2017 Villa Antinori Rosso

This entry-level red is made with fruit sourced from across the region of Tuscany, and what is used here consequently serves to reduce yields in preparation for Marchesi Antinori's more expensive wines. The 2017 Villa Antinori is not a declared or fixed blend, but past vintages have consisted of mostly Sangiovese with smaller parts Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and other red grapes. Everything is fermented in stainless steel, and the wine is aged briefly in French, Hungarian and Californian oak. This vintage saw rich and concentrated fruit by harvest time, and you taste that extra extraction here with plumy dark fruit, sweet blackberry and candied almond. The wine is plush, sweet and pleasantly fruit-driven. I would suggest drinking it within the next year or two while that dark fruit is most vibrant. Production was down in this vintage with 1,360,000 bottles released in March 2020.