Le Cinciole. Petresco

Toscana IGT
Grape: Sangiovese

The vertical tasting cases have sold out.

2016   Intense, focused, bright black cherry, and damson fruit on a fine wet-slate skeleton. The fruit is defined and vigorous, touched by spice, salt, porcini and sloe, a magnificent wine.  14%

2015   The level of concentration and tannin is up a notch from the  Aluigi Riserva.  There is a real vibrance and tension to the wine, some oak on the nose, remarkable bright fruit, flint and elegance.  15%

And following our summer Tuscany and Central Italy tasting at St John's Smith Square, we now have a vertical tasting offer for you to enjoy comparing the different vintages, including the last couple of remaining bottles of 2007 - a chance never to be repeated!

Link to Le Cinciole producer page

The Petresco was first made in 1997 when it was a Chianti Classico Riserva that used only the best grapes from across the Le Cinciole vineyards.

Since 2004 the Petresco has been a Cru or ‘monopolio’ (single vineyard) wine.
The grapes come only from the top of ‘Sottobosco’ (470-490m), the highest vineyard at Le Conciole, where the topsoils are a sparse galestro over limestone.
The yield here is under 40 hl/ha, the maxim here is quality, not quantity.

The pitiful yields are supplemented by solar panels along the eastern border of the vineyard, which make the farm a net supplier of energy.

The vines are now over 30 years old and have reached an age where they express this remarkable Cru perfectly.

In 2009, Luca and Valeria declassified Petresco from Chianti Classico Riserva to Toscana IGT. It was no coincidence that the Corsorzio had just created ‘Chianti Classico Gran Selezione’, it was one of the more cynical and poorly judged wine classifications of recent times (in my opinion) and some principled producers wanted little to do with it. However, 2016 saw tighter and much more satisfactory regulation, but for the meantime, Petresco remains IGT.

The Sangiovese is harvested by hand and de-stemmed before a spontaneous fermentation in concrete tanks.
From 2016 the wine was then aged in used barrique and botti (25hl French oak) for 2 years and then a further year in concrete and botti before bottling.