Rosso di Montepulciano, Duca di Saragnano 2019

"The family firm of Barbanera is situated in the beautiful south-eastern corner of Tuscany in a district known as the Colli Senesi. They are near the town of Montepulciano, the home of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and some of their best vineyards are within this appellation, the rest lying in the rolling hills below the imposing Monte (Mt) Cetona.

Framed by majestic and ancient olive trees the ultra-smart façade of the new building, at Barbanera’s head office in Cetona, backs onto their bottling plant and the original warehouse from the company’s early years. Founded in 1938 by Altero and Maria Franceschini, their grandsons Marco and Paolo Barbanera started as wine bottlers in 1978 and then diversified into producing their own wine. Today it is a dynamic, modern winery with state-of-the-art bottling technology which exports all over the world. Finished in 2017 the winery nestles in vineyards a short drive away, boasting shiny stainless steel and refrigerated tanks that use an inbuilt pipe system to keep the grapes fresh, all fed by gravity to minimise stress on the fruit. Grapes brought to the winery have been either basket harvested by hand or machine harvested. Their portfolio is extensive, ranging from wines made exclusively in stainless steel through to structured barrique aged examples, and of those for immediate enjoyment some are made in the Appassite and Governo styles. Once finished and ready for bottling, wines see only a micro-filtration to remove yeasts/sediments while retaining maximum character and undergo stringent tests in their dedicated on-site lab to ensure the very highest quality is being constantly maintained. A continuing programme of investment in equipment, space and above, all people, is the secret behind the impressive improvement in quality, value-for-money and consequent rapid growth in the last few years."