In the glass
Aroma: black cherry, blackberry, violet, graphite
Palate: blackberry, polished oak, cedar, iron
Italy's reference 100 percent Merlot away from Bolgheri. Black cherry, blackberry and violet over a graphite-iron mineral spine, with polished oak and firm tannin in support.
What it pairs with
-
Roasted duck breast with cherry reduction
Duck fat meets the wine's polished oak; cherry reduction echoes the dark-fruit core. -
Braised beef short ribs
Long-cooked beef collagen finds a peer in the wine's volume and firm tannin. -
Aged Tuscan pecorino with truffle honey
Truffle aromatics weave into the wine's iron mineral note; pecorino salt sharpens the fruit.
History
Galatrona was first bottled in 1994 from a 10-hectare blue-clay parcel planted to low-vigour Bordeaux clones in the late 1980s through mid-1990s. Vinified with native yeasts and spontaneous malolactic fermentation. Petrolo classifies it as the 'Grand-Cru' of Merlot from the Val d'Arno di Sopra DOC.
- 1994 — First Galatrona vintage
- 2011 — Val d'Arno di Sopra DOC formally recognised
Facts
- Producer
- Petrolo
- Grapes
- Merlot (100%)
- Classification
- Val d'Arno di Sopra DOC (Vigna Galatrona)
- Oak
- 18 to 20 months in French oak barriques, around one third new, with batonnage of fine lees in the first six months
- ABV
- 14.5%
- Price
- EUR 130 to 220 at retail
- Drinking window
- 8 to 25 from vintage
- First vintage
- 1994
Scores
- Wine Advocate 97 (2019 vintage, reviewed 2022)
- James Suckling 98 (2019 vintage, reviewed 2022)