Ruffino - Chianti Classico - D.O.C.G. - Santedame Estate - Ruffino Estates - Classic Red

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.

Chianti Classico - D.O.C.G. - Tenuta Santedame

A wine must always express the territory it comes from. When this place is the Conca d'Oro of Castellina in Chianti, this wine can only be one.

Behind The Wine

The Santedame estate is located in the Conca d'oro of Castellina in Chianti, the heart of the Chianti Classico. The gentle slopes that make up the Conca d'Oro are a unique micro-terroir in which the vine is naturally pushed to its extreme and can offer few clusters of the highest quality. Suffice it to say that the approximately 80 hectares of the estate produce an average of 50 quintals per hectare.

These incredibly low yields are due to a combination of natural factors: poor but rich soil in skeleton and galestro; high temperature range especially in the summer months between night (cold and serene) and day (warm and dry). The southern exposure of most of the Conca d'Oro vineyards completes the picture of an area created to produce great wines.

Santedame tells about 1,000 years of Tuscan history. Born and lived for centuries as a refreshment point for pilgrims traveling to Rome, the estate has become a typical Tuscan farm with a sharecropping, a completely self-sufficient community where everything -from food to clothes- was produced internally.

As a testimony to this long history, the estate holds many treasures. One of these is a splendid hermitage (called hermitage) of the 12th century used by the Benedictine monks who from the Abbey of Camaldoli embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome. The hermitage is surrounded by one of the few protected cypress trees in Europe, which gives even greater sacredness to the place. Inside this cypress wood there is a 15th century chapel, a legacy of a larger Benedictine complex. The chapel contains the most precious of Santedame's artistic treasures: a magnificent fresco attributed to the Ghirlandaio school, also reported on the Chianti Classico label of Santedame.

The Territory

The boundaries of the production area of ​​the Chianti Classico, are identified today in the geographical region of Chianti and include, in part or all, the municipalities of:

- San Casciano Val di Pesa

- Tavarnelle Val di Pesa

- Greve in Chianti

- Barberino Val d'Elsa

- Radda in Chianti

- Castellina in Chianti

- Poggiobonsi

- Gaiole in Chianti

- Castelnuovo Berardenga

The Disciplinary

Grapes: minimum 80% of Sangiovese, permitted red grapes are allowed in Tuscany.

Yield: maximum 75 quintals per hectare and 2 kg per plant.

Aging: the Chianti Classico Riserva must sustain a minimum aging of 24 months, 3 of which in the bottle. There are no obligations regarding the refining vessel.

Type

Chianti Classico D.O.C.G.

Grapes

80% Sangiovese, 10% Merlot, 5% Colorino, 5% Canaiolo and Cabernet Sauvignon

Aging

8 months of aging first in barrique and then in steel

Perfume

Powerful and complex. Intense notes of violet and ripe plum fade in hints of black pepper and tobacco

Taste

Elegant texture on a good structure. Velvety tannins, hints of plum, currants and balsamic herbs lead to a persistent finish

Alcohol

alc. 13.5% vol

Available Formats

0.75 Lt

Awards

Gambero Rosso: 3 glasses

Wineaccess: Bestbuy