Wine
Growing area: Montecucco DOC
Area: 5.5 hectares
Exposure: South-south west
Altitude: 200 m above sea level
Year of planting: 1999
Grape variety: Sangiovese Grosso
Training system: Spurred cordon
Harvest: Manual
Organic certification: ICEA
Number of bottles: 5,000
Serving temperature: 16°-18°C
The label features a painting by Francesca Eleonora Balestrieri
Tasting Notes by Andrea Balzani
“Antique ruby red in colour, it glows with a mysterious warm light which envelops the drinker in its elegance and leaves behind a part of itself, precise and mesmerizing.
Refined and complex on the nose, it speaks of small crisp fruit, cherries, raspberries and blueberries, followed by aromatic herbs with hints of iodine, and an unexpected finish of lavender.
It tiptoes onto the palate, velvet-smooth, rich and well-balanced; then proves to be powerful, impetuous and with intriguing tannins. It leaves us with a finish of balsam and strawberry tree.
Like a nobleman of bygone times, this wine delights with its refinement and simplicity.
A grilled Fiorentina steak with porcini mushrooms would be the perfect accompaniment”
Andrea Balzani: Professional sommelier - Best Sommelier in Tuscany - Best Restaurant Sommelier in Italy 2005
Luca Maroni on vintage
Vintage 2016: 90 points
An outstanding, excellent “wine - fruit”.
We can feel the light and the primordial strenght of Maremma in its fiery pulp of black cherry !
Vintage 2017: 92 points
There is a lot of nature in your wine !
Vintage 2018 : 92 points
Animoso 2018 is simply outstanding!
Clean, clear and vivid nose, an exquisite blueberry!
Tasting Notes by Andrea Gori
A little great organic Sangiovese, which is born from twenty-years-old vines in Cinigiano, Montecucco. Stony soil, flaky scist, elegance and refinement, feminine classicism and masculine vigour meet like the two geese on the label, crunchy berries, iodine and a steely note, a mineral taste which explodes and satisfies , it lasts long elegant and balanced.
Little great miracle of balance between juiciness, energy and verticality.
Andrea Gori: journalist, writer, Best Sommelier in Tuscany.
Written by the Slow Wine editorial staff. 22/10/2019
Slow Wine Scouting has been created to answer a need:
During the period in which the visits in the agricultural farms for Slow Wine 2000 take place, the experts not only enter the cellars presented in the previous edition of the guide, but also pay a visit to the novelties by exploring different wine estates that cannot be includes in the current edition. Because of the lack of space, they place these firms under observation before any suitable substitution within the guide.
Often, the firm under observation really deserves to be known and appreciated. Every week they suggest one of them in the section Slow Wine Scouting by presenting a dossier similar to those appearing in the main guide.
Slow Wine editorial staff.
Life
The agricultural estate San Lorenzo is located in Maremma, over the hills surrounding Cinigiano, within a region devoted to wine and olive oil production. The farm covers an area of about 40 hectares. The owner has believed from the very beginning in the possibility of a biological agriculture. A few years ago, Francesca Balestrieri, an entrepreneur of milanese origin, decided to devote all her time and energy to this estate located in the middle of a harsh and splendid Vino ANIMOSO In Giappone landscape.
Vineyard
The vineyard covers seamless 5 hectares and half of land. The ground is clayey and somewhat chalky. Francesca is a passionate advocate of “sangiovese”, a grape variety reaching a splendid balance between phenols and sugars on this land. This is not obvious for a variety of vine, which suffers from the heat. The advice provided by Leonardo Salustri, a reputed wine producer, turns out to be of great help to the young wine grower.
Wine
Animoso represents the quintessence of Montecucco “sangiovese”.
Bright and limpid, this wine introduces itself with complex flavors going from the blood orange to a kind of tobacco so well integrated and deep. Tannins, that impart a persistent balsamic taste, magnify the juicy flavor in the mouth.
ANIMOSO Wine In Japan
GINGER Magazine
Antique ruby red colour, velvety texture, rich and balanced flavour. The delicate and complex bouquet has a graceful and rustic charm, and all the style of a medieval aristocrat.
WINEKINGDOM
A scattering of white truffle over chestnut-flavoured rigatoni. Could there be anything more delicious? The prominent flavours of autumn are fleeting, but their echo in the mouth lasts long beyond the imagination; and this is followed by the mushroom risotto.
At this point a very interesting wine was served. Animoso San Lorenzo 2014, a red wine from Cinigiano, a small village in the Tuscan Maremma. An extremely pleasant 100% Sangiovese IGT Toscana. A gorgeous deep ruby colour; in the glass an explosion of fruit, like a freshly opened pomegranate.
This delicious wine dances around the room with the aroma of the first autumn truffles.
Kumiko Yamada
Food & Wine editor
I came across a beautiful and exquisitely balanced wine called Animoso (IGT Toscana), which was the best pairing for the risotto at Ristorante Luca Fantin.
The coastal area around Grosseto in Tuscany is currently attracting a lot of attention for its wine.
25 years
A very special wine that ... was suggested to accompany the risotto. It's produced in a small Tuscan village called Cinigiano, but this unexplored wine area appears to be attracting attention. An extremely charming wine with a perfect balance of fruit and minerals.
Numéro TOKYO
An exquisite red wine
Since the warmth of autumn, the temperature has dropped sharply, with weather more similar to winter. This is the season when red wine is truly delicious.
As the Christmas and New Year holidays will probably be less extravagant than usual, I'd like to enjoy food that touches my heart on the few occasions I get to dine out. An Italian sommelier will introduce the perfect red wine for the circumstances.
The red wine is "ANIMOSO", meaning "full of vitality" in Italian. It's impossible to travel right now, but the name alone conjures up that wonderful Italian worldview.
I experienced seasonal Japanese ingredients with Italian cuisine, completed by the contemporary interpretation of Chef Luca Fantin.
A dish of fragrant rigatoni with mushrooms was paired with Animoso red wine. I forgot to take a picture of the poured glass because it was so delicious, but the colour is like an antique ruby. The moderate tannins perceptible in the flavour of woodland fruits, blended with intense, earthy notes of mushrooms, were an exquisite combination that gives all the pleasures of autumn in a glass.