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More Details
Winery
Conte Brandolini D'adda
Varietal: Merlot
With its dark blue colored fruits and high juice content, Merlot varietal grapes have long been a favorite of wine producers around the globe, with it being found in vineyards across Europe, the Americas and elsewhere in the New World. One of the distinguishing features of Merlot grapes is the fact that they have a relatively low tannin content and an exceptionally soft and fleshy character, meaning they are capable of producing incredibly rounded and mellow wines. This mellowness is balanced with plenty of flavor, however, and has made Merlot grapes the varietal of choice for softening other, more astringent and tannin-heavy wines, often resulting in truly exceptional produce. Merlot is regarded as one of the key 'Bordeaux' varietals for precisely this reason; when combined with the drier Cabernet Sauvignon, it is capable of blending beautifully to produce some of the finest wines available in the world.
Region: Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Situated in the north of Italy, between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea, Friuli-Venezia Giulia is a fascinating and ancient wine region which is only just being discovered by the international wine audiences, keen to uncover more lesser known gems of Italy. Because Friuli-Venezia Giulia is so close to the Austrian and Slovenian borders, the wines there display a distinctly Germanic character, and typically Germanic grape varietals such as Riesling grow extremely well there, and capture much of their stunning alpine terroir. As such, alpine freshness, crystal clear mountain water and beautifully dry and crisp notes are what Friuli-Venezia Giulia's wines are most renowned for, and the Riesling, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Grigio wines of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, made by small, dedicated and traditional wineries, are considered amongst the finest in the world.
Country: Italy
For several decades in the mid to late twentieth century, Italy's reputation for quality wines took a fairly serious blow. This was brought about partly due to lack of regulation in certain regions, and too much regulation in others. This led to several wineries in the beautiful and highly fertile region of Tuscany making the bold move to work outside of the law, which they saw as responsible for the drop in quality in Tuscan wines. They believed that they had the expertise and the generations of experience necessary with which to make truly excellent, world class wines, and set about doing just that. These 'Super Tuscans', as they came to be known, quickly inspired the rest of Italy to improve their produce, and now, Italian wine producers in the twenty-first century are widely recognised to be amongst the best in the world. Regulation and law began to change, and wine drinkers across the globe woke up to the outstanding wines coming out of Italy, which are continuing to improve and impress to this day.