Tenuta di Trinoro (Val d'Orcia, Tuscany): The vineyards and the wines

With lunch behind us, we made our way back down the hill from Andrea's home to the winery/vineyard zone. Carlo was ready to lead me on a vineyard and winery tour; I needed a post-lunch nap.

Given its location, Tenuta di Trinoro gets sufficient sunlight to bring its grapes to maturity during the course of a growing season. But there are other climate issues that are sources of concern. Up until 2004, the area experienced Mediterranean growing seasons (mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers) but the growing seasons are now more tropical; that is, more rain and cooler summers. Carlo sees these changes as resulting from climate change. The grapes, he said, produce less concentrated wines in years of above-average rainfall (In a post-publication comment, Andrea said that these new seasonal effects allow them to make better wines than they could with the scorching Augusts of the past. The prior August heat left the vines paralyzed which lengthened the ripening process and brought up the sugar. These are much better years, he says, with 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016 all great vintages. He also pointed out that the concentration is better under these new growing conditions.).

There are a total of 22 ha of the estate devoted to vineyards, distributed between 36 separate vineyard plots. As shown on the map below, the vineyard is planted solely with Bordeaux cultivars to include 17 Cabernet Franc and 13 Merlot plots. There are three cru vineyards which lend their names to 100% Cab Franc wines made with the grapes sourced therefrom.

Source: vinifranchetti.com

There is a 200-meter difference in elevation between the lowest and highest points in the vineyard with the lower portion being alluvial while the higher portions are clay mixed with limestone and quartz fragments that have split from the underlying bedrock.

The vineyards are planted at 10,000 vines/ha and are a mix of double Guyot and double Guyot Poussard. The initial plantings were double Guyot but these are being transitioned to Poussard which promotes maintaining the same sap route from year to year and keeping pruning wounds to the top of the cordon. Carlo mentioned that Esca is a problem at Tenuta di Trinoro; a 2002 study by Geoffrion and Renaudin found the Poussard system to be less conducive to Esca infection than other modern training systems.

Plants are kept low -- Bonsai vineyard concept -- with each allocated 1 sq meter of canopy. Sheep manure is the only type of fertilization used on the property and spray material consists of copper and sulfur. A mix of clay, propolis, and grapefruit seed extract is sprayed in the pre-harvest period to ward off botrytis and other molds that may occur on the grapes as they approach full ripeness. There is no irrigation except for newly planted vines.

Vini Franchetti characterizes its vineyard work at Tenuta di Trinoro as follows:

We generally every year go into the vineyard and treat every vine 20 to 25 times during the growing season: to thin, hold up, cut away, spray glues or powders, hoe and dig, top and pick. We then do innumerable pickings for two months at harvest. In the winter four more long visits are spent on each vine to prune, tie, and to mend the poles and wires,

As he does at Passopisciaro, Andrea walks the vineyards at Trinoro incessantly. He makes the decision to pick based on taste. Each plot is harvested, vinified, and aged separately according to the process shown in the chart below.

Concrete tank

At the end of tours of the vineyards and cellar, we crossed over to another building to taste some wines. Now, Carlo and a few of the other employees were traveling to Vinitaly on the following day and there was a bit of a mixup with the wines that Carlo wanted me to taste. After a while he stepped back over to the cellar to get the right wines. The wines we tasted, then, were a little bit cooler than Carlo would have liked plus they were "Coravinned" into the glasses. Not a lot of oxygen exposure.

The Le Cupole is the estate's second label. The 2015 edition is a blend of 58% Cabernet Franc, 32% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Petit Verdot. The yield was 50 hl/ha. We tasted a cement vat sample. Concentrated with soft tannins.

The 2014 Magnacosta is a 100% Cabernet Franc which, like the other crus, had been aged in new oak for 8 moths and then transferred to cement vats for an additional 11 months of aging. The year had been cool, according to Carlo but the grapes were ripe and showed as sweet and concentrated in the wine. Herbal and peppery with well-integrated tannins.

The 2014 Tenaglia showed black and blue fruits, licorice, and tae. Fruit carries through to the palate. A little more power than was the case for the Magnacosta. Salinity. Lengthy finish.

The 2014 Carmagi was not giving on the nose. Blue fruit, duskiness, and salinity on the palate.

The fruit was so good in 2009 that Andrea resurrected the Palazzi as a wine in that vintage. We tasted both the 2009 Palazzi (100% Merlot) and the 2009 Tenuta di Trinoro (42% Cabernet Franc, 42% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Petit Verdot) but both were too cold to reveal themselves fully. The Palazzi showed mushrooms, a savoriness, and a hint of green. Mineral finish. The Tenuta di Trinoro did not reveal much on the nose and opened up just enough to give a hint of layered complexity.

We were all disappointed at the way the wines showed so Carlo gave me the Coravinned bottles of Palazzi and Tenuta di Trinoro to take with me and taste at a later date. I took them home and popped them today.

Both of these wines were significantly more appealing than when I tasted them initially. Today the Tenuta di Trinoro showed intense spice and dark fruits on the nose along with leather, cassis, and licorice. On the palate, dark fruit accompanying a rich, thick creaminess and beautifully integrated tannins. A long, rich, creamy finish. The Palazzi showed ripe dark fruit, licorice, spice and chocolate. Balanced. High note resulting of pleasing acid levels. A creamy finish.

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This was a mammoth expenditure of time and effort on Carlo's part; especially given the fact that they were driving to Vinitaly the following day. I would like to express my thanks to him and the organization for making this experience possible.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Lunch at Vini Franchetti's Tenuta di Trinoro (Val d'Orcia, Tuscany)

Jancis Robinson in 2002 described Andrea Franchetti's Tenuta di Trinoro as an "idiosyncratic wine estate ... which has achieved quite remarkable renown considering it was first planted in 1992." Antonio Galloni, writing on vinous.com, describes the estate as giving "new meaning to the expression "in the middle of nowhere.'" And I was headed there after a morning in Montalcino, scheduled to meet with Carlo Franchetti, Andrea's partner in Vini Franchetti, for lunch, a tour of the facilities, and a tasting of the estate's wines. This experience was designed as a counterpoint to the tour and tasting that I had experienced at the Vini Franchetti property (Passopisciaro) on Mt Etna earlier in the week.

After a very scenic drive, I approached the gate and announced myself. After I was buzzed in, I drove up to a cluster of buildings and entered into the tank room. A young lady went looking for Carlo and in no time he entered, a warm and welcoming smile on his face. After we had exchanged pleasantries, Carlo indicated that we would be driving up the hill to Andrea' house for lunch. As we drove up the hill I saw sheep, other farm animals, and trees that pointed to the fact that this was no monoculture; it was a functioning farm.

Author and Carlo Franchetti

About halfway up the hill we passed through another security gate and, finally, arrived at our destination at the top of the hill. The views were amazing. And, as you can see from the pictures below, Tenuta di Trinoro is both "viticulturally isolated" and "in the middle of nowhere."

The house, the second home built on the 200-ha property, had a certain rusticity on the outside and this carried through to the inside decor. Andrea was not in town but we would be taking full advantage of his hospitality nonetheless.

Lunch was served in the kitchen and consisted of a first course of home-made ham (produced on the estate) followed by pasta and meat courses. The meal was prepared and served by Simonetta who, according to Letizia Patanè (Vini Franchetti Export Manager US and Asia), makes the best Pasta col Pomodoro in the world. 

We accompanied the meal with a bottle of the Passobianco 2015, an Etna Chardonnay. I was excited to try this as I had not done so on Etna. According to Carlo, the style of this wine is evolving as they move from flint to richness, from a Chablis style to more of a dependence on lees. The wine had a clean rich nose and showed concentrated fruit. 

According to Carlo, the area of Val d'Orcia in which Tenuta di Trinoro is located had been almost abandoned between 1960 and 1980 with the primary activity being sharecropping. Sheep-breeding came with the Sardinians when they emigrated here between 1960 and 1970. The houses in the area were primarily second homes for the wealthy.

Andrea had been a wine broker and imported French and Italian wines to the US between 1982 and 1986. He wanted to come back to Italy but, before doing so, went to Bordeaux and spent some time learning winemaking from his friends Jean Luc Thunevin of Chateau Valandraud and Peter Sisseck of Dominio de Pingus.  Armed with Bordeaux philosophy, practices, and cuttings, Andrea went to the Tuscan hinterlands, to land that was to him reminiscent of the left- and right-bank Bordeaux soils, and bought the 200-ha property that is Tenuta di Trinoro.

I will discuss the estate and the wines in a subsequent post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Andrea Franchetti and Passopisciaro: Early (and continuing) shapers of the Mt Etna wine direction

According to Nesto and di Savino (The World of Sicilian Wine):

Giuseppe Benanti, guided by the enologist Salvo Foti, had tried in the 1990s to bring Etna and his estate, Benanti, to the attention of greater Italy and the world. But this was not enough. As is so often in history, and particularly the history of Sicily, it took outsiders to bring attention and value to local realities. ... In 2000 Etna's wine industry awakened suddenly. Foreign attention and capital arrived. The newcomers Frank Cornelisen from Belgium, Marc de Grazia from Florence, and Andrea Franchetti from Rome bought vineyards on Etna and became evangelists of its potential (Ed. note: Andrea stipulates that Marc de Grazia came to Etna a little after Frank and him.).

Franchetti comes from a famous and wealthy Roman family that is linked to the Frankfurt Rothschilds. He came to Etna (from his Tuscan estate called Tenuta di Trinoro) looking for high-altitude vineyards where the grapes would mature in the cool of autumn and settled on Passopisciaro on Etna's north face. Franchetti's first wine was a Nerello (Passapisciaro 2001) but, as he states in a personal communication, "I tried to make a Nerello that I liked right away, but wasn't able, until 2005 when I finally started getting it. Since then our Nerello has been, I think, getting better because of new touches in the winemaking." He began planting Petit Verdot which he blended with Cesanese d' Affile to make a wine he called Franchetti.

In 2008 Franchetti created and sponsored a wine fair called Le Contrade dell 'Etna where the region's producers showcase their wines -- within the contrada context -- to the wine press and enthusiasts. This fair was held at Franchetti's estate for a while and then moved to the Graci estate. This year it was held in the open at Castello Romeo Randazzo in Montelaguardia.

Carlo Franchetti, Andrea's cousin, began growing Pinot Noir grapes on a 45-ha estate called Sancaba located on the borderlands of Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio. Andrea became involved in the project and, in 2014, they combined the two Tuscan estates and the Etna holding under a single umbrella called Vini Franchetti.

I had become friendly with Carlo on Instagram and when he discovered that I was going to this year's Contrada, he invited me to lunch at the estate with their other guests on the day of. When Letizia Patanè, Vini Franchetti Export Manager US and Asia, reached out to me with the formal invite, I asked about visiting both the Passopisciaro and Tenuta di Trinoro estates (Brandon Tokash had already been working on setting up a visit to the former but the date and time had not yet been finalized.). Shortly after that initial contact Letizia came back with two potential dates for the Etna visit and indicated that Carlo would be leading me on the tasting in Tuscany on the Friday of Contrada week.

Brandon, Lidia, and I attended the lunch at Passopisciaro and all met Carlo for the first time. We had to dodge a few raindrops (we were sitting outside) but a great time was had by all. It was at lunch that I met Sarah Bray, Vini Franchetti US Brand Ambassador, and found out that she would be the one leading us on the Wednesday tour.

Carlo Franchetti, author, Brandon Tokash, and Lidia Rizzo

Sarah was ready and waiting when we arrived and proposed that we walk up to the higher portions of the vineyard as we conversed. She corroborated the Nesto and di Savino Franchetti Etna origin story. Further, she indicated that 2001 was the first vintage of the Passo Rosso and that Jancis Robinson, after tasting it, thought it was good.

Sarah Bray

Guardiola, a 8-ha property just on the edge of the DOC, was bought in 2002 (Some of the vines are DOC and others are not). Two hectares were planted to Petit Verdot in 2001/2002 at between 800 and 1000 m altitude and another 2 ha to Cesanese d' Affile. These vines were planted at 12,000 vines/ha with 5 bunches/vine. The vines were subjected to green harvests in order to further concentrate their energy. These vines were the source of the Franchetti wine first introduced in 2005. The current configuration of Guardiola is 3 ha split between Chardonnay, Petit Verdot and Cesanese d'Affile and the remainder dedicated to Nerello Mascalese.

Once Franchetti was introduced, Andrea pivoted and sought to make a great white wine from Chardonnay (first bottling in 2007) and Nerello Mascalese wines that reflected their terroir (first bottling of Contrada wines in 2008) . The distribution of vines by contrada, and the individual contrada characteristics, are shown in the figure below.

Source:vinifranchetti.com

In pursuing a Chardonnay that rivals Burgundy, Vini Franchetti states thusly: "The harvest is quite fussy, as we pick little portions of the vineyard every day, tasting the berries trailing along the terraces day after day, harvesting only when each individual cluster is ripe."

In order to ensure that any differences in the wines are contrada-specific, the contrada wines are given the same vinification treatment: fermentation in steel vats; malolactic and 18 months aging in large neutral oak barrels; fining with bentonite; and no filtering. The Franchetti is aged in barrique.

At the conclusion of the winery and vineyard tour, we repaired to a conference room where representative wines had been set up for us to taste.

We began with the 2015 Passorosso (Passopisciaro until a few years ago). The grapes for this wine are sourced from 70 - 100-year-old, bush-trained vines grown at altitudes between 550 and 1000 m in the contrade of Malpasso, Guardiola (40% of grapes), Santo Spirito, Favazza, and Arcuria. High-toned red fruit with smoke, leather, and mineral notes. On the palate, bright red fruit, acidity, with drying tannins on the finish.

The 2015 Contrada Rampante was made from 100-year-old-vines which are planted at 8000/vines/ha and yielded 17.6 hl/ha. Herbs. smoke, iron, sweet tar, tobacco, and spices. Good fruit levels but not as focused as I would have liked.

The Contrada Chiappemaccine 2015 was the least complex of the wines I had tasted up to this point. Not very giving on the nose and non-complex on the palate. The 2014 edition of this wine showed fresh red fruit, sweet herbs and spice. Tobacco on the palate.

The 2014 Contrada G was elegant. Smoke, tobacco, leather, and sweet tobacco. Savoriness. Complex, big fruit but balanced by acidity. Silky tannins. Long finish.

The Franchetti 2014 is a blend of 70% Petit Verdot and 30% Cesanese d' Affile. Sarah called this a winemaker-oriented wine. Yields of 17 hl/ha. Fermented with selected yeasts in stainless steel tanks for 10 - 15 days.  Malolactic and 8 months aging in barriques, followed by 10 months in cement and 2 months in bottle. Bentonite fining. Rich, inky, with herbs and smoky barrel notes. Powerful. Not a classic Etna wine but I loved.
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This was a lengthy visit and I would like to thank Sarah for the patience she exhibited in the face of interminable questions. Her grace under fire and knowledge of the estate, viticulture, and viniculture contributed significantly to the feeling of completeness we had at the end of the tour. Thanks also to Vini Franchetti management for making staff available, without restrictions, to enlighten us about the operations. And, of course, thanks to Brandon and Lidia for continuing to make my trips to Etna more than worthwhile and for being high-quality friends.

How has Franchetti contributed to the shaping of the wine direction on Etna? First, he was part of the initial group of outside investors who brought the potential of this region to the eyes of the wider world. Second, he showed that a Bordeaux cultivar (Petit Verdot) could be blended with an almost extinct cultivar (Cesanese d'Affile) to make a world-class, non-indigenous wine on the mountain. Third, his focus on the importance of contrada effects, both in the stable of wines that he produces and in his establishment and continuing support for Contrada dell"Etna.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme