Carmignano (2013)

About this wine

This 2013 Carmignano from Tenuta di Artimino is a blend of Sangiovese with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, the composition giving the wine both Italian lift and international depth. On the nose it offers red cherry and plum with floral notes and a touch of sweet spice. The palate is medium to full bodied with polished tannins and flavors of ripe red fruit, black currant and a background of tobacco and licorice. The producer typically macerates on the skins for around 15 to 20 days and ages the wine in French oak barrels for about eight months, which adds the gentle oak frame you can feel on the finish. The wine shows a persistent finish with balanced acidity and a pleasant, savory aftertaste that reflects Carmignano terroir near Florence and the estate history at Artimino.

About the grape

Sangiovese is the backbone of Carmignano blends and at Artimino it supplies structure and local identity, grown on clayey sandstone and trained to balance vigor with concentrated ripeness. Cabernet Sauvignon was introduced to the area centuries ago under Medici influence and is still called uva francesca locally, here it is planted to add color, tannin and ripe dark fruit and is often fermented and aged separately before blending. Merlot is used in smaller amounts to soften the blend and bring plushness and early approachability, and at Artimino the variety is managed to mature slightly earlier than Sangiovese so it can be blended for balance. All three varieties are typically harvested and vinified separately at the estate to preserve their individual traits, then assembled and aged in oak to harmonize their roles in the bottling.

Quick facts

• 🏛️ The Artimino label celebrates a real Medici villa known as La Ferdinanda, the Villa of a Hundred Chimneys, so each bottle is practically wearing a little piece of UNESCO history.
• 🍇 Carmignano is one of the oldest places in Tuscany to blend Cabernet with Sangiovese, so this 2013 mix of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot continues a local tradition older than the Super Tuscan craze.
• 🌳 The 2013 Artimino release sits on vines from an estate that covers 730 hectares, yet only about 78 hectares are planted to vines, so the wine comes from a deliberately small island of vineyards in a big natural park.
• 🍯 Artimino produces not just red wines, this estate also bottles Vin Santo from the same 2013 year, showing they turn one great vintage into both a dry red and a luscious sweet treasure.
• ⛏️ The vineyards rise on a hill the Etruscans considered sacred, so when you sip this Carmignano 2013 you are tasting grapes grown on land with rituals and stories that go back thousands of years.

Palate profile

Producer

Tenuta di Artimino centers on the Villa Medicea La Ferdinanda, built in 1596 for Ferdinando I de Medici on a historic Etruscan site, and it preserves Renaissance architecture and frescoes. The estate has been cultivated for centuries and its vineyards form part of the Carmignano and Chianti Montalbano terroirs, with a modern agricultural estate of several hundred hectares. The property was developed as a commercial winery and hospitality venue by the Olmo family in the 1980s, and today it is managed by the descendants Francesco Spotorno Olmo and Annabella Pascale. Villa La Ferdinanda and the Medici villas and gardens group were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013, and the estate now combines wine production with tourism and olive oil making.