sangiovese

Sting Gets Into The Wine Business

Rock star Sting is the latest celebrity to get into the wine business. The British singer purchased a 16th-century villa, called Il Palagio, in Figline Valdarno, Italy back in 1997. He has turned the 860 acres of land into an organic farm producing honey, olive oil and fruit and vegetables. There are also extensive vineyards on the property. His first wine will be a 2007 vintage which is mostly Sangiovese with Merlot and Cabernet added. According to an AP story, 30,000 bottles of wine which were produced on the property will go on sale in September and will be sold in the U.S. A 2008 Chianti may also go on sale if it is ready by this fall.

Gallery: Celebrity Wine Projects

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Tags: italy, sangiovese, sting, wine

Vino Erectus

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

My love of Wine Spectator's Unfiltered column continues unabated. This week they had a piece on Vino Erectus, the unique project of young vinter Franco Ariano. Ariano's bold plan is to train grapes to grow upside down (tip facing up) ten ferment the grapes in an antique 400-liter glass pharmaceutical amphora, bottle the wine and then bury the bottles in the ground for a year. The resulting Sangiovese blend, made from grapes on Ariano's two-acre vineyard in Saludeccio, Italy, will sell for around $2,700 a bottle. Ariano says that growing the grapes in this way leads to earlier ripening and better ventilated bunches.

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Tags: grapes, Italy, sangiovese, vino erectus, VinoErectus, wine

Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Wine Spectator has chosen their wine of the year and have unveiled the first ten of their 100 best list. The top wine is the Brunello di Montalcino Tunuta Nuova 2001 from Casanova di Neri. The family-run winery in Tuscany creates this Sangiovese-based red wine which is aged in 600-liter French oak casks. In the Wine Spectator video, James Suckling says that the warm summer days and cool nights of that year created a wine with a rich perfume and raspberry and blackberry flavors with a hint of chocolate and seamless tannins. He also believes the wine could be even better in a couple years.

The Casanova di Neri website says that the quest for the Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova came about with the search for the perfect microclimate of the terrain as well as the delicate cultivation of the Sangiovese grapes. The wine is aged in small oak casks for 24 to 30 months and then for at least a year in the bottle. The first vintage produced was in 1993. The wine has earned a rating of 97 and sells for $70. There were 4,830 cases made. The winery also makes olive oil and grappa as well as fine wines.

Also, I must mention, Giacomo Neri is a serious wine fox.

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Tags: brunello, casanova di neri, italian wine, red wine, sangiovese, tuscany, wine, wine spectator