The Castello dei Rampolla 2018 Sammarco is Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese. This wine grips tightly to the palate with ample fruit weight and rich concentration. It is chiseled and tight, mostly thanks to its structure and tannins, giving this wine great promise for future aging. The Sammarco stands apart from the other wines in this portfolio that all promote a punchy, bright or natural style. This bottle brings on the brawn, ripe fruit, black olive and a much greater sense of lasting power. Production is 16,672 bottles and 150 magnums.

Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a tiny part Sangiovese, the 2017 Sammarco is lush, generous and soft. This wine captures the spirit of generosity and richness that characterizes this sunny vintage. It reveals softer lines and more pliant contours compared to some of the cooler vintages of the past, and you get a generous down pouring of dark fruit, dried blackberry, cinnamon spice and cured leather or tobacco. The tannins are quite robust, but the wine also shows an immediate and accessible approach that distinguishes this growing season. You might notice that my review for the 2016 vintage is missing. That's because the 2016 vintage will be released after 2017 when that older wine has benefitted from more cellaring.

A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese, the Castello dei Rampolla 2016 Sammarco was held back for an extra year of aging before its commercial release. In fact, I already reviewed the 2017 vintage last year because that wine is many times more accessible and immediate than this one. The issue at hand are the tannins, which remain very tight and grippy in this bottle. That extra year in bottle has helped them to integrate, but this wine still has a very long way to go. Keep that in mind if you collect Sammarco. Despite that slight astringency, this is a wine of courage and vision. It shows expertly measured fruit weight and lots of lively intensity on the bouquet.

The 2015 Sammarco (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese) shines the brightest spotlight onto the Cabernet Sauvignon element, and you can immediately make out the distinctive sharpness and structure of that variety. The bouquet offers notes of black fruit, toasted spice and grilled herb, along with wild flower, terracotta and tilled earth. There is some spice on the close, and the tannins do leave their mark with youthful astringency. Give the wine some time in the cellar, and one day it will be fantastic with a tagliatelle and porcini.

The 2014 Sammarco was bottled in August and will be released in January 2019. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Sangiovese. At this young stage, the wine already offers an impressive array of complex aromas with dark berry, spice and grilled herb neatly overlapping. Those tones are delivered with perfume-like grace and intensity. This vintage is streamlined and compact in terms of mouthfeel, and those youthful tannins remind us that this wine will award the best results to those who have the patience to wait.