Desiderio Toscana I.G.T. Merlot

Desiderio was a bull which lived on Avignonesi’s Capezzine farm more than one hundred years ago. The largest bull in Tuscany at that time, this majestic animal helped define the Chianina cattle race, specific to the Bistecca Fiorentina. It came as a natural choice to dedicate this Merlot to the beloved bull as a testimony to the wines’ origin. This is Merlot from Tuscany at its best.

2019 VINTAGE
2019 was a great year for wine. Warm weather albeit not dry, was the background to a great production in terms of quantity and quality. With just the right amount of rainfall, work in the vineyards never stopped and great attention was placed to the grapes to balance warmth, rain and soil. 2019 was also a great year for our family. Desiderio is proud to wear a pink bow on the 2019 label to celebrate the birth of Virginie’s first granddaughter, Ophélie.

TASTING NOTES
Explosive olfactory impact. The wide aromatic bouquet ranges from cherry and plum jam to notes of black tea, rhubarb, and graphite, and final touches of cardamom. The entrance is bursting. On the palate it is enveloping and deep, accompanied by a silky and linear tannin typical of the structure of Tuscan Merlot. Tastefully juicy and in symbiosis with the olfactory notes, it gives notes of coconut and black pepper in the aftertaste.

SOIL TYPE
Sedimentation from the Pleistocene (3 million - 120,000 years ago) with a strong fluvial clay origin in Cortona and moderately deep, silty clay soil from the Pliocene (3-5 million years ago) origin in Montepulciano.

VINEYARD SPECIFICS
Greppo: planted in 2001; 282 metres / 925 ft a.s.l.; north-west, south-east orientation; cordon-trained; 5,200 plants / hectare (2,105 plants / acre). La Selva: planted in 2000; 300 metres / 984 ft) a.s.l.; south-east orientation; bush-trained; 7,158 vines / hectare (2,897 vines / acre). Le Badelle: planted in 2000; 375 metres / 1,227 ft a.s.l.; northern orientation; cordontrained; 5,882 vines / hectare (2,380 vines / acre).

HARVEST
The grapes were harvested in early September

VINIFICATION
Fermentation with use of indigenous yeasts in stainless steel vats at a controlled temperature for 25-30 days, with daily pumping over and punching down.

AGEING
In oak barriques (225 ltr)

GRAPES: 
100% Merlot

ALCOHOL
14.5%

PRODUCTION
28,465 bottles

PACKAGING
Formats: 0,75 Lt