Gaja - Sorì San Lorenzo 2017 (750ml)
James Suckling: 99 Points
The aromas of fresh rose petals are amazing with strawberries and citrus underneath. Full-bodied and layered with a complete very linear and long finish. It turns tight and very serious at the end. Please give this at least five years to show it?s potential. Better after 2025.
Wine Spectator: 96 Points
This tightly wound red is dense with black cherry black currant plum tar and iron flavors as well as tannins. Shows a lot of power and persistence with all the components in the right proportion ending with a long resonant aftertaste. Needs time. Best from 2024 through 2048. From Italy. ?B.S.
Wine Advocate: 95+ Points
The 2017 growing season saw a couple of violent hail events in the Barbaresco appellation and this celebrated vineyard suffered some damage during a storm that hit on July 19th. Yields were reduced but the wine holds its own thanks to the careful fruit selection process put in place by the Gaja family. Their 2017 Barbaresco Sorì San Lorenzo is a shade richer in terms of flavor concentration as is always the case with fruit from this slightly warmer growing site. However like the other two single-vineyard Barbaresco expressions this wine reveals a thin sharp and nervous personality that is driven in large part by tannic firmness and acidity. Sorì San Lorenzo adds lots of dark mineral definition to cassis wild cherry rose and Provence herbs. Like the other wines it needs extra cellar aging time.
Decanter: 95 Points
This is generally the most austere of the three Gaja single-vineyard wines and it has also been described as 'wilder'. In this vintage the nose does seem to have more weight than Sori Tildin with rich raspberry and cherry aromas. It's sumptuous full-bodied and concentrated with considerable density and weight. Despite its youthful chewiness it's still polished and balanced with a very long finish.
vVinous: 93 Points
he 2017 Barbaresco Sorì San Lorenzo shows its typical darkness and brooding character but it is a bit light in body and structure. Time in the glass brigs out some of the wine’s natural breadth but the 2017 is decidedly on the lighter side as all these wines are. Dark plum spice smoke licorice and tar begin to emerge but they only do it with reluctance. The Sorì San Lorenzo signatures are present and yet they aren’t fully expressed.
