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Tua Rita to release ‘icon’ Redigaffi for £900

Tuscan wine estate Tua Rita is to launch a limited-release, £900 “icon” wine under it’s prized Redigaffi brand to celebrate 20 years of the label.

The UK will get 30 magnums of Redigaffi 7, which will retail for £900 each

Called Redigaffi 7, the wine comes from a 7,000m2 plot of Merlot vines that were planted in 1988 – making them the first Merlot vines to be put in at the property, which is located in Tuscany’s Bolgheri wine region.

Speaking to the drinks business last month, Stefano Frascolla, who runs the property with his wife Simena – whose parents founded the estate – said that the new wine was from the “original Merlot vineyard” at Tua Rita.

Indeed, it is a vineyard that has been instrumental to the success of Redigaffi, a pure Merlot wine, which achieved collectible status after gaining a ‘perfect’ 100-point score from critic Robert Parker for the 2000 vintage.

Frascolla told db that he had produced for the first time a wine from this plot of vines that he said were planted 28 years ago using “an unknown clone of Merlot, and an unknown rootstock”, and that he had made an “icon style wine” using grapes from the 2013 vintage, which was a “perfect” harvest in Bolgheri.

Continuing, he said that Tua Rita would be releasing 420 magnums of the Redigaffi 7, following two years ageing in oak – longer than normal for Redigaffi – using barriques with “more toasting” than is standard at the estate.

He also said that the special edition will be made only in magnums.

While Redigaffi was in fact launched in 1994, making the release last month of the 2014 vintage officially the 20th anniversary of the label, Frascolla said that they had first made a pure Merlot on an experimental basis in 1993, making the 2013, in fact, the 20th anniversary of the wine, if not the brand.

According to Frascolla, the UK will receive an allocation of 30 magnums which will retail for £900 each, more than double the price of two bottles of Redigaffi 2013, which sells through UK agent Armit Wines for £135 for a standard 75cl bottle.

Frascolla also told db that he has taken a massale selection from Tua Rita’s inaugural Merlot vineyard which he has used to create a new 2 hectare plot, which he planted in 2015.

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