Rocca di Montegrossi Rosato 2010
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Robert
Parker
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Blend: Sangiovese 90%, Canaiolo 4%, and Colorino 6%
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Sangiovese-based 2010 Rosato is a rich, textured wine loaded with fruit. It shows gorgeous density all the way through to the sensual, inviting finish. In 2010 the blend includes 6% Merlot and 4% Canaiolo. This is always a first-class, distinguished wine, hardly a surprise since the fruit comes from the estate's San Marcellino vineyard. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2013.
Rocca di Montegrossi is located in the heart of Chianti Classico – just outside Monti in Chianti, about 7 kilometres from Gaiole. Marco Ricasoli-Firidolfi, is a descendant of the historic winemaking family that can be credited with having put Chianti on the map of the world’s best wines. The winery, whose restoration and modernization were completed in 2000, is located near the Romanesque Church of San Marcellino.
Marco Ricasoli-Firidolfi’s passion for vineyards and fieldwork drives his entrepreneurial spirit. Indeed together with consultant agronomist Dr. Stefano Dini, Marco personally oversees all the operations in the vineyards; his goal is to reach the perfect balance between growth and production through daily care of the vines, from short pruning to reduced carefully reasoned fertilization, from the planting of ground cover to the various kinds of green pruning, including bunch thinning, crown pruning, and defoliation a few weeks prior to the harvest. At Rocca di Montegrossi harvest is manual, into small baskets and is carried out in three phases to guarantee that the grapes are selected and picked only when they are perfectly ripe.
Rocca di Montegrossi's cellars have been designed to allow Marco Ricasoli-Firidolfi and Attilio Pagli, the consulting enologist, to handle the grapes from the estate's vineyards in the best possible, ecosustainable manner. In keeping with the organic cultivation of the vineyards, the cellars are environmentally friendly; some of the energy necessary to run them is produced by solar panels on the roof, while the remainder is exclusively from renewable sources (per the RECS International certification).
Whether it’s playful and fun or savory and serious, most rosé today is not your grandmother’s White Zinfandel, though that category remains strong. Pink wine has recently become quite trendy, and this time around it’s commonly quite dry. Since the pigment in red wines comes from keeping fermenting juice in contact with the grape skins for an extended period, it follows that a pink wine can be made using just a brief period of skin contact—usually just a couple of days. The resulting color depends on grape variety and winemaking style, ranging from pale salmon to deep magenta.
One of the most iconic Italian regions for wine, scenery and history, Tuscany is the world’s most important outpost for the Sangiovese grape. Tuscan wine ranges in style from fruity and simple to complex and age-worthy, Sangiovese makes up a significant percentage of plantings here, with the white Trebbiano Toscano coming in second.
Within Tuscany, many esteemed wines have their own respective sub-zones, including Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The climate is Mediterranean and the topography consists mostly of picturesque rolling hills, scattered with vineyards.
Sangiovese at its simplest produces straightforward pizza-friendly Tuscan wines with bright and juicy red fruit, but at its best it shows remarkable complexity and ageability. Top-quality Sangiovese-based wines can be expressive of a range of characteristics such as sour cherry, balsamic, dried herbs, leather, fresh earth, dried flowers, anise and tobacco. Brunello, an exceptionally bold Tuscan wine, expresses well the particularities of vintage variations and is thus popular among collectors. Chianti is associated with tangy and food-friendly dry wines at various price points. A more recent phenomenon as of the 1970s is the “Super Tuscan”—a red wine made from international grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, with or without Sangiovese. These are common in Tuscany’s coastal regions like Bolgheri, Val di Cornia, Carmignano and the island of Elba.