Ampeleia - 'UnLitro' - Carignan Blend - Costa Toscana, IT - 2020 - 1000ml

Placing a one-litre flask of wine on the table is a habit and age-old tradition, a symbol of conviviality.
This led us to come up with the name “Unlitro” and a bottle of a shape and size that conjures up the joy and carefreeness of being together.
Unlitro is produced from a blend of Alicante, Carignano, Mourvèdre, Sangiovese and Alicante Bouschet grapes coming from the youngest vineyards close to the sea. It reflects our desire to express the territory in a lighter and more immediate way, without losing any of its character.

Unlitro displays intense aromas and an immediate and harmonious mouth, characterized by an explosion of fruit laced with delicate balsamic and spicy notes.
Unlitro is our light, dynamic and immediate offering, starting from its name, and to drink in company

• _Appellation: _IGT Toscana Rosso
• _Grape varieties: _Alicante Nero, Carignano, Mourvèdre, Sangiovese, Alicante Bouschet
• Training system: spurred cordon, guyot
• Alcohol content: 12% vol
• Altitude: from 200 to 350 m/asl
• Harvest period: end of August / 1st week of September
• Yield/ha: 65 hl
• _Ageing: _6 months in concrete tanks
• Vinification notes: maceration on the skins for 2-3 days
• _First vintage: _2011
• Bottles produced: 150,000

Ampeleia was established in 2002, the year in which Marco Tait, young and impulsive at the time, answered the call of the current owners, Elisabetta Foradori and Giovanni Podini, to take charge of the first harvest, without being fully aware of what he was getting involved in. Marco, fresh out of oenology and viticulture school, had been enchanted by the call of the Maremma and he and Elisabetta had known each other for a while.
However, Ampeleia had been conceived by three friends two years earlier, at an altitude of 2153 metres in the Comici mountain refuge in the Dolomites. It was during the winter of 2000 that Elisabetta, Giovanni and Thomas had the idea for creating Ampeleia. They wanted to farm in a place that was beautiful but out of the ordinary, away from the stereotypes around which the world of wine revolves.
For the following two years they travelled far and wide throughout Italy lin search of that ideal place, which they came across one spring day in Roccatederighi. An exhilarating discovery, a place to take your breath away, with vineyards and a terroir with incredible potential. This is it, Ampeleia will be born here. However, as we all know, saying is one thing, doing is another, and in this case the "doing" was hectares of land to be tilled, vines to be planted, grapes to be harvested.
They started straight away because the land cannot wait. Marco was persuaded by their dream at a stand at Vinitaly and travelled to the Upper Maremma, convinced he would only be there for a few weeks during the grape harvest but instead he began to put down roots in Roccatederighi.
With the impulsiveness and courage of his twenty years, he took over the management of the vineyards and cellar, starting with a few concrete tanks and the six hectares inherited from the former owner planted with different red grape varieties. His instinctled him immediately to focus on Cabernet Franc and he started to impulsively plant it, but without exaggerating, as Ampeleia's goal has always been excellence.
These were years of discoveries, such as the decision to focus on biodynamics, or to find friends of Cabernet Franc, even better if they were local. This was the start of the return to the Mediterranean variety par excellence, the other native of the Upper Maremma, Alicante Nero.
Ampeleia, conceived in the mountains, like a rolling snowball has grown over the years. New vineyards, the arrival of animals and young people from different corners of Italy, to dream together with Marco.
Today Ampeleia covers over 120 hectares of land, 35 of which are vineyards. The rest is woodland, arable land and our olive grove. We also have a small vegetable garden and our animals have reared their families here.
In Ampeleia, the force of the Upper Maremma region of Tuscany encounters the sea breeze, giving rise to delicate and elegant wines; this is the power of harmony. Our wines speak of a territory formed of highs and lows, of history and innovation, of asperity and love.
Our root is Cabernet Franc. From the very first pressing we understood that it had an undeveloped potential. Cabernet Franc is the grape variety that best expresses the identity of our territory.
The Mediterranean essence of this hinterland inspired us to recover its ancient grape variety par excellence,Alicante Nero, which lives in symbiosis with other varieties less well known to the ears of locals, but which are truly expressed here: Carignano and Mourvèdre.