Terre di San Leonardo is made from a composition of usually 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 10% Carmenère from 5-25 year old vines. The grapes are harvested during October and are 100% destemmed upon arrival in the cellar. The wine is fermented in small concrete tanks with continuous stirring, and after the pressing and a malolactic fermentation, it is matured for 18 months, with 80% in concrete tanks and the rest in French barriques (225 l.). After bottling, the wine is further matured for 6 months before release.
The wine has a very nice, glossy, ruby red colour. In the scent, you find delicate aromas of red berries, gooseberries, blackcurrants (blackcurrant leaves), which grow with the oxygenation. The taste is crisp and meaty at the same time with nuances of ripe plums and morels. The wine has a good velor and ends very elegantly and a bit feminine. Serve it with risottos, pasta dishes with tomato sauce, gratin dishes and meat dishes with poultry, veal or lamb.
Tenuta San Leonardo is located in Borghetto in the southern part of Trentino-Alto Adige, on the border with Veneto and only a few hundred meters from the river Adige. The current owner is the Guerrieri Gonzaga family, whose ancestors took over the property in 1770, and it is Marquis Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga and his son Anselmo who are today in charge of the property and its 300 ha. (30 ha. are planted with vines).
Most red wines in the area are made from the Marzemino and Teroldego grapes, but at Tenuta San Leonardo they have chosen to specialize in red wines made from the Bordeaux grapes Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Carmenère. Tenuta San Leonardo also produces a couple of white wines, one on Sauvignon Blanc and the other on Riesling.
In 2015, the family decided to go the organic route, and the property is thus today certified organic, but since they supply grapes from surrounding fields, which are not grown organically, their wines can therefore currently not achieve certification as organic. The house’s motto is: “The earth is the soul of our work”. In the future, this slogan will gain even more weight!
Tenuta San Leonardo is among the absolute most recognized producers in Trentino-Alto Adige, and international wine writers have throughout the ages sprinkled many superlatives on their wines, including Jancis Robinson, who has said about the house’s top wine, “San Leonardo”: “Surely the most successful Bordeaux blend of northern Italy”.
