“Habemus Etichetta Nera” Rosso Lazio IGT 2023

San Giovenale | Latium
San Giovenale Agr. srl | Via Giuseppe Zanardelli 34 | IT 00186 Roma

10072423 · 0,75 l · 185,33 €/l · Price (DE) incl. VAT, excl. Shipping< 24 units available

Around 300 bottles. No more. Anyone who knows the Etichetta Nera knows: you don't just buy it like that – you get it if you're lucky. The Syrah on the black label grows on a single hectare in Blera, 380 metres above sea level, exposed to the south-east, on heavy clay with rock inclusions. The same vineyard from which Emanuele Pangrazi and Marco Casolanetti have always distilled their Syrah fraction for the Habemus blend – the part that Pangrazi once described as the "mouth of Habemus": the fleshy, the dark, the substantial. What used to carry the body of the blend stands alone here for the first time.

The vinification follows the ethos of the house, but with the scrupulousness that such a small volume demands: hand-picking into 15-kilo crates, destemming and pressing within an hour. Spontaneous fermentation in steel, 15 days of maceration. Then 30 months in new French barriques – wood from Fontainebleau and Tronçais, sourced directly from four selected winegrowers. Bottled without filtration, with minimal added sulphur. Aged in the bottle for at least six months. No step that has not been considered.

An intense, light garnet red colour in the glass – brighter than the Cabernet Franc, more transparent, with more lustre. The nose is clear and immediate: red cherries under alcohol, cherry jam, black pepper, clove, cocoa, coffee – and underneath that unmistakable wild herbaceous garrigue note that only Syrah from Mediterranean vineyards produces. Powerful, warm, almost voluptuous on the palate, but with a decisive texture: the tannins are ripe and silky, the fruit urgent and juicy, the saline minerality of the Tyrrhenian breeze clearly perceptible, the finish exceptionally long and savoury. Syrah from Lazio. Against all expectations. For all eternity. SUPERIORE.DE