Vintage Notes
Our mountain vines are dry farmed in shallow, rocky, low-vigor soil that adds impressive depth and concentration of flavor intensity to the wine. A wet winter gave way to a late March warming trend making for great bud break and a quick start to the growing season. A mild summer yielded grapes of wonderful balance, bright varietal characteristics and rich, plentiful tannins. Yields of 2 tons per acre with a berry size of 1 gram (half the size of typical Sangiovese) resulted in greater color, aroma, tannin and overall density of the wine.

Winemakers Notes
This wine is produced from small, concentrated berries carefully hand-harvested from our hillside vineyards, consisting of approximately five acres on our Mountain Estate property. Upon entering the winery, grapes were gently de-stemmed and hand-sorted for gravity filling into the fermentor. Fermentation temperatures were kept at modest levels to retain brighter aromatics and flavors with less astringent tannins. The wine received 10-day maceration and was then gravity-filled directly into Hungarian Puncheon oak barrels and cave-aged for 16 months, then aged an additional eight months in bottle prior to release.

Rhonda's Recipe and Pairing Notes

Our 2005 Ferrari-Carano Sangiovese pairs well with braised, roasted or barbequed meats such as chicken, red meat, fish lamb or pork. Pastas, stews or well-aged medium and strong-flavored cheeses such as Tellagio also pair well.