Excellent!! Full of aroma and stylish. This Italian wine is very creamy with a hint of coffee and vanilla. Soft, easy to drink, and the aftertaste lasts at least 2 minutes. Perfect with steak. I had this bottle with my friends, they all said "WOw." Bought this bottle for $40, absolutely worth more elsewhere. Great 97 vintage and it's one of the hard-to-find wines. Winespectator gave an accurate rating--96.

After tasting on release I thought this wine was excellent, mayne the best cepparello I've ever had. I opened a bottle recently and found the wine to still be very good, although a little on the flabby side when compared to previous vintages. Vibrant cherry, leather and red fruit flavors with a long finish. The tannins were almost too smooth with the wine needing just a little more acidity for balance. Not sure if this one's gonna age like previous versions? ...although the wine seemed to pick up some power after about 3 hrs of aeration. For what it's worth, I think earlier vintages of this wine are just as good as the 97. Still an awesome wine tho.

I know about the big ratings from the wine press, and I can say for once that the "experts" are on the money. I'm not the biggest Isole e Olena fan, but this wine has the entire package of richness, complexity and balance that one requires in a truly outstanding wine. A further testament to the greatness of the '97 vintage in Tuscany.

The 1997 Cepparello is black in color, packed with deep red fruit flavors and miraculously soft in the finish. If Sangiovese can be better than this, I'd like to know how!

The 97 Vintage was outstanding in Tuscany. However, the wines are not holding up quite as well as one would hope. This Cepparello is still wonderfully balanced but is getting thin on the finish. Ready to drink now.

This wine will get five stars from me as long as I make sure that the next time I drink it I do so on a weekend so I don't have to go to sleep before it reaches it's potential.