Castello Di Ama L'Apparita 2016

Castello di Ama L'Apparita 2016

Red fruits, blackberry. Lavender, mint, sage, spice, new leather and cloves develop with time. The finish has a balsamic note. Layered, aromatic, and wonderfully nuanced. L'Apparita is incredibly silky and refined. Impenetrable.

L'Apparita, the first purebred Merlot produced in Tuscany, has been an iconic wine since its initial harvest in 1985. Two parcels at the top of the Bellavista vineyard comprise the L'Apparita cru. Vines were first planted in 1975 with Canaiolo and Malvasia Bianca; they were replanted in 1982 with Merlot, using the clone nr 342. The open-lyre training system and the predominant clay soil make this cru a crown jewel in world winemaking. Since the first vintage, this wine has maintained its unique expression in which the distinguishing features of Merlot are elevated by the terroir of Ama.

 Winter has been mild and rainy. In April, temperatures raised rapidly, while May and June have been very unstable. Finally, summer arrived in July, and we had great temperature excursions between night and day, which helped to develop aromas and flavors in the wine. Although we had hail at the end of August, grapes were very healthy. After several samplings and organoleptic analysis in the vineyards and our laboratory, on 15th September.

The vinification started using ambient yeasts, in steel tanks at a controlled temperature of 30/33°, with manual pumpovers and a total cuvaison of 28 days. After the first racking, the wine was transferred into steel tanks for malolactic fermentation.

After the malolactic fermentation, the wine has been transferred in oak barriques of fine grain, 50% of which were new, and the rest were second-passage barriques for approximately 14 months.