Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Blueberry, blackberry and violet aromas follow through to a medium body, firm and silky tannins and a chewy finish. Shows focus and precision. A blend of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot. Needs two or three years to soften.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This wine is mostly Sangiovese, counting about 70% of the blend, that has seen more aging time in oak. The 2015 Carmignano Riserva is fermented in wood and aged in small French oak for two years. Only 10% of the barriques are new, and the rest are in their second or third year. This is a loosely knit red wine with ample textural fiber. At its core, the wine shows black cherry, plum, spice and cured tobacco. This warm vintage delivers rich fruit with some lingering sweetness. Some 30,000 bottles were made.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
With recorded history of red wine production since the Middle Ages, Carmignano is a small, ancient, central Italian subregion ten miles northwest of Florence. Carmignano grows Sangiovese with great success in low-lying hills of 160 to 650 feet above sea level.
It is the only Tuscan DOC that required the inclusion of (up to 20%) Cabernet Sauvignon in its Sangiovese-based wines years before it became popular in the Super Tuscan blends.