Ottantadue 2019
Il Carnasciale
Valdarno, Tuscany
$27.99

100% Sangiovese

2018 scores, not the 2019 offered here:

92 pts Vinous Media
The 2018 Ottantadue, 100% Sangiovese, is a total knock-out. Dark ruby red, 2018 delivers a whole range of Sangiovese flavors in an exuberant style that is incredibly appealing. Sweet dark cherry, cedar, leather, spice and earthy notes abound. The 2018 is powerful and perhaps a bit wild, but I appreciate its unruly personality. There is no shortage of character.

92+ pts Robert Parker Wine Advocate
This wine is packaged in a transparent glass bottle that accentuates its luminous ruby color. Il Carnasciale's 2018 Valdarno di Sopra Sangiovese Ottantadue is an elegant and pure wine that delivers lifted aromas of wild cherry, forest berry, rose hip, bitter almond and savory rosemary essence. Both steel tank and cement are used in winemaking. The purity of the grape is very impressive in this expression from Valdarno di Sopra near Arezzo in eastern Tuscany. This is a wild and largely unexplored corner of the region, and this wine reflects its surroundings in its vivid, almost untamed personality. 

If Sangiovese took the form of red Burgundy or Pinot Noir, this wine would be the place to start.  Purity of varietal character and terroir transparency, this is a wine to not miss and we have very little in stock in what was a drought year and short in production.
  
I visited Il Carnasciale back in June 2017, we were met by the Carnasciale enologist Marco Maffei and winemaker Peter Schilling. Peter showed us the home vineyard "Carnasciale", healthy and green in the warm June sun with shoots and leaves rising up from the small goblet trained old wood of the vines. 

As a treat, we also got to taste a new third wine made from 100% Sangiovese called Ottantadue from the 2015 vintage. This was also very good, but clearly a different grape and a different spin on Sangiovese. In a clear glass bottle that reveals a pure, vibrant red color, it is a stripped-down, pure version of Sangiovese, unlike anything I have ever tried. The Ottantadue showed little influence of wood and instead focused on the fruit, spice, texture and raw components of Sangiovese.

• Grapes: 100% Sangiovese
• Soil: planted at 150-175 meters in limestone soils with chalk and sandy components
• Vinification: Vinified in stainless steel
• Maturation: Half aged in 2nd use oak barrels for 12 months, the other half in stainless and then blended