TUFARELLO Tufarello Nero di Troia Vigneti Canosini 2009 Another of the enterprising Valentino Sciotti.s projects, Tufarello is made by the Farnese winemaking team at their winery where the talented young Marco Flacco is in charge with Alberto Antonini as consultant. The wine is made from the Uva di Troia (also known as Nero di Troia) grape that is grown around Canosa di Puglia. The name attests to its Greek origins (Troy) and it is said to take its name from the nearby town of Troia, named by the Greek invader Diomedes. Canosini is an old, 30 hectare vineyard which gives fruit of outstanding quality. The vines are bush trained. Puglia, with an estimated production of 6.2 million hectolitres, was about 10% down in volume on the 2008 vintage. But this region, stretching 400 kilometres from its northern border with Molise to the southern tip of the Salento peninsula, is greatly varied. A great deal of the fall in production in 2009 was due to wet weather and subsequent problems with mildew in the northern province of Foggia. Peronospera was also a problem in the southern part of Puglia, where it started raining at the end of September and didn‘t stop until the middle of June. This meant that even the best grape growers had to work extra hard in the vineyards to bring the small berries to full ripeness and keep them healthy. The result for those who succeeded, was concentrated sugars, good acidity and great depth of flavour. On arrival at the winery the grapes were destemmed and gently crushed before fermentation and maceration on the skins in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks between 30-32°C. Regular, gentle pumping over took place for around 2 weeks, with the must being tasted every day to ensure the tannins levels were not too high. The wine saw a limited amount of oak treatment to soften the natural grape tannins but Alberto wanted to preserve the quality of the fruit so used very little oak on the wine. Great depth of colour and an exuberant nose, with perfumes of spiced cherries. On the palate it has a powerful, sour cherry and blueberry fruit character with supple tannins, good acid and a long, spiced finish. Vintage 2009 Grape varieties 100% Nero di Troia Region Canosa di Puglia Winemaker Marco Flacco Consultant Winemaker Alberto Antonini Closure Cork Alcohol (ABV) 12.5% Acidity 5.5g/l Residual Sugar 4g/l Wine pH Find this wine at www.winestore.co.uk Price: £60.60 (Including VAT at 20%)