Tenuta di Trinoro, one of the most famous Italian wineries, is located in Sarteano, 80 kilometers south of Siena, in a strip of land almost on the border between Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio. Here the volcanic Andrea Franchetti established his first winery with the same experimental vision with which previously, since the 1960s, he had founded restaurants in New York in the East Village and dedicated himself to import Italian wines to the United States. Before dedicating himself heart and soul to the production of wine in a fortified country house (which he restores alone) in Val d’Orcia, Andrea spent a few years in Bordeaux, where he learned the secrets of winemaking from the undisputed masters of that time. From Bordeaux Andrea not only returns with a new consciousness, but also with Bordeaux graft nurseries that he plants in the land of Sarteano, whose clay-limestone and gravel composition reminds him of the Bordeaux soil.
Today Tenuta di Trinoro covers 23 hectares of about 20 years south-facing vineyards, at an altitude ranging from 400 to 620 meters, characterized by a high density planting. Even if in the vineyard and in the cellar there are no pre-packaged recipes, we can identify some operations now codified as the above-mentioned density of planting combined with very low yields and full phenolic maturation that, in the intentions of Andrea, give rise to extreme wines in both taste and fragrance.
Some time ago three plots planted with the Cabernet Franc, able to reflect with incredible accuracy the land of origin, have been identified, and since 2014 these “Campi” have been bottled separately. Campo di Tenaglia, for instance, is a 0.8 hectares deep soil plot, 500 meters above sea level, planted with sunset-facing 26 years old vines, with a density of 10.00 vines per hectare, whose yield is around 25 hectoliters per hectare (just 350 grams of grapes per plant). From this plot, cultivated exclusively with sheep manure, clay, propolis and grapefruit seed extract, are obtained grapes that, after fermentation in steel (12 days), age 8 months in barrique and 11 in cement tanks, before being bottled in spring, with the waning moon, and be marketed.
The 2018 vintage, produced in only 1850 samples, has an impenetrable ruby color of great consistency, with an olfactory range that opens on notes of cooked plum, black cherry in alcohol, vinyl and vanilla, followed by wild blackberry, dried flowers, dark tobacco and humus, with concluding echoes of graphite, leather, incense and carpentry. The palate, even in its soft amplitude, is lightened by a pleasing balsamic freshness enriched by a hint of pepper and a textbook tannin; all enriched by the return of the red fruit and spice that accompany the sip until an elegant and endless closure.
Rating: 94/100
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