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Red Bottle overall rating:
7/7 |
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A dry and fairly rich wine. Perfect in its
style. Best served at a temperature of 18-20°
with game, roast meats, tuscan appetizers.
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Sangiovese is believed to have originated in
tuscany, where it dominates today. Sangiovese wines
vary immensely depending on where the grapes are
grown, how they're grown (the yield allowed), and
which of the many subvarieties they're made from.
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Picture
on top: TITIAN (TIZIANO)
Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino
- 1536/38
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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A
bit of history:
TITIAN (TIZIANO Vecelli)
(1490 - 1576) |
Perhaps
because of the limitations of the court-portrait,
perhaps also because he had not his sitter actually
present - we know that the latter dispatched his
armour to the painter at Venice with the request
that he should hurry on the work - this portrait,
although impassioned and full of pride, lacks something
of the spiritual profundity of many others by the
artist.
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Titian is considered to have been the greatest 16th-century
Venetian painter, and the shaper of the Venetian
coloristic and painterly tradition. He is one of
the key figures in the history of Western art. Titian,
whose name in Italian is Tiziano Vecellio, was born
in Pieve di Cadore, north of Venice, by his own
account in 1477; many modern scholars prefer to
advance the date to about 1487. In Venice, he studied
with Gentile Bellini and then with Giovanni Bellini,
but only the latter left a lasting imprint on his
style.
Titian's most important innovations in the years
from 1530 to 1550 were made in portraiture. In 1516
he had been named official painter to the Venetian
state; thereafter he worked at the courts of Ferrara
and Mantua. In the 1530s and ‘40s he traveled
to Bologna to paint the Emperor Charles V and Pope
Paul III, and at the pope's behest he visited Rome
and met Michelangelo. He joined the court of Charles
V at Augsburg, Germany, in 1548 and 1550. As a result
of this connection, he obtained a multitude of portrait
commissions.
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Aristocratic impersonality and restrained opulence,
as in the portrait of Federigo Gonzaga (circa 1526,
Prado), became the dominant tone. The neutral atmospheric
backgrounds of the earlier portraits might be replaced
by cannily disposed elements of setting, such as
a column, a curtain, or a view into landscape. These
elements, and the patterns in which Titian arranged
them, remained staples of formal portraiture into
the 20th century. In general, these court portraits
are images of command rather than explorations of
personality. In some portraits of the 1540s, however,
such as Pietro Aretino (Frick Collection, New York)
or Pope Paul III (1543, Capodimonte Museum, Naples),
Titian used his unsurpassed skills as a visual dramatist
to compel the viewer's participation in the sitter's
inner life.
Titian died in Venice on August 27, 1576. His work,
which permanently affected the course of European
painting, provided an alternative, of equal power
and attractiveness, to the linear and sculptural
Florentine tradition championed by Michelangelo
and Raphael; this alternative, eagerly taken up
by Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velázquez, Rembrandt,
Eugène Delacroix, and the impressionists,
is still vital today. In its own right, moreover,
Titian's work often attains the very highest reach
of human achievement in the visual arts. |
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The vineyard lays around an ancient farmhouse
where a 'Commenda' and
a "Hospitale" stood in the Middle Age, probably
built by Templar Knights. It preserves the ancient
clones of the original Tuscan Sangiovese vines. The
high altitude of the vineyards protected the grapes
from the very dry and warm summer season and allowed
a perfect maturation of the red grapes, worth of a
high quality Riserva. Wonderful structure with great
tannic tenderness for this red wine with complex aroma
of mature red fruits, blackberry. cassis, cherry.
The wine is constituted by 90% Sangioyese and 10°%
Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine-making was performed
by a prolonged fermentation at controlled temperature.
The Cabernet Sauvignon fraction ages for about 20
months in French barriques (new). The Sangiovese in
medium size Slavoman oaks. The two wines are assembled
and a further refinement of 3 months in barriques
(used) takes place. Then the wine is ready to be bottled
for a final refinement for at least 12-18 months in
the bottles.
| Region: |
TUSCANY
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| Label: |
LA COMMENDA
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| Winery: |
Fattoria Marengo Emilio
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| Alcoholic vol.: |
13,5%
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| Residual
sugar: |
XXX g/l
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| Acids: |
5.10 g/l (tartaric)
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| Grape varieties: |
Sangiovese Toscano Antico (90%),
Cabernet Sauvignon (10%)
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| Production: |
9500 bottles
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| Aging: |
Cabernet Sauvignon: 20 months
in new french barriques. Sangiovese: 20 months
in medium size Slavonian oaks. Assembled 3 months
in used barriques, 12/18 months in bottle.
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| Bottle: |
750 ml bottle
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| Packing: |
6 bottles
box - cilyndrical bottle
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| Code: |
RBMA01
- 1 x 75 ml bottle
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Loris
says: |
A
full-bodied palate...
Good straightforward red. There
are plenty of raspberry aromas and flavors in this
Chianti. A full-bodied palate with medium tannins
and a short, vanilla aftertaste. Excellent to drink
now but can age for 3-4 years. |
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Marco
says: |
Beautifully
structured...
La Commenda delivers aromas and
flavors of dark redberry fruit, chocolate and tar.
It is soft and velvety on the palate, beautifully
structured and subtly complex. |
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R.Parker
says: |
Robert
Parker: 90 points
"Chianti Riserva La Commenda
boasts a gorgeous bouquet of earth, camphor, licorice,
tobacco, and sweet red and black fruits. Ripe, rich,
medium to full-bodied, and beautifully knit as well
as well-balanced, it will drink well for 8-10 years." |
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W.S.
says: |
Wine
Spectator : 90 points
"An aromatic red, with raspberries,
blackberries and hints of lilac. Medium-bodied,
with fine, well-crafted tannins, and a fresh and
fruity aftertaste. Very fine." |
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| Did
you know?... |
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Tips
& Tricks:
WINE TIPS
(Find more on our web site...) |
Complexity:
The various elements that
make up bouquet, aroma, and taste in a wine. When
a wine is described as having the aroma of fresh
peaches or apples, it is displaying some of its
complexities.
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choose the best Wines, Extra-virgin Olive Oils, Balsamic Vinegars and Spirits
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