Marka: Passopisciaro

Format : 0.75

Gradacja : gradazione 15,5%

FRANCHETTI 2012

The season’s drought, with no rain from May to August, left the broom, pine, and beech forests surrounding the winery particularly vulnerable to the flames, and the days leading into the fire were especially hot, with daytime temperatures reaching into the nineties: only the nightly drop in temperatures and irrigation kept the grapes from raisinating. We’d already begun our intense green harvest, leaving a selection of four to five bunches on the vines, when the fires came, set by shepherds to clear lands for their herds on the northern side of the volcano, and we found our production quickly reduced as grape leaves and bunches withered.

Throughout the fall, the evidence of the fires remained, not only in the scorched vineyards but also in the pervasive smell of burnt wood that hung in the air. Reversing the old truism, where there’s fire, there’s smoke, and the lingering odor of charcoal, we find, was inhaled by the grapes themselves and has found its way into the bottlings of our 2012 Franchetti, leaving behind an inky, smoky, dense nose that contrasts with the concentrated, ripe fruit on the palate.

Vineyard age: 12 years

Vineyard area: 2 hectares

Vineyard density: 12,300 vines/Ha

Vineyard altitude: 1,000 m asl

Yield per hectare: 16 Hl/Ha

Fertilization: None

Spraying: Propolis, grapefruit seed extract, copper, sulphur, lime, clay

Vinification: Fermentation in 30hl steel vats for 14 days

Aging: 6 months in new French oak barriques and 14 months in large cement vessels

Bottling: waning moon of April 2014

Production: 2,400 bottles