2019 Gianfranco Fino SN Rosé Spumante

The Michelin Guide for restaurants, the Vini d'Italia from publisher Gambero Rosso for the best Italian wines. The latest edition, which judges wine quality and its consistency over the years, was recently published. Michelin awards stars, Gambero Rosso awards glasses. Tre Bicchieri (3 glasses) is the ultimate assessment. The guide is 1,000 pages long, reviews 2,350 producers, and over 10,000 wines. This guide remains the leading wine reviewer in Italy, and Gianfranco Fino's wines have been voted the absolute number one. The June/July edition of Winelife also devotes two pages to Gianfranco's superb wines.

This noble rosé spumante is a declaration of love from cult winemaker Gianfranco Fino to his wife Simona Natale (SN) on her birthday. It had to be something special, and when Gianfranco puts his heart into it, he puts his heart and soul into it. The base wine is made from 100% Negroamaro and aged for 7 months in used barriques to give it a powerful structure. For the second fermentation, it is bottled for 36 months and, after disgorging, rests for a further 12 months before being released in perfect harmony.

Just as everything is quite extreme with Gianfranco Fino, this also applies to this Italian Champagne. The vineyard is located in Salento, near the sea, at an altitude of 90 meters on a clay and limestone plateau. The Negroamaro vineyard is only 1 hectare in size and only 400-800 grams of only the finest berries are harvested. After this manual harvest, the grapes are placed in plastic crates and transported by refrigerated truck to prevent premature fermentation. The grapes undergo a second selection on the sorting table, after which they are destemmed and gently crushed, followed by a cold maceration in a 70 hectoliter stainless steel tank, with 24 hours of skin contact with the must. After fermentation, the must is immediately transferred to French oak barriques. Tirage is made after approximately 7 months of oak aging and de-dough fermentation after approximately 36 months on the lees. This wine then matures in the bottle for approximately 12-14 months. This Gianfranco Fino SN Spumante is made like a champagne (methode traditionelle), so with a double fermentation.

On the nose, the Gianfranco Fino SN is a powerful potpourri of red fruit and spicy yeast notes: crisp red cherries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries, along with dark bread crust, butterscotch, brioche, and white pepper. The nose is very intense and, despite its long aging on the lees, shows no signs of aging, yet it is slightly citrusy and very fresh. On the palate, you immediately sense the fruit of the Negroamaro grape variety, such as blueberries and cherries. Then you notice the incredibly fine perlage, never overpowering. The Spumante Simona Natale is a unique wine from Apulia. Gianfranco did not try to copy a rosé champagne, but rather, created a powerful Negroamaro grape—a rosé sparkling wine of the highest class—that is incomparable. This is a great aperitif, but gastronomically it is an almost ideal wine and goes well with many different dishes and of course delicious with antipasti, risotto, veal and aromatic vegetable cuisine.

FACT: In the tab: Attachment, you'll find the official fact sheet for this fine wine. We'll automatically send it to you when you order this wine. The wine is stored in our climate-controlled Wine Warehouse, and if you pick it up, you'll also receive a nice discount.