1997 Siepi
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Tasting notes
You might remember the fanfare surrounding the 1997 vintage when it hit the market more than two decades ago. It marked a new chapter for Tuscan wines that prized a concentrated, soft, velvety and thickly extracted style that would be very much in vogue for the following years. Unabashed and confident, the Mazzei 1997 Siepi transports us back in time to a warm, sun-drenched growing season. You feel the heat in this wine's DNA with strawberry preserves, marasca cherry and dried prune. The wine is endowed with big structure and volume, as expected. The Siepi vineyard enjoys deep soils, allowing the roots to penetrate far underground and find moisture in the dry season. The soils have a big component of clay that also lock in humidity, and the area is surrounded by green forests that cool down the nearby environment.
Critic scores
Average Score
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Full bottle 1,222 g. Alcohol: 13.8%. Crop reduced by frost. Hot summer. Fairly early harvest of healthy grapes. Harvest: hand-picked starting 12 September (Merlot), 25 September (Sangiovese). Fermentation temperature: 30–33 °C. Period of maceration: 16 days (Merlot), 18 days (Sangiovese). Ageing: 15–16 months in small (225-litre) French oak barrels. Bottling: June 1999. Production: 27,000 bottles. Glowing shaded ruby colour looks very healthy. Strong aromas of both balsam and leafiness. Mmm, very satisfying, well-matured and well-integrated wine that may be just past its peak to judge from the slightly dry, dusty finish. But it's a delightful amalgam of Tuscan Sangiovese and the flesh added by the Merlot. Quite persistent. But I should imagine it was a bit aggressively ripe initially. I feel lucky to taste it at this juncture. (JR)
A blend of Sangiovese and Merlot. Consultant Carlo Ferrini. Quite different from the 1992, sweeter fruited, but then tastes more mature than it smells. There's more chocolate and less undergrowth flavour than on the 1992. Creamy, even a slight hint of vanilla sweetness, smoother and more gentle than the 2005 and the 2002, somehow less distinctive. With time in the glass, the fruit sweetness has a suggestion of raisins. (JH)
50% Merlot, 50% Sangiovese. Very deep ruby. More minerals and oak than fruit on the nose. Great balance, real lift and race and for the first time (ie compared with the 1993 and 1995) user-friendly smoothness of tannins in front of the palate. Lots of chew on the finish. Very good indeed. Very glamorous and correct. Big bruiser. (JR)