2019 Carpineto Rosso Di Montalcino

2019 Carpineto Rosso Di Montalcino

2019 Carpineto Rosso Di Montalcino; Tuscany, Italy

Also known as the Baby Brunello, Carpineto Rosso di Montalcino is a complex red with aromas of dark cherry, cedar, spice, and licorice that developed following 6 months of oak aging and 6 months of bottle aging. The mouthfeel  delivers a touch of bright acidity that is reminiscent of white cherry and cranberry, before yielding to a lengthy finish of mature red fruits and smooth tannins. Ageable for 10-12 years following the vintage, this pairs nicely with pork or poultry dishes.

Sangiovese (or Nielluccio in Corsica), a dark-berried vine, is the most widely planted grape variety in Italy. Virtually synonymous with the red wines of Tuscany, and all the romanticism that goes with the territory, Sangiovese is the core constituent in some of the great names in Italian wine. Italy’s love affair with Sangiovese – and indeed the world’s – is generations old, though recent grapevine research suggests the variety is not as ancient as once thought. At the dawn of the 21st Century, Sangiovese equated to roughly one in every 10 vines on the Italian peninsula. The quality of Sangiovese wine can be notoriously variable. But, in the 1980s, drastically improved winemaking techniques saw a significant shift toward more quality-oriented releases. Sangiovese has numerous clones and is consequently known by many synonyms in its native Italy.

Carpineto is an Italian producer with several estates across highly regarded Tuscan DOCG regions. It was founded in 1967 by Giovanni Carlo Sachet and Antonio Mario Zaccheo with the aim of being a high-quality Chianti Classico producer. Carpineto’s original focus on quality, and on the Classico region, was uncommon in the 1960s when Chianti was more famous for its large-scale production and the ‘fiasco’ straw basket. The Chianti Classico DOC had only been formalized in 1966 and didn’t get elevated to DOCG status until the 1980s.