Tenuta Sette Ponti Oreno Super Tuscan 2020 (750ml)

 

Rated 97 Points by James Suckling

 

A red with a layered, velvety texture, showing blackberry and black-olive character, together with some iodine and graphite.  Full-bodied and rich with lots of fruit and chewy tannins.  Savory.  50% merlot, 40% cabernet sauvignon and 10% petit verdot.  Needs two or three years to soften.

 

Rated 95 Points by Wine Spectator

 

This is lush, yet dense and lively, offering black cherry, blackberry and black currant fruit, shaded by mineral, cedar and spice elements.  Firms up by the finish, echoing fruit, mineral and spice accents, with fine length.  Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.  Best from 2024 

 

Rated 94 Points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

From a warm vintage, the Tenuta Sette Ponti 2020 Oreno (a blend of certified organic Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot) is very rich and fleshed out, and definitely softer compared to the 2019 vintage before it.  This wine shows lots of savory fruit and velvety concentration with blackberry preserves and baked cherry.  Oreno awards you with a very generous expression from Tuscany that can be enjoyed in the near or medium-term.

 

Rated 94 Points by Vinous Media

 

The 2020 Oreno is a dark, brooding beauty.  Black cherry, plum, tobacco, spice, menthol, licorice and dried herbs all race across the palate.  Deep, fleshy and super-expressive, the 2020 Oreno has a ton to offer.  It should drink well with minimal cellaring but also has enough substance to drink well for many years to come.  Antonio Galloni

 

Tenuta Sette Ponti Oreno Super Tuscan 2020

 

Appellation:  Toscana IGT

 

Oreno, named after the river that runs through the property, is the flagship of Tenuta Sette Ponti.  The soils that produce the fruit for Oreno are a blend of clay, sand and the stony galestro limestone that is special to Tuscany.  Clusters are reduced to one or two per stalk in May to assure maximum quality when they are hand harvested in autumn.  In the winery, grapes are hand sorted and destemmed.  Fermentation occurs in a combination of temperature-controlled and lined, open-top tanks, followed by malolactic fermentation.  Oreno is aged in French Allier barriques and in bottle before release.

 

Composition:  50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot

 

Tasting Note

 

Spicy aromas of black fruit and touches of chocolate dominate the nose and palate.  The wine is full-bodied, with supple tannins.

 

Food Pairings

 

Pairs well with full flavoured meats, game, roasted and braised red meat.

 

Aging:  18 Months in French oak.

 

Harvest Note

 

The winter of the Tuscan hinterland was quite cold, regularly rainy and often windy, facilitating the winter operations of pruning the vineyards.  Spring arrived at the end of March, with warm temperatures slightly earlier.  The vineyards had a budding with a slight advance, showing very early a production rich in bunches and intense green leaves.  Summer was hot but breezy, sometimes interspersed with little rains.  The grapes ripening was between end of August and end of September and it was very balanced, offering wines that are very expressive, fine, elegant and delicate.  The Merlot expresses itself at its best.

 

 

Tenuta Sette Ponti

 

      Points of Distinction

 

• One of Tuscany’s most innovative, quality-driven producers of world-class Super Tuscans
• Owned by luxury goods entrepreneur Antonio Moretti, who engaged the finest team of enologists, viticulturists, and agronomists to help ensure the highest quality wines
• Estate includes property in the famed Maremma coastal zone, which produces the wine Poggio al Lupo
• Sister to the Sicilian Feudo Maccari estate also owned by Moretti

 

Tenuta Sette Ponti lies on historic land in the heart of the Chianti zone at the end of the Via del Monte, known locally as the Via dei Sette Ponti, in a beautiful hidden valley.  Named for the seven medieval bridges crossing the Arno River on the road from Arezzo to Florence - one of which, the Ponte Buriano, is perceptible in the right far background of Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa - the estate has a storied history.  But it has been the dedication and savvy of luxury goods entrepreneur Antonio Moretti that has transformed the 750-acre estate into a multifaceted farm property that is today one of Tuscany’s most innovative, quality-driven producers of world-class Super Tuscans.

 

Tenuta Sette Ponti’s first release was the 1998 vintage Crognolo, named after a wild bush, Cornus, which grows on the estate.  The estate’s second release, Oreno, is named after a small river running through the estate.

 

Channeling Expertise

 

Previously the property of the Princesses Margherita and Cristina Savoia d’Aosta, the core of the Sette Ponti estate was purchased in 1957 as a hunting retreat by architect Alberto Moretti, and is now the family property of Antonio Moretti, his son.

 

Viticulture is not new to the estate, but winemaking is; the yield of the property’s vineyards was until 1997 sold to various respected Tuscan wine producers.  When Moretti decided to produce his own wine on the estate, he knew how to find the expertise he needed and, more important, how to learn from it.  Once the decision to transform the vineyards was made, he engaged a team of gifted enologists.  After considerable research, he also engaged Gilbert Bouvet, one of France’s most skilled viticulturalists, to source new vines and the appropriate rootstocks for the best clones of Sangiovese.  Sette Ponti’s varied soils led Moretti to consulting agronomist Dr. Benedetto d’Anna, who guided preparation of the land for new plantings and creation of drainage channels without disturbing the natural balance of the soil.

 

The Hill of The Wolf

 

In 1999, Moretti purchased a second estate.  His choice of zone was based on a desire to produce wine in an area capable of great quality, but also a relatively undeveloped one with tremendous potential for growth.  He acquired the Azienda Agricola Le Fornace in the Maremma on Tuscany’s southern coast, an area that would soon draw intense interest from several highly regarded producers.  The property, in the DOC zone of Morellino di Scansano, was renamed Azienda Agricola Poggio al Lupo, or “Hill of the Wolf.”  It covers 115 acres, but at the time of purchase supported only 12 acres of vines, the yield of which was sold in bulk.  From the estate’s original Cabernet Sauvignon, Alicante and Sangiovese plantings, established in 1989, the total area under vine has been increased to 37 acres.  Of this, 40% is in Sangiovese, 35% in Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% in Alicante and the remainder in Petit Verdot.

 

A Third Estate

 

In 2000, Moretti acquired a third property in the Noto area of Sicily.  He named this 250-acre estate Feudo Maccari.

 

 

Rated 95 Points by Wine Spectator

 

This is lush, yet dense and lively, offering black cherry, blackberry and black currant fruit, shaded by mineral, cedar and spice elements.  Firms up by the finish, echoing fruit, mineral and spice accents, with fine length.  Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.  Best from 2024