Recently I was invited to join a group made up of wine journalists, wine producers, sommeliers and restaurant owners, with the purpose of blind tasting twelve red wines from Tuscany.
The tasting was to evaluate the quality of the individual wines and in turn the overall opinion of the category of the chosen denomination: Chianti Classico Riserva 2020.
To make the proceedings more interesting, included in the line up were two wines masquerading as Chianti Classico 2020 Riservas.
Two questions come to mind on receiving such an invite, why would a single winery go to such trouble? And secondly, am I crazy enough to accept such a challenge?
The answer to the first question is simple and straightforward: anything that gets wine people talking about Tuscan wine can only be productive for the region and Italian wine in general.
The reason for my acceptance of this fun challenge was partly due to the generosity of the winery to hold such an event, coupled with my pleasure to meet and exchange viewpoints with my fellow panel members.
Before we get to the event, a few words are needed on Arillo in Terrabianca, its owners and management team. The story began to gain momentum in 2019 when Adriana and Urs Burkard, an Italian Swiss family, purchased Tenuta Terrabianca in Chianti Classico, along with Tenuta Il Tesoro in Maremma and Tenuta di Colle Brezza in Val d’Orcia and hence the Arillo in Terrabianca brand was born.
The present logo is a representation of the Burkard family coat of arms: two stars and a castle on three hills, within an oval reminiscent of the shape of a grape. The castle represents the solid structure of the family through the two sons, Gregor and Ricardo (represented as two stars), the hills depicting the three estates.
The wines:
Tenuta Terrabianca
Sacello Chianti Classico DOCG
Poggio Croce Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG
Terra Bianca Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG
Tenuta il Tesoro
IGT Toscana IGT Toscana Rosso
Campaccio Collezione IGT Toscana Rosso
The first two are IGT wines consisting of a blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The ‘Campaccio Collezione’ is from superior selected sites.
In addition, the Bevo DOC Maremma Toscana range of wines:
BevoBianco Chardonnay and Viognier
BevoRosa Sangiovese
BevoRosso Merlot
Organic conversion began in 2020 in Tenuta Terrabianca and Tenuta il Tesoro. Tenuta di Colle Brezza is already organic certified.
Production numbers of Arillo in Terrabianca are 150,000 bottles per vintage.
The management team is led by Adriana Burkard, CEO Alberto Fusi, agronomist Emanule Tonninelli assisted by Ruggero Mazzilli, winemaker Vieri Vannoni with assistance from Luano Bensi. My host for the day Lorenzo Ficini, is the sales and Commercial Director.
Now back to the main business of the day— the blind tasting!
Firstly, the object of the exercise is for the individual taster to define their preferred wines and to mark them accordingly. Then, to ‘sniff out’ the two wines not of the same denomination as the other ten.
My first action is to approach the nose, or bouquet if you will, of all the wines individually, this will inform me if any of the group is giving cause for concern, and I found three wines that unfortunately did cause some concern: the lesson here is to understand winemaking is not an exact science, things occasionally do not go to plan! These three bottles did not condemn the winery that made them, it could just be these particular bottles were not showing well on the day.
The next task was to find the two wines that did not fit in with the main denomination. Because the Biondi Santi wine is made in Montalcino and Sangiovese from this region has a slightly different outer colour from Sangiovese in Chianti Classico, I managed to narrow it down to two wines and guessed the correct one! The other wine that didn’t fit in, was a touch more difficult to identify, again, I narrowed it down to two …and chose the wrong one!
The rest of the ‘work’ was simple; I defined the wines I appreciated the most and scored them accordingly. Then generally wrote down my personal opinion of the CC Riserva 2020.
Although you could think the work to be complete, you would be wrong: The process needs to be done again, to go back and re-taste each mystery wine to see if your first impression still applied. The trouble with wine is that being a live product, when it engages with oxygen things start to change: it is a “moving target” as some wines react quickly when allowed to breathe, others need more time to open up before revealing more enticing nuances, others just “close down” revealing nothing at all. There was one wine that after nearly 50 minutes in the glass, started to out perform its first evaluation…Thank goodness I spotted it and noted the wine in question on my tasting report, prior to handing in my paper for assessment, hence saving my face in front of my peers and more especially my wife!
The Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva 2020 line up for the blind tasting consisted of: Arillo in Terrabianca Poggio Croce ~ Castellare di Castellina ~ Castello di Ama Montebuoni ~ Félsina Rancia ~ Monteraponi Il Campitello ~ Querciabella ~ Castello di Monsanto ~ I Fabbri ~ Antinori (Tenuta Tignanello) ~ Montebernardi. The "mystery" guest wines: Selvapiana Bucerchiale Chianti Rufina DOCG Riserva 2020 ~ Biondi Santi Rosso di Montalcino DOCG 2020
I enjoyed the blind tasting immensely and wish to thank the Burkard family foremost. My particular gratitude to Lorenzo Ficini for his gracious invitation.
To my fellow tasters on the panel, I wish all great enjoyment and success in all their various activities connected to the wonderful world of wine.
Finally, to my readers and followers: The commitment of this winery and its future plans are already in motion. I urge you to make a note to connect, follow it with interest and be impressed!
Should you wish to access my tasting notes and ratings, please type in the winery name in my website's menu RATINGS section:
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