2010 Mazzei Cabernet Sauvignon "Philip" Toscana 750 ml

2010 Mazzei Cabernet Sauvignon “Philip”: More Like St. Helena than Tuscany

Philip Mazzei was a Renaissance man, a Florentine merchant, surgeon, and horticulturalist. In 1773, just three years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Mazzei sailed to America, where he quickly fell in love with the New World spirit.

In 1774, Mazzei was introduced to a Virginia landowner and wine lover. On horseback, the southerner took Philip on a tour of his 198-acre property on the south side of his plantation. A few months later, the Tuscan immigrant planted Monticello to vines. When war broke out, Philip Mazzei considered returning to Tuscany, but had become too attached to the American spirit. Instead of sailing home, Mazzei picked up a gun and joined the American Revolutionary War effort, fighting the British alongside his new friend Thomas Jefferson.

“When we were kids,” Francesco Mazzei told us in the cellar beneath the ancient castle of Fonterutoli, “all of us were told the story of Philip Mazzei. It was like a rite of passage, an inspiration. It not only made us feel proud to be part of our family, it made us understand that we needed to take risks in life and in the vines … and if we did, despite hardships, we would succeed.”

Wine Enthusiast Winemaker of the Year Carlo Ferrini is the mastermind behind the 2010 “Philip” Cabernet Sauvignon, far and away the richest, most age-worthy, and sumptuously structured release to date. Tuscany’s drawn-out growing season and near-perfect Indian summer proved magical for late-maturing Cabernet Sauvignon. Nowhere was that more in evidence than the two superb vineyards from which the “Philip” is drawn — one set on the cold-soil hillsides of Castello di Fonterutoli, the other from a single sun-drenched perch on the coast at the Mazzeis’ Belguardo Estate. Both sites produced deep, concentrated crops of small, thick-skinned berries.

Perhaps more than any other Tuscan enologist, Ferrini draws his winemaking protocol from a high-end Napa Valley playbook. Crop-thinning was aggressive at both sites, making for a tiny crop of just 2 tons per acre. The cool but dry summer allowed Ferrini to delay the call to harvest until October 6th — nearly one month later than in 2009! The vinification would be long and cool, nursing out deep, dark color and silky concentration, buttressed by dusty Tuscan tannins, making for a 2010 powerhouse that seems almost more at home in St. Helena than these Tuscan hills.

Deep, dark ruby-purple. Aromas of crushed black cherry and cassis, sandalwood, and vanilla. Dense, firm, and intense on the attack, with layer upon layer of intense black-fruit concentration slowly unfolding on the mid-palate, finishing with sturdy tannins and firm acidity. Drink now for its youthful richness and flash or, like each of the previous vintages, lay this magnificent Tuscan Cabernet Sauvignon down until the early 2020s. It could surely use the rest.

93 points from Wine Enthusiast. $52 on release. Just $30 today — the BEST price in America. Shipping included on 4.