Ruffino – Alauda Toscana I.G.T. – Estates – Supertuscan – Classic Red – Avvenice

Ruffino – Since 1877 – Award Winning Wines from the Heart of Tuscany

Ruffino was born in 1877 in Pontassieve from the intuition of two cousins, Ilario and Leopoldo. Their ambition is that the wine appreciated in their lands can also please those who do not have the good fortune to be able to taste it every day, and live, perhaps, very far.

It was an immediate and swirling success, built on the goodness of the wines and on an entrepreneurial foresight in the uncommon times. In fact, the Ruffino cousins’ wine was immediately liked so much, so that in 1895 in Bordeaux the gold medal was awarded at the Chianti Ruffino.

Successes follow each other and already at the beginning of the twentieth century these successes lead to identify Ruffino as a synonym of Italian wine in the world through Chianti. These are the years of the birth of a true icon of Italian enology, Riserva Ducale, which in 1927 celebrates one of the most illustrious admirers of Ruffino, the Duke of Aosta who had chosen this wine to lay the tables of the court of the Italy King.

Riserva Ducale is just one of the imprints left by Ruffino in the history of Italian enology, also marked by the iconic fiasco, the bottle symbol of the entire category of Chianti, known in the world thanks to Chianti Ruffino.

Alauda Toscana I.G.T. – Ruffino Estates

Alauda is the contemporary face of enological Tuscany. A unique blend, which tells the uniqueness of the terroir of which it is an expression. Three vines, three distinct crus, one soul, for a wine that combines the past and the future.

Behind the Wine

Alauda is the Latin name of the lark, which with its harmonious song, perfectly distinguishable and familiar, brightens the Tuscan hills. Like the lark, Alauda delights the senses, capturing the passion and elegance of Tuscany in every bottle.

The story of Alauda begins in the early 2000s, when the Ruffino agronomists identify microclimates and particular soil profiles in the Ruffino estate of Poggio Casciano, in the Chianti Colli Fiorentini. These extraordinary pedoclimatic characteristics are excellent for the cultivation of two international vines such as Merlot and Cabernet Franc, alongside both the meticulousness of the work in the vineyard, with the selection of single dedicated crus and the harvesting exclusively by hand, and the care in the cellar (an aging of 24 months in French oak barrels of first and second passage is expected). After years of experimentation, with the harvest 2011 we have come to the complete expression of this wine, born from the blend of three extraordinary vines grown in three different crus.

Merlot comes from the Poggio al Mandorlo vineyard, and gives complex aromas and a soft structure, while Cabernet Franc, cultivated in the Rapale vineyard, has the distinctive characteristics of the vine, giving persistence and depth to the aromas, thanks to the fresh tannins with a balanced acidity.

To these two great international vines that have found a field of choice at Poggio Casciano, is the Colorino, which comes from the Alexander vineyard of the estate of Montemasso. This cru is contiguous to Poggio Casciano but it is already afferente to the Chianti Classico, whose microclimate and the typical soil of galestro guarantee an optimal yield in the cultivation. Il Colorino was one of the most important complementary vines used for the production of Chianti. As the name suggests, Colorino gives an intense color – it is one of the rare red-fleshed vines – but also an elegant structure and strong aromas.

Tuscany I.G.T.

Alauda is considered a Supertuscan, but today it is very difficult to describe a wine through this term. In the ’70s it was coined to define new and ambitions Tuscan wines that were seeing the light as reactions to wines with a denomination often produced with oxidized rules and not aimed at the search for maximum quality.

These wines, which had common characteristics – international vines, a certain modern approach to winemaking, new and not least barriques, a rather high price – allowed Tuscany to become globally admired as a producer of wines of great ambition and, at the same time, he motivated the names, of which they were a reaction, to shake off a bit of dust and redefine themselves in terms that are no longer quantitative but also and above all qualitative.

Source

Tuscany I.G.T.

Grapes

60 % Merlot, 30 % Cabernet Franc, 10 % Colorino

Aging

24 months of first-run French oak barriques

Perfume

Intense and complex, balsamic and aromatic notes of Cabernet Franc and Colorino, marry the red fruit conferred by Merlot

Taste

Harmonic and complex, with an intense and very persistent finish.

Alcohol

alc. 14.5 % vol

Available Formats

0.75 Lt