2018 Tenuta di Capezzana, Villa di Capezzana, Carmignano DOCG, Tuscany, Italy.
There’s a lot to admire here in Capezzana’s classic Villa di Capezzana Carmignano red wine, a blend of 80% Sangiovese and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, it is a full bodied and powerful effort with a deep garnet hue in the glass and rich layers of blackberry, wild plum, red currant, black cherry and strawberry fruits, accented by cedar, tobacco, wilted roses, licorice, dusty spices and subtle earthiness. This vintage show a positive energy, with lively natural acidity and silky, almost feline tannin structure that feel velvety ripe, but provide underlying muscle that makes for a vinous and balanced wine that goes brilliantly with robust and meaty dishes. These Carmignano wines were some of the first wines in Tuscany to legally include Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend and while Chianti have turned away from the international varietals in the main Classico offerings, these wines proudly hail the addition here, and this wine marries the strength of Sangiovese and Cabernet to sublime effect. This wine, from 20 to 40 year old vines, made by Benedetta Contini Bonacossi, is a wine to look for, I’ve been a fan of this winery for a long time and highly recommend checking out this under the radar region of Tuscany.
The historic Contini Bonacossi family has cultivated and maintained vineyards and olive groves here for over five generations with their Tenuta di Capezzana estate, which is one of the best known properties, located just 12 miles to west of Florence in Carmignano. This Tuscan sub-zone, one of the oldest recognized wine producing areas in Tuscany, is uniquely situated in rolling hills with a sublime climate for deep and power red, Sangiovese based wines, which allow 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and it was the first to include this Bordeaux grape in the region. The Carmignano wine region officially dates back at 1716, which the winery notes, when the famous Cosimo III de’ Medici granted the area special legal protections to recognize the quality the region possessed and Capezzana has Carmignano wines that date back to 1925 in the cellars, proving the longevity of their efforts and are a living history of the area. For this wine, the grapes are all organic, with vines set on clay, limestone, schist and marl hillside soils at an average elevation of 200 meters above sea level. Fermentation is with native yeasts in tank and the wine is aged12 months in a combination of French and Slavonian oak, in mixed sizes and with about 10% new, all to promote depth and transparency, as this wine shows. The Villa di Capezzana Carmignano DOCG 2018 is showing really well, it is a very fair value, and I bet it will get even more rewarding over the next 3 to 5 years.
($36 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive