Tenute Venissa Rosso Veneto 2012

This bottle honors Venice’s past and pays homage to local traditions. One of the greatest traditions of Venice’s artisanal past is, in fact, that of the families of gold hammerers, the “Battiloro” in Italian. They hammer gold by hand, ultimately obtaining an impalpably fi ne gold leaf. It is a tradition that, like winemaking, had almost completely disappeared from Venice. With the Rosso, copper replaces gold but is still applied by hand to each bottle and baked onto the glass in one of the glassmaking ovens on the famous island of Murano.

The 2012 Rosso, a blend of 82% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, shows a pretty display of musky woodland berries, peppery florals and hints of blood orange. It’s silky yet poised, with crunchy red fruits and saline-mineral tones, as youthful tannins slowly saturate under an air of rosy inner florals. This finishes quite structured and dry, revealing hints of cranberry and pomegranate, as residual acids pinch at the cheeks. A few years of cellaring should unlock further depths. - Vinous