Tasting Notes :

Tignanello 2018 is in full harmony with the vintage. This wine shows an intense and bright ruby red color. On the nose, notes of ripe red fruits come together with pleasant hints of fresh blackberry and wild berries. At the same time, it shows delicate and perfectly integrated aromas of vanilla and dark chocolate with light spice sensations. On the palate, the wine is vibrant, with silky and refined tannins. Balanced and intense, it has a long, complex and persistent finish.

Vinification

Despite the fact that climatic conditions were favorable in 2018, we were vigilant both in the vineyards during harvesting operations as well as upon arrival of the grapes at the cellars for sorting and initial winemaking processes where our careful planning resulted in an added value that optimized this vintage’s characteristics. During fermentation in truncated conical tanks, the must was macerated with the skins giving particular attention to preserving the freshness of its aromas, the extraction of color, and encouraging desirable tannins that are supple and elegant. Racking was performed after rigorous daily sampling and tasting. Once separated from the skins, the wine was transferred into small oak barrels where malolactic fermentation took place, accentuating the finesse and complexity of the aromas. The wine was left to age for approximately 14 to 16 months in French and Hungarian oak barrels, in a combination of new and second fill barrels. Each lot and each grape variety was fermented and aged in barrels separately with the final blend taking place just a few months before bottling. Tignanello, a blend of Sangiovese with a small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, underwent an additional 12 months in the bottle before being released.

Historical Data

Tignanello is produced exclusively from the vineyard of the same name, a parcel of some 140 acres (57 hectares) with limestone-rich soils and a southwestern exposure at 1150-1325 feets (350-400 meters) above sea level at the Tignanello estate. It was the first Sangiovese wine to be aged in small oak barrels, the first modern red wine to use such non-traditional varieties as Cabernet in the blend, and among the first red wines from the Chianti Classico area to be produced without white grapes. The wine, originally called "Chianti Classico Riserva Vigneto Tignanello" (a Chianti Classico Riserva from the Tignanello vineyard), was produced for the first time from a single vineyard parcel in 1970, when the blend contained 20% of Canaiolo and 5% of Trebbiano and Malvasia, both white grapes, and the wine aged in small oak barrels. In 1971 it became a Tuscan red table wine rather than a Chianti Classico, and was called Tignanello. In the 1975 vintage the percentage of white grapes was definitively eliminated from the blend. Ever since 1982, the blend has been the one currently used. Tignanello is bottled only in favorable vintages, and was not produced in 1972, 1973,1974, 1976, 1984, 1992, and 2002.