This is a Super Tuscan through and through. The heavy blending of Sangiovese with Cabernet and Merlot gives this wine plenty of Tuscan character that is simply bolstered and elevated by the presence of Bordeauxâs top varieties. This wine is more stewed fruits with notes of tobacco and cedar wood showing. The palate is soft and approachable and still shows plenty of life.
Il Palagione is able to produce some truly exceptional fruit, and it is proudly showcased in this well-aged wine.
All three of the grapes that are present in this blend are famed for their exceptional age-ability and have proven themselves yet again together here. After nearly 20 years since harvest, this wine has only blossomed into the beautiful and ready-to-drink bottle that it is today.
The Il Palagione estate has been a small farmstead that was originally founded at the end of the 16th century. With over 400 years of continuous farming in this location, the family has stuck to using classic organic farming practices that translate into exceptional products.
The peculiar high position of the structure, set among old vineyards and olive groves, offers to the tourist an appealing overlook on the surrounding valley, including a view of San Gimignano.
The old farmhouse, placed on a hilltop, is recorded at the Land registry as building of notable historical value due to the unaltered features of rural architecture and up to mid-twentieth century held the farmer families working on surrounding terrains. Chasing a dream, we decide to purchase (1995) the estate in order to reestablish such important agricultural reality.
In short time, the ancient farmhouse is restructured and vineyards are replanted on terrains that once were vines. (1997/2001) Afterwards a cellar is built (2001) provided with the most modern equipment to grapes delicate and respectful processing, building underground a barrique (oak barrel) to obtain the best and natural wine preservation in oak wood and a balanced bottled maturing. With the later acquisition (2014) of vineyard at Montagnana, the business reaches an approx. 50-hectare land surface of which 17 destined to specialized vineyard, 3 olive trees, 7 walnut and cherry trees and the remaining part arable and wood land.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations).
2003 Il Palagione Antajr Library Super Tuscan Red - $35 = 17.94%
I had this at a gathering with a few folks, we had this with crab feed style meal, which is fresh Dungeness crab, a meat sauce pasta and some roasted Brussels sprouts.
The general takeaway is itâs a bit polarizing for the group. Some thought it ok while some really disliked it. No one found it to be in their wheelhouse but seeing the price it seems appropriate if you like this style.
On pnp I didnât get much nose , maybe slightly acetic? On taste I got notes of tobacco and something I called vegetal but not the normal vegetal notes, maybe wet wood. Itâs a well integrated wine at this point with the tannins no longer there. There is still a good amount of acid which cuts through food still. With the mid being quite drying. The finish was short for me. There was quite a bit of sediment in the bottle which makes sense with all the acid I found. Fatty foods are this wines friend. Overall I found it sorta meh. Didnât hate it didnât love it. I wouldnât seek out a glass but if someone handed me one with dinner Iâd still drink it.
My wife wasnât a fan, she thought it wasnât good having an aftertaste she didnât enjoy. Iâm thinking the tobacco or vegetal notes. Also she found it quite drying, to much for her.
The others were of mixed opinions. With 2 not liking it; 1 enjoyed it; and 2 more not really having an opinion on it.
This was an interesting wine for me thanks for letting me try it.
Iâm intrigued by the notes from some of the other older vintages, especially the 2002 sounding like a good bottle of wine. Waiting for a rat or two and Iâd probably be in for a case if I can figure out where itâs going!
Iâd take a flyer if any Denver peeps wanted to do a 3-way split.
@knlprez @sdfreedive must have posted the report as I was typing! Thanks for the review, definitely holding off on the buy trigger, at least until I hear some additional opinions.
I got a magic email and magic package. Imagine my delight and surprise when it was a 2003 Super Tuscan! What?!? Nowhere on the bottle does it say the blend, but I assumed roughly 1/3 each of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese. Looking it up online, it seems the 2003âs have never existed. Itâs as if WineDavid got them all. The 2004s seemed to have been disseminated only recently, and there are plenty of recent reviews saying you still need to decant.
Tastersâ background:
My wife and I do not like Cabernet Sauvignon, whether European or West Coast. Weâre lukewarm on Merlot. (The one time we had a Bordeaux that my wife sorta liked, we found out later it was a right-bank, and 100% Merlot.) Weâve enjoyed a few Sangioveses, but not hugely. So, this isnât very much up our alley, by varietals. We do like the Pedroncelli Sonoma Classico, which is half Merlot and Sangiovese (other half is Syrah and Zinfandel). We like aged wine.
Caveat: Iâm enthusiastic and positive, so Iâm worried my reviews comes off to positive.
Sampling is all in one day.
11:00 - Opened. (I have a week sense of smell) Nose was nice but not strong. Not as âtertiaryâ as I expected. Fruit and dried vegetable. Enticing, bodes well for the sip. Tasting after a minute, it was balanced. Soft tannins. Maybe some dried fruit, cooked fruit. You could really sever it right away.
Confident that it would NOT be falling apart soon, I put a 3rd into a decanter to really put some air on it. All the notes below are from the bottle, until the very last one where I tried the aired-out decanted.
12:30 - (in open bottle for 90 minutes) Bigger nose. Fruit. Tasted balanced, better. Finish was light, but interesting, pleasant. Nose and front palette reminded of the 2018 Sonoma Classico we had last month, which is a good thing. Had a bit of a weird (but not bad) tingle on the throat. Though I figured this would be better with food, it certainly worked just drinking it. I intuitively thought this wouldnât improve much.
1:00 - good with lasagna. I remember thinking, maybe better with a steak.
2:00 - w/ brie. Not an expected good pairing, but we had a lot of brie. But it was okay.
2:30 - with Ghirardelli sea-salt dark chocolate caramel. Not as good as Iâd hoped.
5:30 - with fellow casematers Tom and Melinda Gurney. Still very good. They loved it, more than me I think. Maybe hints of âtertiaryâ at that point. If the price is right, theyâre going to load up. Surprisingly good just drinking, but I bet great with a lot of food.
9:30 - from the (10+ hours in the) decanter - still kicking. My wife, home from work, said âmmmm. tree fruit. Tastes good all the way down. Deeper and stronger fruits. Dried Fruit, maybe prune to plum.â Still noticeable tannins. This is as âCabbyâ as we would want to get. Finish is nice. Finally my wife gave what is for her the highest complement, âalmost as good as a Syrahâ.
For me, best tasting was at 90 minutes. Thatâs when I most thought, âyummy. Gimme another sipâ. Once it had some time, it was interesting and maybe more magical with the right pairing, but not terribly yummy to me. After hours in the bottle and decanted, the other 3 tasters really loved it.
So, this is a winner. A fun, tasty winner to impress your friends when they find out itâs 2003. I hope to get some of these to drink when the suggested pairing is Cabernet Sauvignon. Or when Bordeaux-blend loving folks are visiting. Itâs not going downhill any time soon. My budget is totally shot, but Iâd sure like some of these. Will depend on the price of course.
$160 for case. Dang! Certainly a fantastic and rare deal if you know you like aged mid-level super Tuscans. Load up, this is your table wine. For me, this competes in budget with more favored varietals, and many other fantastic casemates deal, past and future; stiff competition. Tough cuts have to be made. I was almost hoping for higher, so I could save my already red budget. Iâve cut way back on reds this year, and have stuck to my âonly rhone varietalsâ rule all year. (Previous years of enthusiasm and irresponsibility got my cellar to large.) Iâm going to be ruthless and mostly pass I think, maybe just arranging for a partial case if I can (3-4 bottles would be good). My friends next door are probably going go load up at this price, based on what they said last night.
@wardad A few typos, but a bad one in particular reversed the meaning. I said âConfident that it would be falling apart soonâ, but I meant âconfident if would NOT be falling apart soonâ. I lack many wine tasting skills, but one I do have is a sense of whether something will improve, or not, or fall apart with more decanting. This wine is well knitted together, and on first taste I knew that some sitting in a decanter for 10 hours would not be ruined. And it wasnât. And at 90 minutes, it seemed in a sweet spot, and I guessed it would hold for a long time, but not necessarily improve. And for me that was true.
@wardad Helpful rattage, thanks! It sounds like it didnât actually change that much over the time it had in the decanter.
Did you notice whether it was more âfresh fruitâ, âjammy fruitâ, âstewed fruitâ like the official notes, or âdried/raisined fruitâ? In a year with such a massive heat wave Iâm sure many grapes got a bit pruney.
@klezman Cooked fruit. Stewed? Hmmm. I got âdriedâ from the aroma wheel, but I wouldnât think raisined. lol. I figured it would have been more fruity 10 years ago. Not super strong fruit, I guess.
This immediately reminded me of that awful mixed mystery import offer - went back to look and itâs from the same seller, One Vine Wines. Just sayinâ.
One Vine Wines has offered quite a few wines here, so the mystery case may not have been a hit but others have been. Just fyi.
Big Hammer Wines has this in stock, no real useful info here but hey what the heck:
@kaolis I think Iâve purchased a few wines here the BHW also sells/imports/reps; almost like WD sources from him at times. I know Iâve purchased nothing from them, but ended up on the mail list, likely from a poached email address.
I got so excited about this offering until I read the rattage. Now I am unsure. Italy does have a reputation for exporting their sub-par wines. But I have a pretty serious romance going with San Gimignano, Siena, so Iâm in for 4.
/giphy militant-hot-act
@ScottHarveyWine
Scott, so you didnât mention you tried this, and it âsounds interestingâ so just a flyer purchase?
Anything in particular that got your attention?
@rjquillin Hi Ron, I have not tried this previously. I liked the labrat reports and I have some friends that will be interested in trying this. Because it is Super Tuscan and the age.
@ScottHarveyWine
Age frequently captures me as well.
Iâll likely not have ~20+ or so years to age new releases, at least not and still really appreciate them.
Just arrived, and, unlike my normal self, couldnât wait.
Caution with the cork; still damp at the bottom, intact and not compromised, but crumbly in the middle. No sediment in the neck or upper sides, donât know about the bottom, yet.
@wardad I thought about that as well. There was a bit of gray/blue residue (mold?) on the top of the cork, but it was looking dry. It pretty much did what I thought it would do, but I nearly did get it out intact.
Actually, I was just too lazy to dig out the ah-so or Durand.
@rjquillin I too could not waitâŠwellâŠI guess I waited a few hours after delivery! Cork came out beautifully with much coloration/saturation but solid and in all-around good shape. Not much sediment on the wet end but there was slight sediment build up on the upper sides of the bottle.
And hereâs another possible aggravating circumstance for bottle variation: (from UPS tracking this evening) âA railroad mechanical failure has delayed delivery. Weâre working to deliver your package as soon as possible.â Location: Hodgkins, ILâŠI hope the several cases avoid spending too much time below freezing.
My first three bottles are all off. Anyone try decanting for hours/a day with these guys? Hoping for better bottles in the case. Iâll keep popping corks!
2003 Il Palagione Antajr, Toscano Rosso
Tasting Notes
Specs
Whatâs Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale online, $480/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Jan 31 - Thursday, Feb 3
2003 Il Palagione Antajr Library Super Tuscan Red
4 bottles for $64.99 $16.25/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $159.99 $13.33/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
Lots of age from a hot year. Definitely need rats to weigh in on this one.
@klezman
Got my attention. Yup, hot vintage and mixed results.
Rats required.
@klezman @rjquillin 100% agree. Hope they like it. Brings back memories of farm stays, house wine, and grappa.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations).
2003 Il Palagione Antajr Library Super Tuscan Red - $35 = 17.94%
Oh boy Iâm a rat for this one.
I had this at a gathering with a few folks, we had this with crab feed style meal, which is fresh Dungeness crab, a meat sauce pasta and some roasted Brussels sprouts.
The general takeaway is itâs a bit polarizing for the group. Some thought it ok while some really disliked it. No one found it to be in their wheelhouse but seeing the price it seems appropriate if you like this style.
On pnp I didnât get much nose , maybe slightly acetic? On taste I got notes of tobacco and something I called vegetal but not the normal vegetal notes, maybe wet wood. Itâs a well integrated wine at this point with the tannins no longer there. There is still a good amount of acid which cuts through food still. With the mid being quite drying. The finish was short for me. There was quite a bit of sediment in the bottle which makes sense with all the acid I found. Fatty foods are this wines friend. Overall I found it sorta meh. Didnât hate it didnât love it. I wouldnât seek out a glass but if someone handed me one with dinner Iâd still drink it.
My wife wasnât a fan, she thought it wasnât good having an aftertaste she didnât enjoy. Iâm thinking the tobacco or vegetal notes. Also she found it quite drying, to much for her.
The others were of mixed opinions. With 2 not liking it; 1 enjoyed it; and 2 more not really having an opinion on it.
This was an interesting wine for me thanks for letting me try it.
@sdfreedive thanks for the rattage! What types of wine does the group typically enjoy and at what age? Trying to get a feel for the palates in play.
@sdfreedive Thank you for the report and for all the additional feedback from the party.
Iâm intrigued by the notes from some of the other older vintages, especially the 2002 sounding like a good bottle of wine. Waiting for a rat or two and Iâd probably be in for a case if I can figure out where itâs going!
Iâd take a flyer if any Denver peeps wanted to do a 3-way split.
@knlprez
@sdfreedive must have posted the report as I was typing! Thanks for the review, definitely holding off on the buy trigger, at least until I hear some additional opinions.
@knlprez Iâd be up for a split, but likely only 2-3 bottles.
@jasisk anyone else? Iâm still on the fenceâŠ
I got a magic email and magic package. Imagine my delight and surprise when it was a 2003 Super Tuscan! What?!? Nowhere on the bottle does it say the blend, but I assumed roughly 1/3 each of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese. Looking it up online, it seems the 2003âs have never existed. Itâs as if WineDavid got them all. The 2004s seemed to have been disseminated only recently, and there are plenty of recent reviews saying you still need to decant.
Tastersâ background:
My wife and I do not like Cabernet Sauvignon, whether European or West Coast. Weâre lukewarm on Merlot. (The one time we had a Bordeaux that my wife sorta liked, we found out later it was a right-bank, and 100% Merlot.) Weâve enjoyed a few Sangioveses, but not hugely. So, this isnât very much up our alley, by varietals. We do like the Pedroncelli Sonoma Classico, which is half Merlot and Sangiovese (other half is Syrah and Zinfandel). We like aged wine.
Caveat: Iâm enthusiastic and positive, so Iâm worried my reviews comes off to positive.
Sampling is all in one day.
11:00 - Opened. (I have a week sense of smell) Nose was nice but not strong. Not as âtertiaryâ as I expected. Fruit and dried vegetable. Enticing, bodes well for the sip. Tasting after a minute, it was balanced. Soft tannins. Maybe some dried fruit, cooked fruit. You could really sever it right away.
Confident that it would NOT be falling apart soon, I put a 3rd into a decanter to really put some air on it. All the notes below are from the bottle, until the very last one where I tried the aired-out decanted.
12:30 - (in open bottle for 90 minutes) Bigger nose. Fruit. Tasted balanced, better. Finish was light, but interesting, pleasant. Nose and front palette reminded of the 2018 Sonoma Classico we had last month, which is a good thing. Had a bit of a weird (but not bad) tingle on the throat. Though I figured this would be better with food, it certainly worked just drinking it. I intuitively thought this wouldnât improve much.
1:00 - good with lasagna. I remember thinking, maybe better with a steak.
2:00 - w/ brie. Not an expected good pairing, but we had a lot of brie. But it was okay.
2:30 - with Ghirardelli sea-salt dark chocolate caramel. Not as good as Iâd hoped.
5:30 - with fellow casematers Tom and Melinda Gurney. Still very good. They loved it, more than me I think. Maybe hints of âtertiaryâ at that point. If the price is right, theyâre going to load up. Surprisingly good just drinking, but I bet great with a lot of food.
9:30 - from the (10+ hours in the) decanter - still kicking. My wife, home from work, said âmmmm. tree fruit. Tastes good all the way down. Deeper and stronger fruits. Dried Fruit, maybe prune to plum.â Still noticeable tannins. This is as âCabbyâ as we would want to get. Finish is nice. Finally my wife gave what is for her the highest complement, âalmost as good as a Syrahâ.
For me, best tasting was at 90 minutes. Thatâs when I most thought, âyummy. Gimme another sipâ. Once it had some time, it was interesting and maybe more magical with the right pairing, but not terribly yummy to me. After hours in the bottle and decanted, the other 3 tasters really loved it.
So, this is a winner. A fun, tasty winner to impress your friends when they find out itâs 2003. I hope to get some of these to drink when the suggested pairing is Cabernet Sauvignon. Or when Bordeaux-blend loving folks are visiting. Itâs not going downhill any time soon. My budget is totally shot, but Iâd sure like some of these. Will depend on the price of course.
$160 for case. Dang! Certainly a fantastic and rare deal if you know you like aged mid-level super Tuscans. Load up, this is your table wine. For me, this competes in budget with more favored varietals, and many other fantastic casemates deal, past and future; stiff competition. Tough cuts have to be made. I was almost hoping for higher, so I could save my already red budget. Iâve cut way back on reds this year, and have stuck to my âonly rhone varietalsâ rule all year. (Previous years of enthusiasm and irresponsibility got my cellar to large.) Iâm going to be ruthless and mostly pass I think, maybe just arranging for a partial case if I can (3-4 bottles would be good). My friends next door are probably going go load up at this price, based on what they said last night.
@wardad A few typos, but a bad one in particular reversed the meaning. I said âConfident that it would be falling apart soonâ, but I meant âconfident if would NOT be falling apart soonâ. I lack many wine tasting skills, but one I do have is a sense of whether something will improve, or not, or fall apart with more decanting. This wine is well knitted together, and on first taste I knew that some sitting in a decanter for 10 hours would not be ruined. And it wasnât. And at 90 minutes, it seemed in a sweet spot, and I guessed it would hold for a long time, but not necessarily improve. And for me that was true.
@wardad Thank you for the great rattage. love the time line.
@wardad Helpful rattage, thanks! It sounds like it didnât actually change that much over the time it had in the decanter.
Did you notice whether it was more âfresh fruitâ, âjammy fruitâ, âstewed fruitâ like the official notes, or âdried/raisined fruitâ? In a year with such a massive heat wave Iâm sure many grapes got a bit pruney.
@klezman Cooked fruit. Stewed? Hmmm. I got âdriedâ from the aroma wheel, but I wouldnât think raisined. lol. I figured it would have been more fruity 10 years ago. Not super strong fruit, I guess.
This immediately reminded me of that awful mixed mystery import offer - went back to look and itâs from the same seller, One Vine Wines. Just sayinâ.
One Vine Wines has offered quite a few wines here, so the mystery case may not have been a hit but others have been. Just fyi.
Big Hammer Wines has this in stock, no real useful info here but hey what the heck:
https://www.bighammerwines.com/collections/red-wine-less-than-30/products/2003-il-palagione-antajr-supertuscan
@kaolis I think Iâve purchased a few wines here the BHW also sells/imports/reps; almost like WD sources from him at times. I know Iâve purchased nothing from them, but ended up on the mail list, likely from a poached email address.
I got so excited about this offering until I read the rattage. Now I am unsure. Italy does have a reputation for exporting their sub-par wines. But I have a pretty serious romance going with San Gimignano, Siena, so Iâm in for 4.
/giphy militant-hot-act
Sounds interesting. I like Super Tuscans. Iâm in. Cheers
@ScottHarveyWine
Scott, so you didnât mention you tried this, and it âsounds interestingâ so just a flyer purchase?
Anything in particular that got your attention?
@rjquillin Hi Ron, I have not tried this previously. I liked the labrat reports and I have some friends that will be interested in trying this. Because it is Super Tuscan and the age.
@ScottHarveyWine
Age frequently captures me as well.
Iâll likely not have ~20+ or so years to age new releases, at least not and still really appreciate them.
@rjquillin @ScottHarveyWine Same here. If I was in the market for random fliers Iâd try some.
Bought four - Iâll always take a flier on something with some age. Even itâs mediocre that tobacco scent gets me every time.
Bought 12 - If any MSP folks interested in splitting, please whisper me; thanks.
/giphy appropriate-adventurous-chemist
Just arrived, and, unlike my normal self, couldnât wait.
Caution with the cork; still damp at the bottom, intact and not compromised, but crumbly in the middle. No sediment in the neck or upper sides, donât know about the bottom, yet.
Iâm liking thisâŠ
@rjquillin Thatâs the quickest shipping Iâve ever seen on casemates. On my labrat bottle, I ah-soed it (new verb?), with that age, so cork intact.
@wardad I thought about that as well. There was a bit of gray/blue residue (mold?) on the top of the cork, but it was looking dry. It pretty much did what I thought it would do, but I nearly did get it out intact.
Actually, I was just too lazy to dig out the ah-so or Durand.
@rjquillin I too could not waitâŠwellâŠI guess I waited a few hours after delivery! Cork came out beautifully with much coloration/saturation but solid and in all-around good shape. Not much sediment on the wet end but there was slight sediment build up on the upper sides of the bottle.
@Allieroon Thanks for the pics. Waaaay different corks. Wonder how much bottle variation weâll see.
@Allieroon @rjquillin My 1st cork was very similar. The wine was clear, the color was good â but the taste was off. SourâŠ
And hereâs another possible aggravating circumstance for bottle variation: (from UPS tracking this evening) âA railroad mechanical failure has delayed delivery. Weâre working to deliver your package as soon as possible.â Location: Hodgkins, ILâŠI hope the several cases avoid spending too much time below freezing.
Delicious - very pleased
Unfortunately had to dump my first bottle. It was brown vinegar soup. Second bottle is good!
My first three bottles are all off. Anyone try decanting for hours/a day with these guys? Hoping for better bottles in the case. Iâll keep popping corks!
@mattkillpatty First two were fine. Need to ask the UPS gang how their two were, assuming theyâve opened any yet.
@mattkillpatty I was only able to drink 1 of my 4.
@mattkillpatty I decanted a bottle for 24 hours and it was much more approachable. The sour/tart reduced.