Petrolo has just published a great video of the harvest production during September 2012. Click the image below to watch the full video!
Petrolo - News
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Petrolo: The 2012 Harvest
March 15th, 2013James Suckling’s Top 100 Italian Wines
December 19th, 2012James Suckling released a tasting report of his top 100 Italian wines of 2012. He tasted over 3,00 Italian wines throughout the year and for the first time has selected his 100 best. Sandrone and Petrolo both made his list! Sandrone’s Barolo Le Vigne 2008 was given 95 points and Petrolo’s Boggina 2010 and Galatrona 2010 both scored 95 points as well. His tasting notes are below.
2008 Sandrone Barolo Le Vigne “Love the nose of this with freshly cut flowers and berries with just a hint of chiles, cocoa. Full-bodied, with super well-integrated tannins and a subtle fruity palate. The texture is beautiful. Better in 2015.”
2010 Petrolo Toscana Boggina “Very balanced and firm with lovely texture of fine tannins and blueberry, currant character. Full body, with silky tannins and a wonder finish. This tiny production pure Sangiovese shows richness and power with finesse. Such focus and beauty. Hard not to drink now.”
2010 Petrolo Toscana Galatrona “Aromas of black olives, violets and fresh fruit follow through to a full body, with a dense palate of dark fruits and olives. Long and polished. Handmade wine. You sense it. Pure Merlot sensation. Try in 2014.”
Luca Sanjust: Super Tuscan Stars
November 19th, 2012The Wine Enthusiast’s Wines of Italy special edition features an insider’s guide to Italy’s Best Wine, Food and Travel. They covered Piedmont, Veneto, Tuscany, Sicily and many other regions of the country. Among the “Super Tuscan Stars” is Luca Sanjust and the Petrolo winery, with some comments on Galatrona as one of the best wines made in Italy. Click the image below to read the comments!
Petrolo’s Harvest Time
August 31st, 2012Luca Sanjust gave us a little insight on the start of their harvest time. Although they had been experiencing a drought recently, they received their first rainfall last week and expect more rain in the upcoming week. Luca suggests that the Merlot grapes had not suffered much from the lack of rain and the upcoming rain will be excellent for the Sangiovese grapes as they begin their harvesting. Below are some beautiful photos from Luca himself!
Highlights from 2012 Tre Bicchieri Tasting: Galatrona!
June 12th, 2012Alder Yarrow, founder, editor and wine blogger of Vinography, attended this year’s Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri Tasting. The famous organization and guide Gambero Rosso, the Italian Wine Bible, awards one, two, or three “Bicchieri” (“glasses”) to wines of exceptional character and quality from the incredibly diverse regions of Italy. From tens of thousands, there are usually a couple of hundred Tre Bicchieri wines, and every Spring, Gambero Rosso brings many of them to San Francisco for the media, trade, and public to taste. Among the several wines Yarrow had tasted at the event, Petrolo’s 2009 Galatrona was one them he favored. He scored this red at the top between 9.5 and 10 points. His thoughts on Galatrona are below.
2009 Fattoria Petrolo Galatrona, Toscana
“Medium garnet in the glass this wine smells of black cherry and cassis. In the mouth bright juicy cherry and licorice flavors are draped in a blanket of powdery tannins. Flavors of wet dirt emerge in a long finish. Fantastic acidity makes the fruit extremely juicy and bright, and the overall package mouthwatering. Awesome.”
To read the full blog click here.
Live from Petrolo!
April 6th, 2012
The first buds of spring in the Boggina Sangiovese vineyard
The 100 year old Sangiovese wines from which Petrolo does their massale selection
Boggina vineyard
The Boggina vineyard, here you make out if you look carefully that there will be only 3 shoots per vine, and eventually only 4 bunches on each shoot will be kept. Yields are extremely low, in other words. More specifically, Petrolo has 140,000 plants and produces only 65,000 bottles – less than half a bottle per vine.
Caberlot
You can see from the Galatrona tower, below Petrolo’s highest vineyard (Campo Lusso, 2.5 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc that in part add tiny quantities to Galatrona), the Il Caberlot estate surrounded by cypress trees. Another cult wine, it confirms the special terroir of Petrolo – there is not another significant producer in the area, but the soils, exposure and altitude of these vineyards are a special little pocket. Interestingly enough, the Caberlot vineyards used to be part of the Petrolo estate.
Luca's dog Gala (for Galatrona)
Luca on the Galatrona tower
The villa on an incredible spring Tuscan day
The Petrolo villa itself is quite old – it was built in 1725 by Massimo Soldani, an important Italian sculptor who spent his entire career working for the Medicis. One of his sculptures is at the Met in New York.
Petrolo Olive Oil is here!
January 17th, 2012Antonio Galloni tweets about Petrolo Olive Oil – “one of his favorites”. Petrolo’s oil is used by, among others, Naked Chef Jamie Oliver, and it has an outstanding reputation. See here for the full tweet, or just below:
Petrolo 2011 olive oil arrived today, one of my favorites and my first 2011 oil, excited to check it out tonite…
Galatrona by Galloni
November 21st, 2011On August 20, 2011, wine critic Antonio Galloni talks of his travels in Tuscany on eRobertParker.com. Galloni had the chance to taste the grapes and walk through three great Merlot vineyards. Check out his comments on Petrolo’s Galatrona in his post below.
“On Thursday Tua Rita was harvesting the last of their old vine Merlot for Redigaffi. We will have a video up in a few days. Further north in Bolgheri (about 45 mins away by car) I walked through several of the Merlot parcels at Ornellaia used for Masseto. Here the fruit was much more backward and probably won’t be picked for another 3-4 weeks. It is amazing how different the raw fruit is in these vineyards and in the various sub-parcels. You could spend an entire lifetime trying to understand the subtleties.
Yesterday I traveled to Petrolo, where I tasted a number of samples of Merlot right off the vine. The fruit showed wonderful density and staying power on the palate. Proprietor Luca Sanjust told me the fruit is about a week away from being ready.
So far the fruit is looking good, but it is an early harvest, even by recent standards. -Antonio Galloni”
Tasting Petrolo Galatrona with Luca Sanjust!
October 11th, 2011
James Suckling tastes the two most recent vintages in bottle of Petrolo’s Galatrona with owner Luca Sanjust. He awards the Petrolo Galatrona his No. 10 Best Collectible Wine of Tuscany. James says the pure Merlot has class and texture with vivid fruit and soft velvety tannins. Here are his tasting notes:
“2009 Petrolo Toscana Galatrona: Amazing aromas of black truffles, crushed blackberries and dark chocolate. Dried flowers too. Full-bodied, with wonderful fruit that is layered and gorgeous. The finish is fruity, long and stylish. Give it three years to come together. Best after 2013. 97 points.”
“2008 Petrolo Toscana Galatrona: This shows lots of smoky and meaty aromas with black olives and brown sugar. Balsamic too! It’s full-bodied and velvety with a beautiful finish. Why wait? 95 points.”
Click here (subscription only) to watch the video of them tasting the wines together and learn what Luca’s favorite vintages of Galatrona are.
2011 Harvest at Petrolo!
August 31st, 2011It’s the 2011 harvest of Merlot for Petrolo’s cult Galatrona. Luca Sanjust writes – “We have started the harvest of the Merlot’s grapes for Galatrona. Everything is fine, spectacoular weather. Grapes look great and I think and belive we will have also in 2011 another gorgeous version of Galatrona!!!” See the picture below.
