“Cervaro della Sala” Umbria IGT 2024

Castello della Sala | Antinori | Umbria
Marchesi Antinori S.p.A. | Piazza Antinori 3 | IT 50123 Firenze

10080124 · 0,75 l · 96,00 €/l · Price (DE) incl. VAT, excl. Shippingavailable immediately

The famous Castello della Sala is situated on a hill above Orvieto – a medieval stronghold surrounded by woods and olive groves, deep in the Umbrian silence. The Marchesi Antinori have owned it for generations, but what made it a wine legend was the first Cervaro della Sala in 1985: a white wine that was conceived as a red wine – barrique fermentation, malolactic fermentation, long breath. Making a white wine that would last for decades was not a matter of course in Italy at the time. But it became one. The vinification follows a principle that Renzo Cotarella once formulated and that still applies today: as little intervention as possible. The Castello winery works with gravity – no mechanical pumps, no unnecessary stress for the grapes. The harvest begins in the early hours of the morning when the temperatures are still cool. The Chardonnay macerates on the skins for four hours at 10 degrees, then ferments in barriques and matures in partial BSA. The Grechetto remains consistently in steel – it provides the tension that Chardonnay alone cannot deliver. The two come together in February.

The 2024 vintage began mildly: good water reserves in the soil, a slightly cooler spring that evenly distributed the vegetation. Flowering at the end of May, Grechetto a week later than the Chardonnay. July and August hot and stable, with pronounced day-night differences – the slow, gradual ripening that makes white wines in the higher vineyards of the Castello precise and aromatic. harvest harvest at the end of August, Grechetto in mid-September.

Clear straw yellow with light green reflections. Precise and direct on the nose: pink grapefruit, elderflower, camomile, vanilla, pastry cream, and underneath the characteristic hint of flint that distinguishes the Chardonnay from all others. Taut and elegant on the palate – toasted almond, white pepper, ginger, a savoury structure supported by a clear, invigorating freshness. The finish is long and of precise minerality. A Cervaro full of clarity. Aromatically precise, energetic, with an expressive freshness that makes this vintage an early pleasure – and a late one even more so. SUPERIORE.DE