Winemaker Notes
The Bianco di Trinoro is a wine made of 100% Semillon from a tiny parcel of sand located in the highest reaches of the Trinoro estate. The plot sits at about 630 meters above sea level and covers 5,141 square meters. The vineyard was planted partially in 2001 and then completed in 2006, with vine stock from Bordeaux; here, as elsewhere on the estate, the vines are densely planted a meter apart in the Bordelais style.
The wine is highly aromatic with ripe, fruity notes, balanced by a lovely freshness and acidity that points to great longevity. Although we’ve produced the wine on and off since 2008, this is the first year they are releasing it to the public.
There is a sweet fruit character to the semillon of this vintage, even though it was fermented totally dry. Its deep golden color gives way to a rich, sweet golden apple nose, with floral notes reminiscent of jasmine. On the palate, there is a lovely freshness that comes from its high and bright acidity, which cuts through its fuller body. Overall, it’s a very together white: a ripe and round texture, tightly knit, and full of tension. This interplay of textures provides a particularly compelling contrast with its ripe, fruity character.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here's a surprise from an estate that has made quite a name for itself in the world of full-bodied red wines from Tuscany. Indeed, the 2017 Bianco di Trinoro by Andrea Franchetti comes out of left field. (And with only 1,000 bottles made, only the lucky will catch sight of one.) Fermented in steel and aged on the lees in a series of glass demijohns, this pure expression of Semillon surprises for its lightness, brightness and crispness, and it's ultimately a white wine that represents a direct opposite to the Trinoro staple of reds. However, this is not a simple wine. Indeed, it offers many layers of intensity with stone and tropical fruit followed by creamy pastry. It should be interesting to watch its evolution over the next five years.
Sémillon has the power to create wines with considerable structure, depth and length that will improve for several decades. It is the perfect partner to the vivdly aromatic Sauvignon Blanc. Sémillon especially shines in the Bordeaux region of Sauternes, which produces some of the world’s greatest sweet wines. Somm Secret—Sémillon was so common in South Africa in the 1820s, covering 93% of the country’s vineyard area, it was simply referred to as Wyndruif, or “wine grape.”
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.