Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Villa Le Prata - Brunello di Montalcino




Villa Le Prata is a boutique winery run by the Losappio family.

The villa was originally built in 1862 for Count Carlo de Vecchi
as a hunting lodge.

It was later the summer home for the bishop of Montalcino.




Marialuce and her husband (a surgeon from Florence) bought the villa
 in 1982 and in the following year planted their first vines.

Today the winery has 8 acres planted with sangiovese
for its Brunello and Rosso.

The vineyard is now run by Benedetta Losappio (Marialuce's daughter) 
with the help of her sister in law Anna and well known
Oenologist Gioia Cresti.



One of the Villa Le Prata vineyards





The main entrance to the Villa Le Prata estate





The passionate winemaker Benedetta with Anna and Carolyna listening.

Her philosophy is built around ensuring the grapes are of the highest quality.

The production process limits the artificial elements.

Every wine Benedetta releases is ready to drink now even though
 it still may have great maturing potential





Tasting in the Villa with Anna.

Alan is thinking "damm this Brunello is good. I must get some into Australia".





Benedetta, Anna and Alan with "Il gatto" (the cat)





One of the beautiful vineyards of Villa Le Prata.

Most of the vineyards surround the villa which is to the south west
of Montalcino and others are in the area of
Castel Nuovo dell' Abate.

These are the most prized areas of Montalcino for growing grapes.



Carolyna took this pic.......love it.



The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino from Villa Le Prata
will soon be in Australia through Italian Wine Importers.

Wine Spectator awarded this particular wine a high 94 points.

Comments are "full of floral, berry and tobacco aromas
and flavours ......offering silky texture and firm tannins.

This shows fine length with a sweetness that lingers"


Villa Le Prata is a stylish boutique vineyard making fine
quality Brunello di Montalcino.

The wine will be available in Australia in early 2012
through sole importer, Italian Wine Importers


tel +61 412008929

Friday, November 18, 2011

La Fornace Brunello di Montacino- from peasant roots to great winemakers


This is about a wonderful winemaking family, the Gianetti's in Montalcino, who are compassionate, passionate and just simpatici about winemaking and people.




From peasant roots ("Mezzadri" in Italian meaning share croppers) the family has been on the land in Montalcino for many generations. It was only in 1964 that they were able to purchase the land and realise their dream of creating fine wine under their own label of La Fornace.





Franco and Germania



The family live on the estate. Father Franco Gianetti, mother Germania, son Fabio and daughter Laura.





A young Franco with his mother on the estate when he was a young child



Fabio is now the winemaker with dad proudly guiding and assisting as required. Laura works in Montalcino in the tourist office.



The estate is seven hectares on the north east side of Montalcino. It has 4,500 vines per hectare




It occasionally experiences cold winters and even snow







The winter jobs are very important in preparing the vines in the hibernating period for the next vintage




Cutting back in preparation for the new season growth


The first signs of growth herald in the exciting start to the new vintage




And then the grapes emerge





What makes great grapes, among other things, is a "culling" process where the number of bunches and density of bunches are reduced by a careful process of inspection and culling by the winemaker and his team




The results from the culling


This helps to ensure the grapes receive greater nutrition from the soil and the sun. The result, healthy high quality sangiovese grapes.





Grapes are carefully hand picked.





Fermentation lasts for approximately 30 days in stainless steel tanks.



Fabio (with the help of Franco) uses a soft pressing technique which lengthens and favours the fermentation process.




Franco working on the fermentation process


The wine is then matured in 32 hectalitre barrels for 36 months.




Fabio has a real passion and talent for winemaking. Here he explains the process to Carolyna






And overlooking the "Terroir" with Alan





 The estate produces 12,000 bottles of Brunello di Montalcino and 9,000 bottles of Rosso di Montalcino in a year.



 

The wines from La Fornace are starting to make a great impression on the world stage. Both Wine Spectator and James Suckling independently rated the 2006 La Fornace Brunello di Montalcino a high 93 points.






Suckling says "Beautiful nose full of bluberries, blackberries and flowers follow through to a full body, with velvety tannins and ripe fruit. This is juicy and rich with loads of fruit and a long finish. Hard not to drink now, but it will be so much better in 3-4 years"



And a special part of our recent visit to the vineyard was pranzo (lunch) con la famiglia




Ciao e Baci a tutti
 
Carolyna e Alan






Monday, November 14, 2011

Villa i Cipressi Brunello di Montalcino- at the vineyard




Villa i Cipressi is owned by a wonderful winemaking family with their villa and original winery just south of the town of Montalcino. Owned by the Ciacci family, father, mother and sons are all active in the business.


The wonderful Cipressi collection. The Zebras Brunello di Montalcino 2004 on the left received a high 95 points from Wine Spectator (described as dense and powerful) whilst the Brunello di Montalcino 2006 received 93 points from Wine Spectator and 92+ from e Robert Parker (described as a georgeous wine). Great scores and recognition of the quality of wines being produced from this family run estate.
We had a pre-release tasting of the 2007 Brunello di Montalcino and we rated it very highly. It will form part of our imported stable in 2012 along with a first 375ml Brunello. 2007 should should be a blinder of a year for Brunello.
The philosophy of the estate is to ensure the quality of the grapes are enhanced by a simple and traditional winemaking process. The same grapes are used for Brunello and Rosso with the only difference being the amount of time allocated to the maturation process.

A selection of their wines at the reception centre on the estate. The label design and artwork comes from the artistic talents of the mother. The state produces 17,000 bottles of Brunello di Montalcino every year and 4,000 Rosso di Montalcino.


Here, Carolyna is greeted by Dario, the youger of the two boys. Dario is active on the marketing side of the business.


The original vineyard of the grandfather which is on the estate.
The estate consists of 31 hectares at an average altitude of 350m.



Carolyna, Dario and Frederico (oenologist) in their famed "Zebras" cellars





A long standing family tradition of the family is also bee keeping. Hubert is president of the association of Bee keepers in and around Montalcino



In the Zebras cellar. The vineyards are situated in part in the area of Castelnuovo dell'Abate and in part in Tavernelle. The exposure is South/south west (our preferred exposure). The vine spacing is 2.5 x 0.8m with cordon spur training.
The wine is aged partly in large barrels and partly in barriques and is blended at the time of bottling.
The vinification is the classic type with a long maceration in temperature controlled stainless steel vats.




Hubert with Alan on the balcony of ther villa overlooking the southern slopes outside Montalcino.




Lunch with the family. Whilst probably a little grander for the foreign guests, lunch is always a family get together during the day.


Hubert sharing some of his honey goodies on our departure.


Ciao and buon vino from Carolyna and Alan of Italian Wine Importers

Monday, November 7, 2011

Brunello di Montalcino - Cerbaiona

We were fortunate to have dinner with the founders of Cerbaiona "Diego and Nora Molinari" while recently in Montalcino tasting some wonderful brunelli and rosso's to bring to Australia.




We were at the villa of Sandra and Roberto, owners of Querce Bettina makers of another wonderful Brunello.


Diego left, Nora third from left, Roberto is at the head of  the table and Carolyna closest on right



Looking toward Diego with Sandra from Querce Bettina closest

Roberto and Sandra were kind enough to open a Cerbaiona Brunello di Montalcino 1982.

It was a wonderful wine for such age and it further confirmed to us what great maturing potential the Brunelli have.  The Brunello was opened about 5 hours before we arrived.



It was vibrant with great colour and freshness. There were no signs of substantive age, it had superb balance of acid and tanin together with a longish finish which did not overpower the senses.

It was a superb wine. Unfortunately it all went too quickly.
The first vintage from Cerbaiona was 1981 so we were fortunate to taste this beautiful wine. They only make 8,000 bottles of Brunello and 5,000 bottles of Rosso every year


The 1982 Brunello from Cerbaiona, complemented the wonderful food prepared especially for the dinner. Take a look at some of the food pictures below.



For primi piatti - a grand Mozzarella di bufala from Caserta in Campania.



Next came homemade Tagliatelle with liver and parmesan in brodo (chicken broth). A specialty of Verona.



Per secondo - main course - an amazing piece of roast beef with cotecchino sausage.


It was good to see "il Maestro" recovering from some recent poor health.

We hope to share more stories like this with you as we travel and meet with friends in Montalcino.

Arrivedeci!