The 1998 Redigaffi (2,000+ bottles produced) is profound. I do not normally quote dry extract numbers, because taste is more important than the numbers. However, I could not help but notice one of the highest measured dry extract numbers I have ever seen in a wine with the 1998 Redigaffi -- 39 grams per liter! Made from 100% Merlot, aged in 100% new Allier and Troncais French barrels, it is bottled without fining or filtration. An opaque purple-colored, powerful, enormously-endowed effort, it offers gorgeous black currant, plum, and blackberry fruit characteristics infused with spice box, chocolate, and vanilla. This harmonious wine oozes with extract and glycerin. Extraordinarily pure and impressive, with copious tannin nearly hidden beneath the wine's superb richness, this beauty should be at its apogee between 2004-2020. Importer: A Leonardo Locascio Selection, Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620

As a whole, this retrospective performed very well, and there were only two vintages that disappointed. The 1998 Redigaffi is one of those two. The bouquet is far too evolved with dried mushroom, dusty attic, smoky tar and scorched earth. Despite abundant spring rain, 1998 is remembered as a very hot year, and extreme measures were taken. For example, the vines had to be watered painstakingly by hand. At Tua Rita, it also marks the year that Consulting Enologist Luca D'Attoma left and was replaced by Stefano Chioccioli (Luca would come back in 2010 and to complete his first full winemaking cycle in 2012). This edition has no life left and leaves behind dusty sensations. In his original review, Robert Parker notes the high dry extract of this vintage, but all of that fruit weight falls flat today.