Vintus

The 140 hectares of Tenimenti d’Alessandro form the heart of what was once one of the largest estates of Val di Chiana in southern Tuscany. Luigi d’Alessandro purchased the property in 1967, but it was in the 1980s that Massimo d’Alessandro changed the estate, and influenced much of winemaking in the Cortona region. 

Cortona had historically produced bulk wine but Massimo d’Alessandro was determined to transform his family vineyard towards serious wine.  In 1988 he planted a 5-hectare experimental vineyard focused on a number of different clones of high-quality vines on various rootstocks. The results of this research pointed to the clear partner for their terroir: Syrah.

The characteristics of the local terrain, the dry summers filled with an abundance of sunlight and high temperatures, and the scarcity of rain, enable a Syrah wine of distinct quality and character. The estate has devoted 90% of its total production to a single red wine made exclusively from Syrah grapes. This wine is divided between two labels that reflect a difference in the age of the vineyards and in the winemaking process. A rigorous selection of grapes, harvested from the finest vines, provides a limited number of bottles of the estate’s historic label, Il Bosco. Cortona Syrah D.O.C., a selection of the estate’s younger vines, expresses the estate’s desire to make a balanced wine that displays concentration, dimension, and suppleness. The remaining 10% of the estate’s production is a white wine, Fontarca, a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Viognier fermented in French oak.