Producer
Tenuta San Leonardo in Trentino has been home to the Guerrieri Gonzaga family for over three centuries, but it is only since the second half of the twentieth century, when Marchese Carlo took over, that this estate began to take wine production seriously. Following a spell spent working at Tenuta San Guido with Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, creator of Sassicaia, he was inspired to see if the clay-limestone soils of his family estate could yield similar results to those achieved by his mentor. In 1978 the first Cabernet Sauvignon vines joined the Merlot and Carmenere that had long been planted and in 1982 the first vintage of the flagship San Leonardo was produced, rapidly taking its place in the pantheon of Italy’s greatest wines.
Vineyard
Merlot is planted in pebble-rich soils that were once the bed of a tributary of the Adige river, while Cabernet Sauvignon and the old vineyards of Carmenère are planted in predominantly sandy soils. All are well-drained and low-fertility. The vines are between five and twenty-five years old on average.
Winery
Following gentle crushing, the grapes were passed to concrete vats where they underwent fermentation using wild yeast. Fermentation lasted for over fifteen days, with frequent pump-overs and délestages. The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in vat, before twenty percent ofthe wine was passed to French oak barrels for a minimum of six months.
