Winery
Tenuta di Trinoro
“We lost Andrea to cancer in December 2021 at just 72 years of age. His pioneering spirit brought us to Tuscany with his wines from Tenuta di Trinoro, and onto Mount Etna with Passopisciaro. As a tiny consolation we still have his wines to share and devour.” Paul Kaan – WINE DECODED
Located in a remote corner of southeastern Tuscany, Tenuta di Trinoro specializes in rich, age-worthy red wines made of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot. The 200-hectare estate sits in viticultural isolation in the Orcia Valley near Sarteano, where Tuscany meets Umbria and Lazio.
Owner and winemaker Andrea Franchetti acquired the property in the 1980s and in the beginning of the 1990s started planting his first vines. The most important lesson he gleaned from a stint in Bordeaux was the crucial role played by terroir. He saw, in the rough woodland that would become Trinoro,clay-limestone and gravel soils reminiscent of those in Saint-Émilion. Only select parcels were suitable for vine-growing, amid a sea of blue clay, and those he cleared by hand and planted in the style of the Bordelais: high-density, meter-by-meter plantings, with cuttings brought over from some of the region’s great estates.
Placed under a mountain, Tenuta di Trinoro has a mosaic of soils. The vines, densely planted at 10,000 vines per hectare, are more than 27 years old (2019) and, with their extended root system, they have become able to render a distinct taste from every terrain of the estate. 23 hectares are under vine, planted between 400 and 620 meters on southwestern facing slopes. Cabernet Franc and Merlot dominate the plantings, with small parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot on the perimeter.
High thinning, very low yields, extreme ripeness. Orgnaic practices marked by fertilization by sheep manure. Treatment with copper, sulphur, clay, propolis (olive leave extracrt) and grapefruit seed extract.
Yields of as little as 15 hl/ha for the top wine, Trinoro, see them at half those of DRC!
Hand harvested fermented in stainless steel vats for 10-15 days followed by ageing for 5 months in French oak and 1 year in cement.
Concentration of flavor characterize his winemaking style.
