Castello Banfi Florus Moscadello di Montalcino DOC

Description

Castello Banfi Florus Moscadello di Montalcino is rare late harvested dessert wine from the Montalcino region. The Moscodello di Montalcino DOC was created in 1984. The identity of Moscadello remains a little murky – some say that it is Muscat d’Alexandria although the DOC laws cite is as Muscat a Petit Grains. Either way, it is a stunning dessert wine.

Castello Banfi was founded in founded in 1978 by two Italian-American brothers, John and Harry Mariani. The goal of the two brothers was to create a state-of-the-art winery combined with the most advanced science in the vineyards for the production of premium wines.  Today they have estates in Montalcino, Bolgheri, Chianti and Piedmont. In the last 40 years they have been at the forefront of the revival of Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino,  engaging in significant academic studies into the region’s geology, climate and different sangiovese clones. They also now own the historic Bruzzone winery in Piedmont (founded 1860).

The Castello Banfi estate is located in Montalcino and is situated at the confluence of the Orcia and Ombrone rivers. The estate extends along the southern slopes of the township of Montalcino across 7,100 acres of land; one third of the property is under specialized vine and the balance is shared between olive groves, wheat fields, plum trees, truffle stands, forest and scrub.

Castello Banfi Florus Moscadello di Montalcino is a late harvested dessert wine. The Moscadello grapes are come from exclusively estate vineyards on the southern hills of Montalcino located at 250 metres above sea level. The average vine age is 39 year old. The grapes are left to dry on the vine and then the slightly raisined grapes are hand harvested in mid October or later. After crushing and pressing the juice is slowly fermented at 15C for several months until an ABV of 14 to 15 is reached. The base wine is 85% of the current vintage blended with 15% of the previous vintage that has been aged for 1 year in French oak barriques.