Tenuta del Buonamico Toscana Vasario 2012
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In order to further improve his wines, Giulio Magnani, a knowledgeable and passionate winemaker from Montecarlo, and owner of the Marchi – Magnani farming estate, went to France around the year 1870 to study the grape varieties and the winemaking techniques of our “French friends”, who were already producing wines that were highly valued even beyond their Country’s borders. He ended up in the Bordeaux region, and from there he brought Sauvignon, Semillon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes back with him to Montecarlo. He also acquired Roussanne and Syrah while travelling through the Rhone region, as well as White and Grey Pinot from the Burgundy region.
When he came back home, he experimented the right percentages of every single grape to be mixed with Trebbiano, in order to make a more elegant, more flavoured and smoother wine. From that time on Montecarlo companies started to produce high quality wines, highly valued both nationally and internationally. Montecarlo wines became the objects of desire on the most famous tables, and they were chosen to celebrate Prince Umberto di Savoia and Maria Josè’s wedding at Quirinale in 1930. During these years Marchi – Magnani’s wines, together with other producers’ such as Pucci, Carrara, Pardocchi and De Dominicis, got several rewards in Italy and abroad. The wine was by that time known as “Montecarlo’s Chablis”.
The Buonamico Estate is set southwest of Montecarlo, in the Cercatoja area, and it covers a surface of 100 hectares, 48 of which are dedicated to specialized vineyards. The winery was founded by renowned restaurateurs from Turin in the early 1960s, with the purpose of furnishing their restaurant with Montecarlo wines. Today the Estate, owned by the Fontana Family, has expanded in terms of both vineyards and wine cellar. While preserving the essential characteristics of a traditional winemaking style, “Buonamico” has now become one of the Montecarlo’s leading wine producers.
Approachable, aromatic and pleasantly plush on the palate, Pinot Blanc is a white grape variety most associated with the Alsace region of France. Although its heritage is Burgundian, today it is rarely found there and instead thrives throughout central Europe, namely Germany and Austria, where it is known as Weissburgunder and Alto Adige where it is called Pinot Bianco. Interestingly, Pinot Blanc was born out of a mutation of the pink-skinned Pinot Gris. Somm Secret—Chardonnay fans looking to try something new would benefit from giving Pinot Blanc a try.
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.