2016 Podere Le Cinciole “Petresco” Colli della Toscana Centrale IGT, Tuscany, Italy.
The incredible powerful pure 2016 Sangiovese Petresco IGT Rosso from Chianti Classico’s famous Le Cinciole is an exceptional single vineyard expression that delivers a seriously dense palate of dark fruits, including blackberry, plum, currant and balsamic strawberry, along with tobacco leaf, all spice, minty herbs, delicate florals, anise and sweet sandalwood notes. This full bodied red perfectly captures the richness and ripe flavors of the 2016 vintage, giving that deep and ripe fruit and structural tannin, making for a big time wine that should aged decades or more. This dark garnet hued wine will be a huge hit with Sangiovese lovers and it was absolutely fabulous with a lamb ragu and homemade pasta that cut into the richness of the fruit and I highly recommend having it with robust cuisine and or aged hard Pecorino cheese. The Petresco cru, the highest vineyard at Le Conciole, has loose topsoils with classic galestro over limestone, which adds to the rewarding nature of this this impressive Tuscan red.
The Petresco is Le Cinciole’s unique, single site, all Sangiovese organic vineyard , that was planted at close to 1,500 feet twenty of elevation some years ago, making for a distinctive terroir driven and deep wine. The winery is located in Panzano in Chianti Classico, is run by Valeria Viganò and Luca Orsini who have elevated Le Cinciole into one of the top Chianti Classico estates, and an elite Italian label with their conversion to Biodynamic farming. As for the winemaking here on their 100% Sangiovese Petresco Rosso, Viganò and Orsini uses all de-stemmed and carefully sorted grapes with fermentation done with a cool maceration in tank, after which the wine is racked to a combination of barrels, seeing about two years in the wood with equal parts in large cask and small toasty barriques followed by a year in cement. The Petresco, I learned, was first made in 1997 when it was a Chianti Classico Riserva bottling, which back then used only the best grapes from across the Le Cinciole vineyards, but Since 2004 the Petresco has been a single Cru wine. Only about 400 cases are made of the Le Cinciole Petresco, and it will be a hard find, but well worth searching out, especially vintages like this gorgeous 2016 version.
($60 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive