2006 Tenute Dettori Renosu
Alessandro Dettori is a gun…..a pioneer in much the same way as Nicolas Joly or Frank Cornelissen….he produces some of the most captivating, thought provoking wines from his estate in Sardinia. Allesandro adheres to strict biodynamic practices in the vineyard producing his wines from tiny yields and this philosophy carries over into the cellar where all of the work is carried out on a considered, non-interventionist manner giving the fruit the best possible chance to strut its stuff.
Romangia was officially granted IGT status in the 1970′s and lies between Porto Torres, Sassari, and Castelsardo, facing the Gulf of Asinara. Cannonau is the grape of choice in this wine….I was always lead to believe that Cannonau and Grenache where one and the same but in fact they only share around 82% of the same genetic makeup so let’s just say they are pretty close yeah?…..Sardinia also has strong claims to be first with the variety appearing in documents in the mid-1500′s, some 200 years before garnacha reared it’s head in Spain.
The grapes for this wine come from the estates top vineyard, Dettori…..a 2.89ha, hillside planted parcel of Cannonau which lies over limestone soils at around 300m above sea level. These are amazing old bush vines here at over 100 years of age planted at around 6000 vines per hectare. The fruit is picked by hand, de-stemmed but not crushed and the must macerates for anywhere between 3 and 10 days depending on the vintage.
The wine is then drawn off by hand before continuing to cement vats where it will remain until bottling 2-3 years down the track. Only a dab of SO2 is added at bottling so it’s natural yeasts, no enzymes and no fining or filtration for this wine.
The estate bottle their wines under the Romangia IGT designation choosing to ignore the existing Cannonau di Sardegna DOC for noble reasons…..the fact that the DOC classes Sardinia as one large homogeneous blog and doesn’t take into account any existing terroirs. Alessandro says that the wines from each of his three vineyards are so different that he cannot put any faith in a DOC that stretched over several hundred kilometres….fair enough I say.
There is a bit of a sad story behind this wine…..well sad for Alessandro but pretty good news for us. 2006 was shaping up to be an outstanding vintage….possibly the best that Alessandro had seen…..that is until the vineyards were ravaged by powdery mildew. The Cannonau grapes in this wine were destined for the estates flagship wine Dettori Rosso….a wine that sits at around $180 on the shelf and garners rave reviews from the wine press. Alessandro made the decision to declassify the entire crop destined for the Dettori Rosso and produce the Renosu instead….a decision he has made in 2003 also…..a tough call but one which is retains the integrity of the flagship wine.
Dark cherry red in hue with a beautiful scented nose of red and black cherries with splashes of redcurrant and blackberry. There is an earthy backbone to the aromas with hints of spice, sun dried herbs, ginger cake, sous bois, polished leather, tobacco, candied figs and dried flowers with higher tones of cranberry and pickled plum wafting gently through.
On the palate it is supple and juicy…..soft of touch and generous of fruit with flavours of sour cherry, redcurrant, blackberry and cranberry all making an appearance. There are hints of gingerbread, baking spice, leather, tobacco leaf, dried flowers and earth with touches of musk and milk chocolate. It’s a delicious wine to drink….full of energy….savoury with a sweet & sour tang to the acid profile, a little bit of VA which lifts everything up a notch beautifully and the chalky, fine-grained tannins seen to melt into the tongue. The finish is a little truncated but when a wine presents this much enjoyment….that is not an issue.
Price: $35 – Closure: Cork – Alcohol: 14.5% – Source: Sample – Importer: Lario
I’m going out on a limb here….and I don’t think a Cannonau has ever been rated this high…..but I’m making a stand and rating this particular wine two French kissing Orcas
Holy shit!.....french kissing killer whales!
