This silken blend of 70 percent Syrah and 30 percent Grenache was grown in an estate vineyard in the Maremma, in the western stripe of Tuscany. Fruit was hand-picked and fermented with ambient yeasts in stainless steel and barrels, and the wine was moved by gravity to avoid the brutality of the pump. Seventy percent of the lots spent 16 months in French oak barriques, 40 percent new, while the rest reposed in concrete eggs. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The result is light-handed wine, the color a youthful ruby with a light pink rim. The scent is like rosemary and cedar mingling with peppery bramble berries. The palate has firm acidity and a pronounced but favorable tannic texture, and the fruit is solidly red—albeit deep, earthy red. Highlights of juniper and black tea, sundried tomato and sweet tobacco, plus a suggestion of bitter chocolate, contribute complexity.
Delicious but still quite young; the wine has the structure, fruit, and nuance to carry it several years in bottle. Pair it now with firm cow’s and sheep’s milk cheeses or with savory preparations of meat, game, or mushrooms.
2013 Tinata Monteverro Toscana Rosso
14.5% abv | about $80 (sample) Imported by JH Collection; 550 cases made
