Antinori   Solaia

2005 Solaia

By Antinori

2005 Solaia from Antinori, Tuscany, Italy

An incredibly captivating specimen of its environs, the 2005 Solaia from Antinori stands as a remarkable testament to the grandeur that fine wines from Italy can achieve. This treasure emerged from one of Italy’s most esteemed winemakers - Antinori - from a bountiful season that maintained the balance of warmth and precipitations to ensure a nigh perfect maturation process.

 

Captivating Cabernet, an Ideal Investment

The 2005 vintage takes the stage centre by showcasing a prominent Cabernet Sauvignon structure upheld with a sophisticated touch of Sangiovese. This wine unequivocally wears the tiara of an intelligently composed blend; an undeniable charisma that goes beyond the sensory pleasure to carry significant investment potential into the world of fine wines.

Like a symphony unfolding in slow motion, this 2005 release from Solaia brings forth an exquisite choreography of flavours and aromas. The leading narrative belongs to lush dark fruits - blackberries and cherries, entwined with captivating notes of exotic spices and tobacco seamlessly, painting an opulent canvas.

 

A Symbolic Season, Superior Selection

For the true connoisseur of Italian fine wines, the year 2005 signifies an excellent time period in Tuscany - it was a year when every puzzle fell precisely into place. After a relatively dry and hot summer, nature bestowed September with soothing rain showers, offering vineyards the vital hydration at just the perfect point in their cycle.

Solaia's 2005 vintage encapsulates this historical kindness within its structure. It brings to fore a concentrated tannic structure and an acidity well balanced by the rich fruitiness, casting a promising image of its prolonged cellar potential.

The 2005 Solaia from Antinori isn't just another investment opportunity - it's essentially an approach to celebrate one of the best vintages of a highly respected winemaker. A possession that pushes boundaries, it denotes an Italian charm that transcends beyond mere currency value and ascends into the realm of connoisseur-driven fine wine investments.

Current market price

£3,060.00

12x75cl

Highest score

93

POP score

235.38

Scores and tasting notes

93

The 2005 Solaia is elegant and refined, yet it remains incredibly primary. Still, it is hard not to admire the wine’s layered expression of blue and black fruits. The oak remains prominent, but I am confident the wine will come together with bottle age. The Solaia vineyard is one of the most unique terroirs in Italy, and the wine has a track record of developing beautifully in bottle, even in smaller vintages. It will be fascinating to follow this Solaia as it matures. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2023. My visit to Antinori’s Tignanello property in Chianti Classico provided an object lesson in the challenges of understanding the complexities and nuances of Tuscan terroir, something which can be extrapolated to many other regions within Italy as well. I saw vineyards where the two major terrains in these hills, galestro and alberese, alternated in groups of three to four rows within the same plot. As a result, the plants themselves were at slightly different points in their vegetative cycles. Back in the winery, oenologist Renzo Cotarella prepared a comprehensive tasting of Antinori’s two flagship wines, Tignanello and Solaia, with vintages going back to the mid-1990s. I will report on those verticals, which include a preview of 2006 and 2007, in an upcoming article that will be published in the Italy Report section of www.erobertparker.com. Both Tignanello and Solaia are outstanding in 2005. Readers may recall my enthusiasm over the 2004s. Of course the vintage was exceptional, but it is no accident that those wines were so successful. 2004 was the first vintage in which the lots for these wines were aged separately, with the final blend taking place at the end of the aging period, whereas previously the blend had been assembled just after the completion of malolactic fermentation. Given that wines develop and age in ways that sometimes surprise even the most experienced winemakers, waiting until the wines have had a chance to spend some time in barrel leaves the producer with much more certainty as to the quality and consistency of the final wine. In a difficult vintage such as 2005 the selection of lots prior to assembling and bottling was therefore especially critical. Importer: Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Woodinville, WA; tel. (425) 415-3738

Antonio Galloni - The Wine Advocate, 29 June 2008

Vintage performance