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The empire of the Marchese de’ Frescobaldi is huge! A few numbers can prove it. The Florentine company is the fourth most profitable company in Italy after Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia), Marchesi Antinori and Planeta (Sicily). It produces the eighth largest turnover in the private winery segment with around 130 million euros. It is exciting that the Vaud Schenk Group, unknown to many, is on the same level. The Schenk family (Maison Blanche, Martheray, Châtagneréaz, Saint-Pierre) is a giant in Italy! parentheses are closed. And, at 1480 hectares, Frescobaldis is the third most populated region after Zonin (Veneto, Prosecco) and Antinoris.
So the winery is big. And historical. Wine has been produced since 1308. At that time, in the heyday of medieval Florence, the margraves (meaning Marquis) were the bankers of the English crown. And in the High Renaissance they are important architects and they also exchange works of art for wine, for example with a certain Michelangelo…
Twelve wineries in all major regions
And the winery is exciting! There are classic zones. But it’s not just him. As they say in their motto, they cultivate the Tuscan variety. “The wealth of Tuscany lies in its diversity,” says President Lamberto Frescobaldi. “North and south, mountains and sea, cities and country. Our family wineries should fully reflect this diversity and the individual regions of the different regions.»
These are Frescobaldis’s goods:
- Tenuta Castel Giocondo in Montalcino
- Tenuta Ammiraglia in Magliano in Maremma
- Perano in Gaiole in Chianti
- Tenuta Remole in Sieci near Florence
- Tenuta Castiglioni in Montespertoli
- Pomino Castle in Pomino
- Nipozzano Castle in Rufina
- Tenuta Calimaia in Montepulciano
- Prison island Gorgona
- Essays in Friuli
- Ornellaia and Masseto in Bolgheri
- Luce in Brunello
So let’s take a little trip to Tuscany and take a closer look at the three mansions. The journey begins in Tuscany where everything is different from anywhere else…
Castello Pomino: Tuscan rarities
sparkling wine? – Almost no one produces in Tuscany. pinot noir? – Same thing. But “almost nobody” does not mean nobody. And if Lamberto Frescobaldi is behind it, then one thing is guaranteed: quality! The busy family godfather says: “I was at the German wine university Geisenheim to manage a Luce vertical. Then a young 23-year-old woman from South Tyrol came up to me and said: You know what? As someone who has made sparkling wine my entire life, I would love to make red wine one day. I said to him: You know? I have something for you: Pomino! So he was able to make his red wine there and at the same time we made our dream of Tuscan sparkling wine come true.»
The only real Tuscan sparkling wine
Pomino comes from pomo, meaning apple, because apples were grown on the land. In the middle of the 19th century, when the vineyards grew to 700 meters above sea level, it was Angelo Frescobaldi who brought here the Pinot Noir, Blanc and Gris grape varieties as well as Chardonnay. M lie. And his wife, Leonia d’Albezzi, makes the wines at Italy’s first gravity winery. At that time, he even wanted to make sparkling wine, but could not succeed due to the lack of infrastructure. And then, 100 years later, Lamberto came!
Called the rare sparkling wine from Tuscany, Leonia is “the only wine that has been truly commercialized,” says wine expert Francesca Pratesi. 50,000 bottles are produced. Plus 8,000 rosé and 10’000 young wines. Naturally, according to Méthode Champenoise, this is why special old presses from Champagne were moved to Pomino. The wines are DOC wines, meaning the smallest DOC in Italy: Pomino where 99 percent of Frescobaldi’s wines come from.
a curtain of grapes
This includes the sweet wine Vinsanto from Trebbiano, Malvasia Bianca Toscana and San Colombano. The wine is pressed in the classical way, that is, the grapes are hung to dry after harvest. There they form a real curtain of grapes for six months, that is, from September to February, until they are pressed. A fascinating sight!
So much so that Lamberto gets a little pathetic and his eyes sparkle: “All wine must have a soul.” The man could be the president of a large company. But he’s still a winemaker. With body and soul.
Castello Nipozzano: object of desire of the great Donatello
Located in the heart of the small Chianti Rufina region, the eleventh-century castle is unmissable. Perched on top of it, it occupies a strategically important location, protecting the entire Nipozzano region for over a thousand years. It was completely bombed by the Nazis during World War II, but later rebuilt. Wines are already famous in the 15th century. And so they are objects of desire of famous people of the Renaissance, such as the great sculptor Donatello. The castle is also home to the Collezione privata, where precious wines are kept for each member of the Frescobaldi family. Enough wine to last a lifetime and beyond. One is almost inclined to say: a wine tomb…
Ağlayana has 240 hectares of land with vineyards and a total of around 1.2 million bottles are produced. After all, this accounts for a quarter of Chianti Rufina’s total production. The rest is shared by 21 wineries. “We pick everything by hand,” says winemaker Lorenzo Portaro, “and then each fruit is examined on a sorting table with six people.” It is gently extracted to avoid harsh tannins and the must is pumped over the marc cap. The course was 85 percent Sangiovese bred. Also a small Petit Verdot alongside Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc.
Tenuta Castel Giocondo: Brunello’s Birthplace
The Sangiovese clone named Brunello was first named by Ferruccio Biondi-Santi in 1888. “We should be grateful to him today,” says CastelGiocondo winemaker Davide Bozzon. But at the turn of the century, around 1800, a type of Brunello di Montalcino was produced. From four wineries. One of them is Castel Giocondo with its castle dating from 1100. Today adorning CastelGiocondo’s labels after a famous fresco from Siena, the Cavaliere underlines its historical significance.
Frescobaldi is making Brunello not only in Castel Giocondo, where 210 hectares are under vineyards (95% Sangiovese, 5% Merlot), but also in its new 88-hectare flagship winery, Luce. The feature is already detailed here. Here you can find the link. Four wines are made in CastelGiocondo: Merlot Lamaiole, Rosso, Brunello, Brunello Riserva.
At CastelGiocondo, organic is a matter of ethics
Davide says the bottle is extraordinarily fresh, thanks to the surrounding forests and the much-cited temperature differences between day and night. And with the optical selection detector, unsightly fruits are hit. Organic farming has been going on at CastelGiocondo for years without a land certificate. “For us, it’s not a marketing issue, it’s an ethical issue,” the winemaker says. There’s not even water here. “But now we’re going to change that. If you look at recent harvests, it’s become inevitable. So we created a lake and we’re going to build two or three more.” However, Davide hopes that three to four months without rain will not become the norm, as has been the case in the past few years. Because irrigation should remain an emergency program. New plantings are watered as of 2019.
game in montage
The number of vineyards is too many for Brunelli. “We have a lot of wealth and we can play blind,” Bozzon explains. Fermented in stainless steel. It is matured in 178 hectoliter large oak barrels. Finished wines are placed in large cement tanks before bottling. “These are from 1972 when the basement was built.” And there are 600,000 bottles at the end.
We taste barrel samples before we get to this. The 21er is very tough – it won’t be bottled until 2025 and will be on the market in 2026: reductant, too much flint permeating, glowing due to CO. malolactic fermentation2. The 20s are beautiful: juicy, with tannins and never astringent, the wine fills the throat and ends with a long finish. This will one day be 18/20 points.
Ornellaia: Big Boss leaves – and new crops
Two famous wineries, Ornellaia and Masseto, founded in Bolgheri by Lodovico Antinori, have been in Frescobaldis’s possession since 2005. The President is Marchese Ferdinando Frescobaldi. The director is Axel Heinz. He has made such a good name for himself in Bordeaux that he is a Munich native who in 2005 became a winemaker and later director of Ornellaia and Masseto. But in the summer, this story becomes history. Because Heinz leaves Bolgheri and returns to France. He became CEO of Château Lascombes, a deuxième grand cru classé winery in Margaux.
Source : Blick
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
