Librandi Duca Sanfelice Cirò Classico Superiore Riserva 2022
Duca Sanfelice is a complex wine, offering flavours of figs, sour cherries and bitter chocolate. Bold tannins bring weight to the palate, and the lengthy finish has a pleasing touch of spice.
The grapes come predominantly from from old vines on the Duca Sanfelice estate, planted on limestone and clay-loam soils and trained to the traditional Alberello system. The grapes were picked by hand in early October.
The grapes were gently pressed and macerated on their skins for seven to ten days. Fermentation took place in temperature-controlled stainlesssteel tanks. The wine underwent full malolactic fermentation followed by a further three years’ ageing in tank before bottling.
Calabria remains one of Italy’s least developed regions and it is only relatively recently that modern winemaking techniques have been adopted. Librandi are a notable exception to this and it was back in the 1950s that Raffaele Librandi and his two sons, Antonio and Nicodemo, took the decision to take their family vineyards on a march towards modernity. Since then they have not been afraid to incorporate external influences and employ the assistance of international experts, without ever losing sight of what makes their wines distinctively Calabrian. This approach has seen them become the benchmark for the region.