crushed and uncrushed grapes, and grape juice, is macerated and fermented for 20 to 35 days in open wooden tanks with two over-pumping (remontage) per day. Then the grape mass is gently pressed, and the wine is moved to 1,000 litres oak barrels where it undergoes malolactic fermentation and after the malolactic fermentation the wine is aged in the same oak barrels in which it has been malolactic fermented for between 18 and 24 months. The wines from the various oak barrels are blended in concrete barrels and then aged for another 6 months. Finally, the wine is bottled and aged for a few more weeks before being released on the market.
