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Welcome.
Today's Featured Offer:
25th Anniversary Ornellaia, Striking Merlot from Galatrona, and Rare Gravner Retrospective
May 21, 2013
A Note from Sergio
Tenuta
dell'Ornellaia is a fascinating place. It's a big estate. Though
founded by Ludovico Antinori, it's now owned by Frescobaldi, and it
sprawls across almost 475 acres, and every bit of it looks as if it was
tended to just minutes ago. The vineyards grow in neat, orderly rows,
and flowers dot the ends of the rows. Depending on the season, you'll
see tulips, roses, irises and other flowers in bloom. It's the very
picture of calm, orderly growth.
It's
very clear that attention to detail is paramount at Ornellaia. But a
beating heart and a soaring spirit are just as important. At the heart
of Ornellaia is the estate's dedication to art. Five-foot-high letters
spell out "Ornellaia" in trellised flowers at the entryway to the
cantina, and the moment you step inside its gleaming doors, you see
evidence of the estate's art project, Vendemmia d'Artista. In 2009,
Tenuta dell'Ornellaia chose to find an artist to create a special label
for the large-format bottlings of its flagship wine. This year, that
artist is Michelangelo Pistoletto, and it's special because this year,
the estate releases its 25th anniversary bottling of Ornellaia.
Today,
I'm delighted to debut the 2010 Tentua dell'Ornellaia Ornellaia. You
have to cross your fingers in momentous years and hope that the weather
won't thwart your attempt to make something great. 2010 didn't, and this
Ornellaia is a fitting tribute to the skill, the precision, the heart
and the art of the estate. This is a bottle worth celebrating itself.
I'm
also proud to offer a retrospective of Josko Gravner. He's an
iconoclast who has never settled with the conventional. This two-decade
list of wines spans his evolution in style, from using barriques to
fermenting in open vats to his current use of anfora. It's a rare,
thrilling list of wines that are as soulful as the man who made them.
Finally, I'm also happy to shine a lite on Petrolo Galatrona. It's a
lesser-known Merlot from the heart of Chianti, and it's made by a man
with vision, a person without a winemaking background who came to an
estate without a name and caused a sensation. You want to drink this
wine.
Here's to monuments in all our lives, and to celebrating every moment, great and small.
Today's Featured Sections Include:
1. Spotlight on Excellence: Debuting the 25th Anniversary Ornellaia 2010
2. Time Sensitive Offer: Petrolo Galatrona's Benchmark Tuscan Merlot
3. Our Experts Suggest: Willamette Rosé and Tuscan Merlot
4. Only At IWM: Josko Gravner Retrospective 1993-2005
5. Wine Events: A Taste of Antinori
My Best,
Sergio Esposito
Owner/Founder
SPOTLIGHT ON EXCELLENCE
 Today,
we're delighted to announce the release of the 2010 vintage of Tenuta
dell'Ornellaia's flagship wine, Ornellaia. Even more exciting than a new
vintage of this iconic Super Tuscan is the fact that 2010 celebrates
Ornellaia's 25th anniversary. IWM is delighted to be offering limited
time pre-arrival pricing for the anniversary edition of Ornellaia, and
given how quickly our allocations of this wine typically go, we expect
this historical bottling to fly out of the cellar.
This
bottling is all dressed up with a specially designed commemorative
label, but that outside beauty is just a hint at what lies within.
Almost as if the weather wanted to ensure a spectacular anniversary for
Ornellaia, 2010 had an idiosyncratic, yet ultimately perfect, growing
season. The season was, above all, delayed. The buds broke ten days
later than usual, and the progress of the grapes remained behind
schedule. But if the rainy spring kept the buds from breaking, the hot,
dry summer encouraged the berries to ripen. A cool, slightly wet
September saved the grapes from getting too ripe, and Tenuta
dell'Ornellaia's careful attention in the vineyards ensured the fruit
ripened perfectly. You can't argue with the quality, balance and
extraction of 2010's grapes.
Winemaker
Axel Heinz, working with Tenuta dell'Ornellaia's agronomist Leonardo
Raspini, chose to craft the 2010 vintage from 52 percent Cabernet
Sauvignon, 22 percent Merlot, 21 percent Cabernet Franc and 5 percent
Petit Verdot, a composition that ups the percentage of Cabernet Franc,
which usually sits at about 17 percent. As the estate always does,
Tenuta dell'Ornellaia vinfied each component grape and vineyard parcel
separately, blending the components after a year and letting the blend
age in barriques for six months before bottling and aging for another
year.
The
resulting wine is worthy of its special year. It's a beautifully
balanced evocation of Ornellaia, one that shows freshness and ripeness
in equal measure. Nuanced and sophisticated, the aromatics and the
palate of the '10 Ornellaia marry seamlessly; its bouquet of ripe dark
fruit, earth and wildflowers echo on the palate that clings to your
mouth and takes forever to dissipate. While it seems early to drink a
wine this monumental, and while time in the cellar will only serve to
integrate this wine's tannins, the '10 Ornellaia is approachable. This
is a wine worthy of its 25 years of history.
Founded
by Ludovico Antinori, Piero's brother, Bolgheri's Tenuta dell'Ornellaia
gets its name from the grove of flowering ash trees surrounding the
winery. IWM Vice President Chris Deas calls Ornellaia the "Lou Gehrig of
wine" for its consistent excellence whether crafted in great, average
or even poor vintages. This is no hyperbole: the estate's vineyards lie
on elevated parcels composed of clay, gravel, and loam soils year in and
year out produce Ornellaia, a wine with a sterling reputation for
table, wine and investment. It's always an IWM client favorite, and this
2010 anniversary edition of Tenuta dell'Ornellaia illustrates why this
wine is so beloved by so many.
Tenuta dell'Ornellaia 2010 Ornellaia $189*
(Italy, Tuscany- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot)
*Pre-Arrival, Summer 2013
This offer is valid for one week only and will expire on May 27th at 5:00pm EST. |
TIME SENSITIVE OFFER
 Toscana's
Tenuta Petrolo is one of the rising stars that we've been following in
recent years and its flagship, Galatrona, is the masterpiece of Luca
Sanjust, a novice winemaker who took an estate without a name and
created a sensation. Sanjust initially thought that he would use the
estate's Merlot for Torrione, the estate's Sangiovese-based blend, but
it showed far too much promise to simply be a component. In a stroke of
genius, Sanjust decided to go mono-varietal, a move that was motivated
by his passion for the wines of Pomerol. This 2005 bottling, a darling
of critics and connoisseurs, illustrates the wisdom of that gamble. IWM is delighted to offer this Merlot that rivals Masseto at exceptional time-sensitive pricing. Why Buy This Wine: -
Last week the IWM team sat down with proprietor Luca Sanjust and were
spellbound by one of the most striking expressions of mature Merlot we
have tasted--white truffles, olives, tobacco, stewed fruits, cocoa, and
more. -
While the Maremma's Merlot trio of Masseto, Messorio and Redigaffi have
challenged Pomerol's Petrus and Le Pin as the finest expression of the
noble grape with their rich, dense and extracted profiles, Galatrona
showcases a leaner, more classic expression that is characteristic of
the Chianti landscape. - Now with eight years of age, the '05 Galatrona continues to demonstrate why it belongs to an elite Italian Merlot cadre. -
This is an uninhibited and voluptuous expression of the Merlot grape
that delivers the intricacy and detail of fine Pomerol wines, the wines
that inspired its creation. -
Galatrona is a wine that often commands more than $125 a bottle; this
is a unique opportunity to experience this Tuscan Merlot directly from
the estate with eight years maturity at one of the best prices in the
country. Petrolo 2005 Galatrona $113.85 Reg $91.08 Special 6-Pack Price/btl (Italy, Tuscany - Merlot) This offer is valid for 72 hrs only and will expire on May 24th at 5:00pm EST.
OUR EXPERTS SUGGESTS
Vice
President of IWM, Chris Deas has filled almost every role at IWM over
the past ten years from marketing to events, purchasing to sales,
writing to cellar management, New York to Aspen. Chris resides in New Jersey with his wife and daughter.
Drinking Today:
Soter 2011 North Valley Highland Rose
(United States, Oregon-Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer)
For The Cellar:
ONLY AT IWM
Friuli's
Josko Gravner is one of those producers who challenges you; more than a
winemaker, he's a wine philosopher. He makes wines with a soul, and he
makes them according to his own principles, tenets that hearken back
thousands of years. Gravner grows his grapes naturally and makes his
wines without intervention, and these days he uses anfora, clay vats so
large that you could fit a person inside them, sunk into the earth--but
he didn't always. Today's list of wines looks at bottlings of Josko
Gravner, both recent and two decades old, to assemble a body of
stunning, otherworldly work. All impeccably sourced and carefully kept,
these Gravner wines belong in a category of their own. You'll find
Gravner Whites that drink like Reds, and Reds that speak deeply of their
Friuli terroir. One thing's for certain: all these wines offer all the
kaleidoscopic complexity and slowly unveiling layers that have won
Gravner fans the world around.
Why Buy This Wine:
-
Today's offer spans three separate phases in Josko Gravner's career:
his pre-1997 non-interventionist period when he vinified in oak vats;
his 1997-2000 experimentation with open vats; and his current use of
anfora, large clay vessels buried in the ground.
-
Among the highlights is the '98 Ribolla Riserva, a single vineyard
Ribolla from old vines in Gravner's Runk vineyard consisting of vines
dating back to WWI in 1915; this wine was just bottled in 2010 and has
aged at the estate for the past 14 years, redefining the term Riserva
for a White wine.
- Gravner
produced just 500 magnums of the Ribolla Riserva, and IWM obtained a
mere 12 magnums to date; the wine is currently unavailable elsewhere.
-
Another highlight is the 1998 and 2000 Breg, which gives a rare
opportunity to experience the transitional phase of open vat
fermentation that lasted from 1997 through 2000 before Josko officially
implemented his use of Anfora.
-
These vintage Bregs, with 15 and 13 years of age, are two of Italy's
greatest whites, delivered with provenance that only IWM can provide.
-
Only a handful of cases of the rare Rosso Riserva made it to the
States, and IWM is one of two US merchants to offer this wine; we're
offering this rare bottle at the best price in the country, a savings of
more than $60 a bottle.
-
IWM is the only wine merchant who can offer such a comprehensive list
of Gravner wines, including magnums, and to offer them with unrivaled
provenance and care.
Gravner 1993 Rosso Gravner $189.00^
^Extremely Limited Quantity
WINE EVENTS
Saturday, June 1, 2013 1:00pm-3:00pm
$75.00
Celebrate
600 Years of Italian winemaking during this special tasting that
presents the Antinori properties in Bolgheri (Guado al Tasso), Chianti
Classico (Vigna Tignanello), Montalcino (Pian delle Vigne) and Umbria
(Castello della Sala). Guests will experience the ripe, new release of
Italy's iconic Super-Tuscan Tignanello, as well as the more finessed
flagship Solaia. But the Super-Tuscan tasting does not end in Chianti
Classico; it extends to the Tuscan coast and into Bolgheri with the 2008
Guado al Tasso, an interpretation that IWM considers to be among its
finest to date. And while it is easy to recognize the Antinori
contribution to these pioneering Reds, the estate also changed the face
of Whites and dessert wines. Experience the unique opportunity to
experience one of Italy's finest White in Antinori's Cervaro and the
estate's classic Italian dessert wine, Muffato. A history lesson has
never tasted so delicious, all brought to you by IWM in its world-famous
Studio del Gusto.
Wine Events
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