VITAE honours Cardinal de Retz

Marchesi Gondi - Tenuta Bossi wins an extraordinary accolade. The news comes from the Associazione Italiana Sommelier.

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The Vin Santo del Chianti Rufina Riserva DOC CARDINAL DE RETZ 2003 has received the highest award from VITAE, the first edition of the Italian wine guide published directly by the Associazione Italiana Sommelier. The awards ceremony will be held in Milan on 3 November, during the presentation of the guide.

It will be followed by a tasting open to the public of all the award-winning wines, from 2.00 pm to 9.00 pm, at the Magna Pars event space - Via Tortona, 15 - Milan.

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Cardinal de Retz Vin Santo tells not only the story of the Gondi family, but that of Tuscany and Europe as well. Indeed, to this day Tenuta Bossi’s Vin Santo is still made as tradition dictates: 100% Trebbiano, with the grapes left to dry in the loft for 3 months, then, after Christmas, gently pressed, fermented and aged in 50/100-litre oak casks.

The Gondi family has been producing Vin Santo for centuries, so much so that the French writer and statesman Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, in one of his most important works, “Du Voyage de Michel de Montainge en Italie”, recalls how in the summer of 1580 he was received at Palazzo Gondi after attending a celebration in Piazza della Signoria. The writer was so enthusiastic about both the hospitality of the Gondi family and the wines produced on their estates that a member of the Gondi family living in Lyon sent him the "trés bon vins, comme du Trebisan": a Trebbiano wine. This wine is the forerunner of today’s Vin Santo.

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Cardinal de Retz Vin Santo stands out for its colour, its nose and its taste.

Eye: deep amber, with tawny reflections. Nose: great aromatic intensity with remarkable complexity and breadth of perfume. Mellow notes of walnut, dried fig, caramel, candied fruit, dried white fruit (apricot), date and chestnut honey close on a sweet, slightly ethereal spiciness. Palate: sweet, mellow and round, with both elegance and strength. An intriguing gustatory balance: over a structure entirely governed by an elegant hint of alcohol, it finds supporting freshness. The finish is long, echoing all the notes perceived on the nose.