VINEYARD | Red soil, clay mixed with limestone. Here we find old alberello pugliese trees, in the classic area of Manduria, worked with incredible care and very low production yields, we are talking about 20 quintals per hectare. The plants have an average age of almost 100 years, with very high planting density, the small parcels are vinified separately then assembled for the ES. For the ES Red, on the other hand, the parcel that stands out the most among the weekly tastings: "a purely emotional research, not necessarily the best or the most precise, but something that strikes us, which has a greater instinctive force," Gianfranco tells us. Only when that emotion is triggered can the selection be produced. The grapes mature in barriques for 12 months (50% new and 50% second passage, the toasting is light), finally aged for another 18 months in glass. Es Red is now ready to leave the cellar.
PERSON | The completion of the cellar, built in the middle of the vineyards, worthily celebrates the coming of age of the company of Gianfranco Fino and Simona Natale, founded in 2004. In recent years they have proposed an interpretation of primitivo of great intensity and articulation, linked to a work in the vineyard that prefers very low yields, obtaining results that are appreciated all over the world. Small numbers, big quality. The company vineyards are trained as alberello, kept as real gardens. Available in the cellar are 5 elegant suites for an all-round wine experience, as well as a tasting room/restaurant to fully immerse in the flavours of a territory that has authentic and surprising peaks of flavour.
WINE | A wine that first of all makes us think. Because it is a Primitivo that condenses two opposite dimensions, austerity and opulence, in an original and multifaceted matter. In addition, in a vintage that was certainly not great in Italy and beyond. The first sensations are strongly linked to the soil, with suggestions of roots, leather and echoes of balsamic essences and resins. In the background ripe notes of black cherries and maraschino cherries, then the fine spiced array on several levels: pepper, licorice and cinnamon. The mouth combines a generous and abundant body in a rigorous and austere gait, with a very incisive and deep tannic texture, for a warm wine, punctuated by spices and by the contrast between fruity sweetness and powerful structure, with sensations of toasted almonds, spicy and almost bittersweet hints chasing each other. It has a world inside it, to be awaited for slowly, the peak will not arrive before 5-7 years.
