Le Pupille Saffredi 2016

JS 99/ WA 98 / VINOUS 98 / Decanter 95 pts

JS: Incredible aromas of dark berries, lavender, rosemary, licorice and dried flowers. Spice. Full body and fantastic tannin texture with great length. Goes on for minutes. Muscular yet wonderfully formed and refined. A glorious Saffredi. Drink in 2022.

WA: The 2016 Saffredi brings full-throttled intensity in a very well-balanced wine. The blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (30%) and Petit Verdot (10%) spends 18 months in mostly new oak. This vintage is compact, firm and precise, with lovely floral aromas on the bouquet in front of blackberry and plum. Long oak toasting gives the wine tasty notes of spice and cinnamon and rounds the bouquet off nicely. The mouthfeel is soft and velvety. This is a complex, integrated and absolutely beautiful wine.

VM: The 2016 Saffredi is even better from bottle than it was from barrel – and that is saying a lot. A ton, in fact. Soaring in its concentration and scale, the 2016 boasts superb intensity in all of its dimensions. Readers who want to understand how magical the 2016 is will find the answer here. Macerated dark cherry, espresso, mint, lavender and leather add layers of nuance, but it is the wine’s inner sweetness and extraordinary balance that stand out most. The 2016 is a pure and total pleasure bomb; that’s all there is to it.

Decanter: A generally uneventful growing season led to good ripening at a measured pace. It’s a radiant, deep colour with an elegant, fresh nose of floral and patisserie aromas leading to a palate which has the same elegant cast and freshness, but it’s also concentrated and sweet-fruited, with lively, intense black fruit and notes of forest-floor, fresh bay leaf and spicy sandalwood. It has a very good future, underpinned by fine, persistent tannins