Tag Archives: Val d’Orcia

Tenuta di Trinoro debuts its 2021 vintage

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Each vintage is a new, tailor-made splendour

The Tenuta di Trinoro lies in the Val d’Orcia, near Sarteano, in a landscape that is picturesque yet mysterious. The Trinoro wine estate has always striven to express its personal point of view through its wines. At the helm of Tenuta di Trinoro today is Benjamin Franchetti, second generation owner. “For the very first time, Tenuta di Trinoro stands on its own, without the hand of my father, who for over thirty years guided its growth. Trinoro 2021 is far from shy, however; rather, it is almost too self-confident, explosive, as though it wants to shout to the world, ’Here I am!’ What pleases me most about this wine is that it is a quintessential Tenuta di Trinoro: strong and fierce, but also delicate and elegant. It’s as though my father’s soul lives in the grapes that produced it, and this thought is reassuring”. 

Fruit of the creative vision of Andrea Franchetti, Tenuta di Trinoro has the mission, vintage after vintage, of embodying the highest quality possible of the wine estate which carries the same name. Thanks to the estate’s multitude of micro-parcels, its cuvée composition may change, even significantly, but Trinoro remains fundamentally true to its original idea, serving as the perfect interpreter of its land and of its time.

“The style and quality that we are looking for are always clear in my mind”, continues Benjamin, “and the fact that we put on the table as many as 50 different microvinifications every year and have no predefined recipe means that each new Tenuta di Trinoro is really tailor-made, springing from our terroir with its distinctive soils and from the traits of the vintage. This way we can create something truly exceptional each year”.

Trinoro 2021 is the offspring of a growing season that presented many challenges. High temperatures in March awakened the vines from their winter slumber at least two weeks early. Then April brought a freeze that hit the entire country, forcing the team to carpet the vineyards with 4,000 anti-frost candles which illuminated the vine rows and surrounding hills for two nights in a row. Later in the year, exceptional summer heat called into play emergency irrigation and significant cluster-thinning to ensure successful ripening. September brought fresh evening breezes to the valley, bringing relief to the vines, and the cold nights of the final part of the harvest period contributed to forming the vertical character this year’s Tenuta di Trinoro.

The harvest, which saw extremely low yields, took place in multiple phases from September 21st through October 21st. Following the fermentations and 8-month ageing in barriques, Lorenzo Fornaini and the winemaking team took measure of the vintage and finally dressed Tenuta di Trinoro 2021 with a cuvée of explosive, high-altitude Merlot (600 meters) and crisp, fragrant Cabernet Franc, revealing a bold, embracing character with dark fruit and flinty notes and a superb elegance in the glass.    

“One of the characteristics of the 2021 that particularly struck me” commented Lorenzo Fornaini, “is its immediacy. It is clear that this wine is obviously destined for long ageing, but it is already very seductive. True, it is a powerful vintage, but the balance between tannins and acidity gives it a marked gracefulness as well”.  

Tenuta di Trinoro 2021 is flanked by its second vin Le Cupole 2022, whose cuvee also dips its pen into the many estate microparcels. The 2022 Le Cupole expresses itself with an exuberant, energy-laden personality in which structure co-exists beautifully with easy approachability.

Tenuta di Trinoro 2021 and Le Cupole 2022 have been available in the markets since April 2024. 

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Tenuta di Trinoro is located in Sarteano, in Val d’Orcia, at the foothill of the small fortress of Castiglioncello di Trinoro. Founded over 30 years ago by Andrea Franchetti, Tenuta di Trinoro is a true icon worldwide, with wines whose identities continue to transcend their creator. Its 22 hectares of vineyards, lying at 400-620 meters elevation, are planted in various types of soil, but the common denominator is blue clay, in various percentages through all the parcels. Cabernet Franc and Merlot predominate, but Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot are also cultivated, in addition to a small amount of Semillon, creating a range of excellence. The estate portfolio includes: Tenuta di Trinoro and its second vin Le Cupole; Palazzi (Merlot); I Campi (a collection of 3 single-vineyard Cabernet Franc); and Bianco di Trinoro. Directing the estate today is Benjamin Franchetti, who, assisted by a well-established and passionate team, carries on the dream cultivated by Andrea Franchetti.

Le Cupole tells the story of the 2020 growing year

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While the gran vin Tenuta di Trinoro will keep the world waiting for another year.

“On the 26th of September, we finally had a break in the weather and the cold arrived. The deeper colours of autumn became visible all around and the sky cleared. On the 30th, the vines dried off and harvest began.”

These are the 2020 harvest notes of Andrea Franchetti (who passed away last December). The growing year at Tenuta di Trinoro opened with a normal spring, followed by a summer that brought heat spells and a week of rains in late August, and finally a September that gifted grapes with optimal ripeness. The estate vineyard team precisely followed the progress of the grapes right up to the harvest, ensuring optimal quality.

All this took place in Sarteano in the Val d’Orcia, in the south-east corner of Tuscany, one of the world’s most intriguing and mesmerising places, on a wine estate that has always successfully imprinted its own distinctive signature on its wines, recognised across the globe.

The 2020 vintage saw the bottling of the entire Tenuta di Trinoro range, but on a different calendar this year. Tenuta di Trinoro 2020 will spend another 12 months in the cellar, before its release in spring 2023. In the lead up to this, its younger sibling – Le Cupole 2020 – tells the story of this growing year.

As Andrea Franchetti used to say, “con la luna di febbraio il vino diventa vino,”or “with February’s moon wine becomes wine”. This is the moment of the winemaking year when wines from the individual vineyard parcels are tasted, to select those that best express the character of Le Cupole. Fermentation takes place in steel vats, followed by ageing in once- and twice-used oak barrels, and finally blending and further ageing in concrete vats.

Le Cupole 2020, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot that can vary from vintage to vintage, possesses, in the words of estate director-winemaker Calogero Portannese, “a vibrant life-force, harmonious complexity, and silky elegance,” a description that can only make us wonder what awaits us with gran vin Tenuta di Trinoro 2020.

Début of Tenuta di Trinoro vintage 2017, flanked by a new Bianco

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2017 was a challenging growing year. Even a unique environmental niche such as the Val d’Orcia had to confront, like the rest of Italy, three months of intense summer heat, made more severe by a lack of groundwater reserves, the result of the previous relatively dry winter. But the Tenuta di Trinoro team was successful in meeting the challenge, demonstrating determined, expert vineyard management that put into practice every tenet of the production philosophy of Andrea Franchetti, winery founder and creator of wines unique for their concentration, depth, and complexity.   

 

Thanks to the lengthy, hot season, there was certainly no lack of concentration in the fruit. At harvest, begun 27 September and concluded 13 October, the berries were small, with thick skins and little juice, and their wines emerged near-opaque, black, and concentrated. It required waiting some months before they could be evaluated properly and a final blend assembled, which privileged Cabernet Franc, at 69%, assisted by 23% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon.   

Tenuta di Trinoro 2017 is full-bodied with fine depth, “and dense-packed, silky tannins; the palate showcases well-ripened plum and blueberry, with wild herb and iron-like impressions,” explained Franchetti. Some years of bottle-ageing will allow it to achieve full expression and “to lose those slight vegetal notes that, of course, are classic to the two Cabernets.”    

2017 also marks the debut—at least to the markets – of the Tenuta’s Bianco, a one-of-a-kind, 100% Semillon that grows in a tiny, sandy-soil parcel at an elevation of 630 metres and with a very tight, 1 x 1 metre layout. The pronounced aromatic qualities classic to the variety are nicely balanced in the grapes by a forward crispness and acidity, producing a wine that is concentrated yet taut, displaying great depth and promising significant cellarability.  

 

Tenuta di Trinoro. Located near Sarteano, at the entrance to the Val d’Orcia, in southeast Tuscany, the estate boasts 16 vineyard parcels, totaling some 25 hectares, planted at elevations of 450-650 metres. Tenuta di Trinoro is a Bordeaux-style cuvée that has always been the estate’s keystone wine. Its portfolio also includes Le Cupole, a younger and more accessible wine from the estate vineyards; I Campi, from three parcels of Cabernet Franc; the all-Merlot Palazzi; and, debuting with the 2017 vintage, Bianco di Trinoro.