GAJA Promis Ca’ Marcanda Rosso di Toscana 2020 75 cl.
Angelo Gaja – Toscana Italy
Promis usually contains Merlot (50-55%), Syrah (approx. 35%) and Sangiovese (approx. 10%), but you can expect the composition to vary slightly from year to year in the future. Each grape variety has been fermented separately in steel tanks. After malolactic fermentation, the wines from the 3 grape varieties were matured separately for a year in a combination of French barriques (225 l.), barrels made of oak from other countries in Europe and steel tanks. The wines are put together immediately before bottling and Promis matures for a few more months in the bottle before release.
The wine is made with a stylish and at the same time soft style. It is a synthesis of Montalcino Sangiovese’s lean and fruity style and the softness of Castagneto Carducci’s Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah. The wine is very dark in colour. In the aroma, it is first Sangiovese that dominates with classic red and delicate shades of cherry (kirsch) and red berries. But quite quickly Merlot’s and Syrah’s “close-packed style” and fleshiness come to the fore. In the taste, the wine is darker in style with characters of blackcurrant and blackberry and in its youth a bit dominated by wood and tannin. But you sense the fruit concentration and structure that will carry the wine for at least 5-8 years.
In the last 50 years, no other winemaker has had as much influence on the international wine scene as Angelo Gaja. He has often been called the “King of Piedmont”, and has been the standard-bearer for all quality-oriented wine producers – not least in Italy, of course.
In the mid-1990s, he took up the challenge in Tuscany. First with the Brunello property “Pieve di Santa Restituta” and then (in 1996) – after long and tough negotiations – he finally succeeded in buying a very specific property between Bolgheri and Castagneto Carducci in Maremma. The process had been going on for a few years, as the then owner was very difficult to persuade to let his property be sold, which gave Angelo’s wife the idea for the property’s name, “Ca’ Marcanda” (in Piedmontese dialect: The house where you talk about something).
After the takeover, 60 out of 80 hectares of vineyards were newly planted with, among other things, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Vermentino and Viognier, and the construction of a state-of-the-art winery could be completed 6 years later.
