Share

Wines: Sheet 38, Cabernet Franc which finds its terroir in Bolgheri

A winning challenge that of Silvia Menicagli and Stefano Billi, great-grandson of the sharecropper of the Counts of Gherardesca: a vine that "betrays" its original terroir in favor of Bolgheri and which celebrates 20 years successfully

Wines: Sheet 38, Cabernet Franc which finds its terroir in Bolgheri

The breeze comes in the morning from the sea and remains in the fields until the evening. The grapes do not suffer from the heat and ripen, delicately caressed by the wind of the Piombino Canal, waiting to be harvested. The Bolgheri Amphitheatre, which forms the backdrop to the vineyards lying on the plain leading to the Tyrrhenian Sea, protects and nourishes with its hills and woods the aromas and hints of Mediterranean scrub in the bunch, in a special and unique microclimate with large temperature variations between day and night. Stefano Billi who together with his wife Silvia Menicagli runs the company which bears the name of the ancient Etruscan furnaces found among the vineyards and still kept under the cellar today, “Fornacelle” precisely, he reels off the history of the Bolgheri wines, famous all over the world, starting from the precious Sassicaia of the Marquis Incisa della Rocchetta and the priceless Ornellaia of the Frescobaldi. In short, the crème of the "Super Tuscans", aristocratic neighbors, illustrious and passionate about this land like him.

With its ten hectares inherited from great-grandfather who had been a sharecropper of the Counts of Gherardesca, Billi has created a vineyard where he has planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc which in purity celebrates its first twenty years of success in the glass. Sheet 38, Bolgheri Superiore is in fact a DOC made only of Cabernet Franc. It owes its name to the parcel on which the vineyard is located. The first bottle is from 2004, a fruitful year, with unexpected results. “It immediately intrigued us,” he says Silvia Menicagli, “we thought it was worth trying to make this wine”.

A winning challenge: a grape variety that "betrays" its original terroir in favor of Bolgheri and which celebrates 20 years successfully

A brilliant wine, with a fresh character and great personality, enveloping, intense. This is proven by the "vertical" tasting which starts from 2004 and then gradually leads to the 2005, 2007, 2008,2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2024, 38 vintages. In religious silence we can read the story in the glass of the vine that has found new life and new "terroir" in this corner of Tuscan land famous today not only for its cypresses and Carducci's verses but also for a DOC that has proven to be revolutionary. If Sheet XNUMX is the absolute dominus, it is however necessary to mention i blend that we find in the cellar such as Zizzolo, Bolgheri Doc made of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, Guardia Boschi, made of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, Erminia (dedicated to the couple's daughter) made only of Merlot. Then some magnificent whites such as Zizzolo Vermentino Bolgheri Doc of great performance, and Fornacelle, a white Igt Toscana, made only of Semillon, where once again Stefano and Silvia win their challenge with a vine that "betrays" its original terroir in favor of Bolgheri resulting in a wine of great elegance. “We live and work here in the company, in the Bolgheri terroir: life and lives are one”, is the motto and common thread of Fornacelle. They point it out Stefano Billi and Silvia Menicagli celebrating their creation today.

comments