Tasting Notes
Antonio Galloni 91
The 2024 Guidalberto is laced with succulent dark red fruit, cedar, spice, pipe tobacco, licorice and dried herbs. Supple and easygoing, the 2024 is a wine to drink over the near and medium term. There’s a touch of evolution in the bouquet that reinforces this impression. The 58% Cabernet Sauvignon and 42% Merlot, less Merlot than usual because of the challenges of the growing season. Production is down by about 25%.
Anticipated maturity: 2026-2032
Wine Advocate 92
The Tenuta San Guido 2024 Guidalberto shows spice and drive through the mid-palate, opening with fragrant notes of cherry shaped by its equal blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine is lively and punchy in character with lifted aromatics and fine definition, supported by bright acidity that keeps the palate fresh and agile. Tannins show a touch of dryness, adding grip and structure, while the overall impression remains energetic and easy to appreciate.
Anticipated maturity: 2026-2032
Matthew Jukes 18+/20
The oak component here is more definitely strident, with 13 months spent in 225l barriques (90% French, 10% Hungarian/Slavonian/German), and 40% are new. For my part, the oak is a little too punchy and dominant. Given its blend, this is a more upright, closed style, with slightly incongruous spiciness and a sense of rawness and tension on the finish, suggesting enthusiastic extraction. It appears that the Cabernet and Merlot skins have released a touch too much sourness and traction, which melds with the oak, resulting in unresolved grippiness on the finish. There is no doubt that the fruit is initially delicious, even if it is somewhat dry on the finish. While some will enjoy the attack, this wine will be so much more attractive in five years, and, by contrast to Le Difese, it would be an error to open it this side of 2030.
