In 1991 Andrea Franchetti had his inspiration in Bordeaux and indeed his high density, low training vines are more reminiscent of Saint Emilion and Pomerol than the rest of Tuscany.

At Trinoro a tempered winter went by carrying enough rains. A mild spring followed, that didn’t have dramatic shifts in temperature. From the 15th of April the vines began to move, a little later than usual; the year before they had spent themselves giving us rich wines and I thought they were tired from the effort, but the vines grew rapidly and in the first ten days of June all of the vineyards flowered uniformly.

I became convinced that their energies were intact. The summer was cool in a northern marine way as is the new norm in this valley. Some hale even fell during the first days of July and although it affected only a few rows, that was a first at Trinoro which sits protected between two mountains. The little green berries lessened then reddened after less than a month. We thinned them further, then trimmed the canopy; leaves immediately became paler: we had arrived properly at the vineyard’s moment of mid-life. During August we had two hot weeks, which the winds quickly dispersed, but these were the cause of a solid body that was to the develop later in the wines.