Wine: Cignale: Cignale IGT

Tuscany

Tuscany continues to charm and enchant the world over while books and films are forever trying to capture the beauty and mystic of the region. With its rich history, art, music, food and wine, there is very little to disappoint. Chianti is easily the most well known of Italian wines while Brunello is considered one of the most prestigious. Yet, the wines of Tuscany have not always been recognized for quality and have just recently experienced a renaissance,
after years of being focused on quantity. The initial movement developed in Chianti in the early 1970’s has become a region wide effort that has brought forth serious focus on clonal selection, vineyard management, and winery technologies, allowing a progression in quality unmatched anywhere in the country. The growing success, while focused on the Sangiovese based wines of Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and most recently, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano,
has spread to the entire region incorporating areas not understood even 30 years ago for their potential.
This phenomena of rapidly improving quality spread to incorporate wines that while not DOC were still considered of superior quality. The lack of an official status could not prevent the unofficial designation “Super Tuscan” from becoming part of the vernacular. As awareness increased, many of these wines achieved their own IGT or DOC status. Ironically, it is often misunderstood that Cabernet and Chardonnay have a long history within Tuscany and were
not introduced to satisfy international demand. Cabernet has been grown for over 250 years and while maybe not known by the Romans it certainly isn’t a newcomer to the region!
(Chardonnay dates back easily 150 years).
Roughly 70% of the production is red but one white wine holds its own in quality. The DOCG for Vernaccia di San Gimagnano was the 1st awarded to ANY wine in Italy. A historical grape documented in the 1200’s, the wines today provide the perfect counterpart to the nobile
reds of Tuscany.

Cignale

The story of this superb Tuscan Cabernet began on a singular note, when its first vintage was wiped out by wild boars.
The episode inspired Neil & Maria Empson to call their most exclusive proprietary brand “Cignale” – “Wild Boar” in ancient Tuscan.
Maria Empson (an artist under her maiden name of Maria Gemma) created the six original label designs portraying the wine’s first fans, and once the vineyards were effectively enclosed, the wine took off.
These were the eighties: Neil, Maria and longtime friend Alessandro François had planted the vines – mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and a small percentage of Merlot – in February 1981, on three locations near Greve (see map, above), one of Tuscany’s finest wine districts. Together, the sites covered seven and a half acres of schist, clay, lime and sand at 425-500 meters above sea level.
The soil here was abundant in nitrogen, key element to structure and consequently cellar life. The next step was selecting the ideal clones for this exceptional terrain, giving them full south/southwest exposure, and making sure the crops were tiny…
To this day, they are less than one ton per acre (just over 20 hectoliters per hectare): a totally uneconomic yield!
The result is a deep crimson to garnet, extract-loaded wine expressing the power, concentration and longevity of its terroir to the full, fine-tuned by carefully orchestrated vinification and élevage.

This deep crimson to garnet, extract-loaded wine expresses the power, concentration and longevity of its terroir to the full, fine-tuned by carefully orchestrated vinification and élevage.

For Cabernet Sauvignon, harvest takes place towards the end of October. The Merlot is picked in early to mid-October. The grapes are collected in small boxes and transported to the winery for immediate de-stemming and pressing. Only 65% of the free-run juice is used, and parts of the press-run are then blended back into the mass. Fermentation takes approximately 21 days. The resulting wine goes through full malolactic and is racked 6 times over the first 12 months.

New and 12-month-old French barriques are employed, where Cignale ages for approximately 18 to 24 months. After a further year, it is clarified with egg whites and unfiltered at bottling.

Altogether, the wine is not released until 3 to 4 years from harvest date. Quantities are minuscule, and cellar life is up to twenty years.
Cignale has offered consistent quality from vintage to vintage, and met with correspondingly unbroken success.

THE WINE IN SHORT:
Deep, dark ruby in color; spicy bouquet of cedarwood, black cherry, wild strawberry, black currant, subtle notes of well integrated new oak.
On the palate, rich, harmonious, concentrated, powerful and intense, beautifully structured, with polished tannins and a long, silky finish.

2004 Cignale, 92 points -Wine Enthusiast (April 2008)

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