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What We Say 2000 Varano Rosso Conero DOC
If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes even better than that, as is the case with today’s wine from Alberto Serenelli.
International Selection Sunday
Each Sunday, The Wine Spies seeks out a unique international wine selection that is representative of a particular region and Terroir. Each of these wines is rare and unique, usually an exclusive and always of limited quantity. These are wines that will expand your palate and your cellar. Be sure to pick up a few bottles, and most importantly, enjoy!
Saving Alert
The price of this exclusive wine is over 40% off its regular price. But, for extra savings, be sure to to use the promotion code ITALIANSPY for free ground shipping on all orders of six or more bottles.
Mission Codename: In Search of Agent Baco
Operative: Agent White
Objective: Stay on the trail of Agent Baco, and find some great wines along the way…
Mission Status: In Progress!
Current Winery: Alberto Serenelli
Wine Subject: 2000 Verano Rosso Conero DOC
Winemaker: Alberto Serenelli
Backgrounder:
East-Central Italy’s most famous wine regions are the Abruzzi and Marche. In the Marche, the coastal area near Ancona, the most famous wines are the Rosso Conero and Rosso Piceno. The Rosso Piceno is a blend of Montepulciano, Sangiovese along with some lesser supporting varietals. Rosso Conero is made with 100% Montepulciano and is considered among the most representative wines of that varietal. Incidentally, Montepulciano, made famous by Vino Nobile di Montepulciano usually only has about 15% of the varietal blended with Sangiovese.
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Deep dark purple, almost black and murky/inky in clarity with brick/brown and garnet hued edges. When swirled, the legs are initially slow and thick and then streak down the side of the glass.
Smell – Well developed and integrated with clear ‘old world’ style and aromas. Layers of strawberry and ripe plums, hints of spicy red pepper, toasted cedar and a distinct earthy herbaceous component.
Feel – Warm, smooth and dry; full-bodied with medium-mild tannins, med-low acidity, and a creamy/fatty feel.
Taste – Not all all fruit forward. Old-world subtle fruit with ripe plums, hints of sweet-tangy fruit, tobacco, leather and earthiness.
Finish – Warm and mellow with lingering flavors of its oak barrel regimen, earthiness and ripe plums.
Conclusion – This 2000 (considered a 4-Star year) 100% Montepulciano is ready to drink now and is very expressive of the Terroir of the region. If you are a fan of old world style wines, this wine is for you. Warm and mellow, this wine balances its fruit with earthy and oak components that hint at this style’s required barrique aging.
Mission Report:
After searching the Piedmont of Italy and hitting some great wineries (stay tuned for those wines), the trail went cold. Agent Baco Noir had, in a way that only she could, lead us on a wild goose chase from winery to winery, leaving notes and bottles for us to taste along the way.
I was embarrassed. How could I lose the trail. In my despair, I called in to HQ to report my progress. Agent red was furious that I had not checked in earlier.
“Where have @#$%! you been?, we thought you had gone off the reservation.”, he yelled.
I responded that I had found some great new wines, he interrupted “Finding Baco is our top priority, we don’t need you gallivanting all over Italy, besides, we’ve received a wire, head to Ancona immediately and check in, we’ll have a pouch waiting for you there.”
After an all day train ride, I arrived in Ancona, and Dino, my local ‘fixer’ handed me the pouch. Inside were a few more photos and a map.
We were back on the the trail. Stopping at Rosy Cafe’ Di Estrada Rosita for a quick cup and to review the notes. I noted that we were very close to the winery run by Alberto Serenelli. I called Dino to arrange for a Vespa and then finished my coffee. It was a short ride and upon arriving, it was the same story as each and every winery so far.
A parcel was left for me. Inside a few photos, a quick note, and a couple bottles of the 2000 Varano Rosso Conero. I can’t reveal the contents of the note, but lets just say that even though I am loving the wine trail Baco is leading me on, she’s enjoying it more…
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The location of the Alberto Serenelli Winery can be seen in this satellite photo.
A Map of the Marche region of East Central Italy
What the Winery Says
Alberto Serenelli
About This Wine:
Deep red with blue inflections, bouquet of cherries and tar flavor of cranberries, plums and cedar. Full bodied and structured wine, suitable for a long period of conservation in bottle, at least 10-15 years.
About The Vineyard:
Boranico’s farm, extended on Ha 16.33.15 in Varano, an outlying village within the municipality of Ancona, close behind Mount Conero, on a hillside which is standing in the best sun position.
Vinification:
The irregular running of the season with a very hot summer, has been excellent for the small quantity of grapes and for the characteristic of the soil. The grapes have ripened earlier than the season average, having reached the necessary balance between acids and glucoses. The grapes were harvested mid October and cleaned of their stalks and pressed. Maceration of the must together with the peels lasted 20 days with daily topping up. After the drawing of hl. 35 it has been carried out the malolactic fermentation in big wood casks.
About The Winery:
At the beginning of the twentieth century and until 1960, in the region Marche, the cultivation of the grape-vine was not represented by a particular vineyard. As a matter of fact you could find rows of vineyards metres apart among them, planted in the so called “mixed cultivation”: wheat, beetroot, barley. Back in those years, farming satisfied the nourishment necessary to a farmer’s family, who was quite isolated compared to the actual social context.
In this ground, on the slope of the Mount Conero, (667m. Above sea level), Alberto Serenelli Sr. was born in 1895. He grew up fond of the grape-vine cultivation, especially the Montepulciano vineyard which vinified in pureness, unusual even in the 30s and 40s, when the wine used to be only the result of a miscellaneous of grapes. Thanks to the studies made as agrarian technician, Alberto Serenelli Sr. was able to experiment, with knowledge, that the grapes of
Montepulciano grown in the soils overlooking the Mount Conero, allowed to obtain a wine of extraordinary strength and intensity, deep in color and full in the taste which reminds of cherry fruit.
His son, Cesare Serenelli, inherited the same passion, following his father’s agricultural studies, acquiring professional recognition. In 1953 Cesare Serenelli establishes the “wine-factory” where finally he can give vent to his passion to produce a wine with marked identity and according to the best tradition of the region. He too part actively in the 60’s and 70’s to the viticultural specialization of the Rosso Conero d.o.c. choosing the best Montepulciano grapes to be planted with the new vineyards.
Without a shadow of doubt, it can be asserted that this generous technician is among the most reliable supporters of the d.o.c. He is the one who provided the most incisive and practical instructions to draft the regulations of the production. He is still the one who, better than others, has been able to represent the characteristics of unicity of the territory of where to delimit the production area.
The Serenellis’ have been capable to express through three generations an only great passion: love for the soil, the grape-vine, the wine. For this reason they are old and modern “artisans of the luxury wine.” That means the luxury to aim in excellence in every vintage, without worries for the quantity.
The Vineyards:
The production area of Rosso Conero d.o.c., is very limited compared to other Italian “DOC” areas and it is also for this reason that the wine has a marked identity because it reflects the characters of the soil, mainly calcareous-argillaceous, especially those overlooking the Mount Conero which are very hard, subjected to drought and therefore more proper for the Mediterranean undergrowth, rather than the agriculture.
Alberto Serenelli Jr. grew up smelling the scent of fermentations and attended the Fabriano Institute for Agriculture (the same school attended by his father). His Rosso Conero has affirmed family expectations with the best national wine production in the 80s.
In those years, together with his father, he bought the farm of Varano-Boranico, an area of about 16 ha. Where he planted to first vineyard to produce the cru of Rosso Conero, Trave and Varano and in Afro.
Now Alberto Jr. has got his own vineyard where he can experiment the cultivation procedures more suitable to obtain less grape for each grape-vine and capable to transfer into the wine all the original characters of the Montepulciano vineyard made unique and unmistakable by the vocation of the soil and by the microclime of Varano-Boranico which is considered the “ideal zone”, the production center where the Rosso Conero becomes a wine with unrepeatable characters.
Besides Varano-Boranico, there are the historic vineyards of Candia, with over 25 years of activity.
Technical Analysis:
Varietal: Montepulciano 100%
Soil: Argillaceous inclined and very calcareous.
Yield: ql. 55 of grapes per Ha.
Fermentation temperature: 29-31C
Refinement: The malolactic fermentation is terminated at the end of December. The wine has been poured out and put again in big wood casks until the beginning of June. And finally bottled in mid-July.
Total acidity: 5.36 gr./l.
Volatile acidity: 0.48 gr./l.
Dry extract: 31.30 gr./l.
Alcohol content: 13.70%
