Tenuta Degli Dei Cavalli IGT 2012 750ml

Producer Profile

About Tenuta degli Dei
Lots of celebrities have winemaking projects in Italy, but few have earned reputations for crafting terroir-driven wines of consistent high quality and delicious style like the Cavalli family. Tommaso Cavalli, son of clothing designer Roberto Cavalli, was raised on the family estate in Panzano, Chianti, a stone’s throw away from the famed Conca d’Oro. The estate had held a small derelict vineyard when Roberto purchased it in the 1970s, but no one did anything with it until the early 2000s, when Tommaso decided to take on the project of rehabilitating the plot. Tommaso engaged enologist Carlos Ferrini to help him replant the family’s almost 4-acre plot, and together they chose to plant Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Alicante, rather than the traditional Tuscan Sangiovese. Over time, Roberto added a small plot located near the family villa in Florence, and today’s Tenuta degli Dei (named after Roberto’s favorite German Shepard, degli Dei) spans about ten acres, with all winemaking activity taking place in the cellars of Pieve of San Leolino, a ninth-century church. Yields are strictly kept to less than one kilo of grapes per vine, and maturation takes place in a combination of new and previously used barrique. The resulting Tenuta degli Dei wines are aromatic, finessed, characterful, and uniquely stylish.