Amarone della Valpolicella Lilium Est Riserva 2010 Tenuta San Antonio

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Robert Parker (95)

Here's a terrific late-release Riserva that gives you ample perspective into the aging potential of the hearty wines of the Veneto that are so carefully crafted with air-dried fruit. The Tenuta Sant'Antonio 2010 Amarone della Valpolicella Riserva Lilium Est is a seriously powerful wine from an epic vintage. This wine leaves a big impact, there's no escaping that brawn, shaped by the appassimento process in which the grapes lose up to one-third of their water volume before being pressed. The results deliver more extract, more sugar, ultimately more alcohol and much more flavor intensity and textural richness. The finish shows cinnamon, black tar, campfire smoke and syrupy blackberry preserves. It's almost too much of a good thing. This Riserva is packaged with a pretty red wax seal, but the glass bottle is really too heavy, especially in these increasingly environmentally aware times.

James Suckling (97)

Intense dried black fruit with immediate notes of graphite, kalonji spice and dark chocolate. Much more on the nose if you linger. Full-bodied with an almost fruit-liqueur sensation on the palate. Yet, the engaging, still lightly firm tannins are fruit-based and the overall balance is potent but resolved. Sitting right in the sweet spot now, but will age for an age. Super quality here. Enjoy whenever.

BOW (8.25)