Planeta Burdese Sicilia IGT 2015 (750ml)

 

Rated 93 Points by James Suckling

 

A suave blend of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc with dried blackcurrants, leather and dried elderberries.  Full-bodied and structured with iron-clad tannins and a pretty backbone of refreshing acidity.  Drink from 2021.

 

Rated 91 Points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc offers power and density with lots of sound varietal purity.  The 2015 Sicilia Menfi Burdese is a textured red wine with rich and succulent characteristics that flow to black fruit, spice, tar and smoke.  I like the restrained intensity of this sunny and warm vintage.

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine Enthusiast

 

Made with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, this opens with aromas of dark-skinned berry, bell pepper and tilled earth.  The structured palate offers black plum, white pepper, mocha and tobacco alongside smooth tannins.

 

Planeta Burdese Sicilia IGT 2015

 

In local dialect Burdese means from Bordeaux and recalls the classic grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.  This is a red wine of great density, structure and balance, produced in limited quantities from selected vineyards.  Burdese is a great wine for aging which offers a complexity of aromas and flavours, fruit of the Sicilian sun.

 

Tasting Notes

 

A Bordeaux made in Sicily from a selection of the best grapes of the company’s vineyards.  A powerful red, structured on a dense and important tannin texture balanced by a decisive alcoholic content. Tasting strength based on a ripe, very dense, rich fruit. The flavours are those of bilberry and preserved sour cherries mixed with leather which gradually develop to intense aromas of cherry, cocoa, iodine and rosemary.

 

Composition:  70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Cabernet Franc

 

Alcohol:  13.5%

 

Pairings

 

A wine with attitude, decisive and energetic enough to be enjoyed on its own or matched with something just as strong and full of character such as casseroles or game.  For a vegetarian alternative, try grilled radicchio with mature cheese or almost caramelized roast onions.

 

Vineyards:  Dispensa & Maroccoli

 

Variety:  Dispensa - Cabernet Sauvignon & Maroccoli - Cabernet Franc.

 

Type of Soil:  Dispensa - Moderately deep, very few stones, moderately limey. Maroccoli - Many stones, averagely chalky with abundant limey sections.

 

Altitude:  Dispensa - 75 m a.s.l., Maroccoli - 430 m a.s.l.

 

Yield Per Hectare:  Dispensa - 75 quintals.  Maroccoli - 60 quintals.

 

Training System:  Spurred cordon.

 

Planting Density:  4.500 vines per hectare.

 

Harvesting Period:  Dispensa – September 5, 2015 Maroccoli – September 15, 2015

 

Vinification:  Destalking followed by 21 days of lying on the skins; after racking, maturation in new Allier oak barriques for 14 months; malolactic fermentation in wood and stainless steel.

 

Maturation:  In Allier oak barriques, 100% new.

 

Bottling Period:  Second half of February

 

 

Aziende Agricole Planeta

 

Our history is the story of a journey through time and space, through Sicily from west to east, and through the five areas where today we produce our wines, our olive oils and the places of our family hospitality.  A long journey which we chose in order to protect the uniqueness of the environment, the countryside and the culture with the same respect with which we explore the characteristics of the terroirs and the vineyards, enhancing the specific details of each area.

 

Family

 

For five centuries and through seventeen generations, our family has been involved with the course of agricultural evolution in the complex land of Sicily, with an approach always inclined to openness and innovation.  Where too often the agricultural world has been confined to ancient ideas of social tradition and production processes, instead we have inherited, from each generation, an instinct to change and to generate positive changes around us, both with people and in the culture.

 

During the 1900’s it was Grandfather Vito who showed us how, rather than in static management of the land, we must all move towards new solutions and new prospects.  At Menfi first of all he transformed our small family winery into a large co-operative winery that in a short time, under Diego’s management, became a collective property and a model of local development.  At the same time as being chairman of the regional institute for vines and wine, Diego contributed as chief mover in the wine making renaissance of Sicily, transforming it into a huge experimental laboratory with illustrious advisers such as Giacomo Tachis, Carlo Corino, Giampaolo Fabris and Attilio Scienza.

 

In the meantime we have grown.  Round the old fortress of Ulmo, where for five centuries we have cultivated our oldest land, a spark was fostered to transfer this experience and all our new ideas in the project of a new company; here, in 1985, we planted our first vineyard.

 

Two different generations – brothers and sisters, children, nieces and nephews – work together since then, with the perfect understanding that derives not only from harmony of character and complementing of abilities, but above all from the unity of vision; love for this land, the desire to protect it and the capacity to imagine every day a new way to appreciate it.

 

Company

 

We travelled through Sicily as on a great wine continent, establishing our estates in five different areas from west to east, seeking our interpretation of them through research into indigenous varieties, including those by now forgotten, and into the suitability of the different terroirs to welcome international varieties as well.  We planned to eventually build around each territory a comprehensive system of experience composed of hospitality, cooking, nature and culture.  On these elements the history of our company has always been based.  This instinct for the future, together with our curiosity to see the world and compare ourselves with it, has guided our choices.

 

We planned to eventually build around each territory a comprehensive system of experience composed of hospitality, cooking, nature and culture.

 

When we planted the first rows next to the fortress of Ulmo in 1985, we already nourished in our hearts and minds the project of how we wished the company to grow; young but with ancient roots, longsighted but vigilant guardians of the land and its traditions.  Those first 50 hectares, in a place so rich for us with history and meaning, were a palette of shapes and colours, a real laboratory in which we began our experiments with micro-vinifications.  With the help of Carlo Corino we defined the identity of our products, preparing to issue the first labels in 1995; Chardonnay.  This wine opened doors to the whole world for us, permitting us to introduce those wines that nobody knew of and which slowly became part of our overall design.

 

To research indigenous varieties, found in the maps of old books telling stories of phantom wines which were once the wealth of the island, we left on our journey through Sicily, from Menfi we went to Vittoria, then to Noto, to Etna and finally to Capo Milazzo.  With the idea of producing each wine in its territory, we went to listen to places and people, learning to be different in different contexts, so we could love, interpret and relate them in a unique way.

 

The ethics of production and the protection of the environment, the countryside and the culture of each place, through sustainable long-term viticulture, wineries perfectly integrated in the landscape and wines which perfectly represent each territory, are common to our presence everywhere.  The spontaneous impulse to pursue beauty pushes us to seek ever new ways to be witness to them, not only with our wines and olive oils but also through the projects for hospitality, art and social responsibility in which we continue to invest.

 

Sustainability

 

We think of sustainability as a direction not as a destination; a task that for a wine-making company today needs to be defined in a broadly ambitious manner.

 

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine Enthusiast

 

Made with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, this opens with aromas of dark-skinned berry, bell pepper and tilled earth.  The structured palate offers black plum, white pepper, mocha and tobacco alongside smooth tannins.