Frescobaldi - Tenuta Luce della Vite : Lucente 2021

This is another robust wine from Tenuta Luce with immediate notes of maple syrup and brown sugar. Made with a blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Sangiovese, the 2021 Lucente releases aromas of cherry cola, Tootsie Roll and toasted hazelnut. With 300,000 bottles made, you get a big and burly red wine.

Intensely fragrant on the nose, both ripe and green at the same time. Cassis fruit and blackcurrant leaf. Tastes sweet and lean simultaneously; there’s flavour but not much density, so it falls a little too soon on the mid-palate. The tannins are lovely, but it doesn’t feel very harmonious in terms of flavour. Not complex or refined, but it has character.

Rich cherries, cassis, fresh olives and dark spices. Svelte, fine tannins on the medium- to full-bodied palate, showing lots of juicy berries and a linear, extended finish. Excellent length, focus and structure here. Drink or hold.

A sweetly scented blend of wild blueberries and dusty sage gains complexity through cardamom and ground clove hints as the 2021 La Vite Lucente emerges from the glass. This is soothingly round and pure in style. A wave of ripe red and blue fruits easily washes across the palate, leaving a tactile mineral tinge and spice. Fine tannins frame the finish without slowing its momentum, and the 2021 tapers off long and staining with a steely minerality that lingers. The Lucente is a blend of Merlot and Sangiovese geared toward early consumption.