Roberto Cipresso is soft spoken despite his ability to speak fluent French, Italian, and Spanish. Cipresso speaks with passion and emotion. Scrolling through the numerous pictures on this phone of his family and children you feel his excitement for life. He is a worldly winemaker, flying between Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Croatia, Italy, and other countries. In fact, Cipresso was the visionary for the famed Mendoza winery Archavel-Ferrer after his first visit to Argentina in 1995. He has been making wine at Archavel-Ferrer since their first vintage in 1999.
Cipresso’s accolades and accomplishments are long but his heart is in Montalcino. La Fiorita his baby and considers Montalcino a magic mountain. Started in 1992 with two of his friends the winery immediately received acclaim. The famous Enotica Pinchiorri in Florence bought the entire first vintage in 1993. Knowing that they were on to something good, they continued to acquire more land.
La Fiorita is an expression of the terroir from which is comes. Located in the small village of Montalcino called Castelnuovo dell’Abate, fruit comes from two very distinct vineyards. First, Poggio al Sole sits at 200m elevation and is the hotter of the two vineyards. Harvest is generally two weeks before their second vineyard, Pian Bossolino. The Pian Bossolino vineyard is much higher in elevation, at 500m, and surrounded by forests. This creates a special microclimate of warm days and cool nights. Compared to the clay soils of Poggio al Sole, the classic galestro soils in Pian Bossolino are heavy in stone. The quick drainage causes the vines to dig deep which adds minerality. A third vineyard has been planted, Podere Giardinello, consisting of sandy soils but it is still a baby with 6 month old vines.
Roberto Cipresso’s Poggio al Sole Vineyard:
La Fiorita is an expression of Cipresso as well. His 2007 Brunello di Montalcino is elegant on the nose with baked red cherry, bright red currant, plum, black olive, tarragon, and cedar. It balances masculinity and femininity; acidity and elegance from the higher elevation Pian Bossolino, power and tannin from Poggio al Sole. Cipresso, very passionate about elegance, explains he decision to release his wines later than most. As of October 2014, his current releases are 2007 and 2006 Riserva.
Cipresso’s Riserva can come from either vineyard (but not both) depending on which vineyard produces the best fruit each year. His 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Reserva is solely from the Pian Bossolino vineyard which was harvested in 2 weeks later. The two wines receive the exact same vinification methods except the Riserva spends 6 more months in bottle aging. The terroir of this beautiful site really shows through. The wine is very aromatic. Distinct forest-floor aromas add complexity to plum, baked cherry, tarragon, slate, fig and cedar. Elegance is almost Burgundian in style with strong acidity, fine, grippy tannins, and a long length.
La Fiorita is unquestionably Roberto Cipresso’s baby. He has found the perfect vineyards to not only express his personality and passion but for the terroir to express the elegance in Roberto.
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