Dense brilliant, luminous red. superb entrance in the mouth, with impressive integration of spice notes & fruit. Elegant & refined. Bouquet of wild red berryfruits. Vinification
- Between 3 & 15 October, following an initial quality selection in the vineyard, the clusters were h&-picked into small 12-kg boxes & brought into the cellar, for a total of some 1, 850 quintals. The clusters were quality-graded again on sorting tables, then de-stemmed & pressed. The must, kept separate for each grape variety, fermented in steel at about 30-32oC, with repeated daily punch-downs. A 21-23-day maceration followed, After racking, the 1, 300hl of wine completed its malolactic fermentation. Maturation
- Towards mid-December, the lots of wine were assembled into the final blend & put into oak barrels, 20% new & the remainder previously used, where it rested for 12 months. The 65.38-hectare specialised vineyard, enrolled in the official Chianti Classico DOCG Registry, lies at elevations ranging between 390 & 530 metres, planted in quite rocky limestone-clay soils. The vineyards planted in part between 1974 & 1978 have a density of 3, 000 vines per hectare, while those that were planted from 1996 on to replace outdated vines--a process that continues today--display a density of 5, 300 vines/ha. The vines, all vertically-trellised, are trained to the open lyre system & pruned to Guyot & spurred cordon. The varieties, grafted onto 420A rootstock, are 80% Sangiovese & 20% Malvasia Nera, Merlot, & Cabernet Franc.