Mastroberardino Stilèma Riserva Taurasi 2016

Here’s another new Riserva added to the Mastroberardino portfolio of fine wines. The 2016 Taurasi Riserva Stiléma is a heritage wine or a reinterpretation of a traditional wine that pays homage to some of the great bottles of yesteryear with shorter maceration times for moderate phenolic extraction and the use of neutral French and Slavonian oak that prize elegance over power. This streamlined and polished wine reveals dark fruit, cardamom, cured tobacco and tertiary aromas of licorice and tar that are just beginning to show. However, despite the wine’s age, you taste the transparency of the fruit: pulp, skins, stems and all. Drink date: 2023-2038. Score – 96. (Monica Larner, robertparker.com, Oct. 6, 2022)