Winemaker Notes
Bouquet: clean and intense, with complex hints of spices, licorice, vanilla and cherries.
Flavor: full, rich and persistent with a great, elegant tannin structure and finish.
Professional Ratings
Carpineto is a partnership between the award winning winemaker Giovanni C. Sacchet and the dynamic Antonio M. Zaccheo, offering a product line of wines spanning from the most prestigious Tuscan DOCG appellations to varietal specific wines of great structure as well as innovative proprietary blends. The winery is widely regarded as one of the quality leaders on the Italian winemaking landscape, exporting the majority of the wine production to over 30 countries worldwide. About 90% of Carpineto's wine production is red wine, 65% of this being "riserva" wines that are aged three or more years before their release date. Since Carpineto generally ages their red wines six to twelve months longer than the minimum time required by DOCG appellation rules the cellars hold at least three consecutive vintages of wine at any given time. This long aging period has allowed Carpineto to build a reputation for high quality and consistency, vintage after vintage.
Carpineto was established in 1967 in the small historic settlement of Dudda, in the township of Greve in Chianti, with the mission of making world class Chianti Classico. This was a radical departure from the marketplace of the Sixties, when the industry was focused on the production of Chianti in the traditional winemaking style sold in the typical "fiasco" bottle. The visionary founders, captured by the Tuscan landscape, the soil and the climate, immediately saw the untapped potential this land possessed to produce great wines. By applying modern viticultural and winemaking methods they set their goals far beyond the quality standards traditional viticultural and winemaking methods were yielding at the time. With this premise, the unyielding determination of their youth, and an uncompromising focus on making the best wines this land could produce the Carpineto mission of marrying tradition with innovation had set sail.
The Carpineto winemaking style is to deliver wines that are full bodied, complex and fruity in character, with a round, supple tannin structure and a long, persistent, clean finish. Despite their approachability upon release, Carpineto's red wines are designed for long cellar aging of twenty years or longer.
While certainly not one of the hundreds of indigenous Italian varietals, Cabernet Sauvignon has been present in the country since the 1820’s and now encompasses approximately 35,000 acres. Only a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon is grown in northern Italy, but notable examples include Angelo Gaja’s Darmagi from Piedmont and San Leonardo (typically a Cabernet blend) from Trentino-Alto Adige. Southern Italy sees more plantings, especially in Sicily, Puglia and Campania; most of these versions are made for everyday consumption and rarely garner widespread attention.
Then there is Tuscany, where Italian Cabernet Sauvignon can rise to impressive levels of quality. It is required in Carmignano, and since 1996 has been permitted in Chianti and Chianti Classico. The grape first shook up the Italian wine world in the early 1970’s, with the release of the so-called “Super Tuscans.” These were wines from the coastal region of Maremma that broke the rules of almost every Tuscan appellation and therefore had to be labeled as “table wine.” The first, Sassicaia, is a blend of Cab with Cabernet Franc. Other notable Italian wines that include Cabernet Sauvignon are Tignanello, Ornellaia and Solaia. These and others bear Cabernet’s signature notes of blackcurrant, blackberry, tobacco, graphite and oak, all supported by impressive structure.