2003 Le Pergole Torte
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Tasting notes
Wines like this are so very rewarding. This was a difficult vintage, and you could instinctively downgrade a wine from such a scorching hot growing season. Instead, the 2003 Le Pergole Torte delivers unexpected surprises. It meets the high-quality bar achieved at Montevertine. With fruit picked on September 22, this vintage represents the estate's earliest harvest. This is also the Le Pergole Torte with the lowest acidity ever made. Despite these red flags, the wine delivers a full bouquet with dark mineral notes, succulent fruit, plum and prune. You also get hints of dry hay, black olive and campfire ash. One basic truth remains: By all accounts, this wine should be dead by now. Instead, there is life left within.
Critic scores
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Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
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Rich and powerful, but also wonderfully open, the 2003 Le Pergole Torte, as it is a resounding success in a year that presented huge challenges because of the scorching hot temperatures. It is also interesting to taste the 2003 next to the 2000 and 1997, two vintages that were also dry and hot, as the winemaking team was clearly in a better position to deal with the conditions than it was in either 1997 or 2000. I won’t be surprised if at some point, the 2003 evolves quickly, but today it is absolutely delicious. "Two thousand three was the earliest harvest in the estate's history," says Martino Manetti." We had fifty days of uninterrupted heat and 12 days above 40C (104F). The grapes were so dehydrated we had to tighten the grills of the destemmer, otherwise all the grapes would have fallen through."
The 2003 Le Pergole Torte is an atypically rich, powerful version of this wine but the higher altitude of the vines, which extend to 550 meters, have helped preserve some freshness. It offers a compelling array of black cherry, licorice, mineral notes in a style that expresses the ripeness of the vintage yet is balanced by a classic sense of structure. Still very intense today, it will require a few years in bottle to settle down and may ultimately merit a higher score. “In 2003 we harvested our fruit on the 22nd of September rather than around the 10th of October, which is much more typical. I think it is a vintage that favors the later-ripening Sangiovese over earlier-maturing varietals like Merlot. I don't expect that the 2003 Pergole Torte will be among the longest-lived vintages, but you never know. Sometime the wines that appear the least interesting when they are young offer the most development over time,” says Manetti.
The 2003 Le Pergole Torte is an atypically rich, powerful version of this wine but the higher altitude of the vines, which extend to 550 meters, have helped preserve some freshness. It offers a compelling array of black cherry, licorice, mineral notes in a style that expresses the ripeness of the vintage yet is balanced by a classic sense of structure. Still very intense today, it will require a few years in bottle to settle down and may ultimately merit a higher score. “In 2003 we harvested our fruit on the 22nd of September rather than around the 10th of October, which is much more typical. I think it is a vintage that favors the later-ripening Sangiovese over earlier-maturing varietals like Merlot. I don’t expect that the 2003 Pergole Torte will be among the longest-lived vintages, but you never know. Sometime the wines that appear the least interesting when they are young offer the most development over time,” says Manetti. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2019. Wine Advocate.June, 2007
About the producer
The legendary Montervertine estate was created by the Manetti family in 1967 and is best known for its iconic pure Sangiovese, Le Pergole Torte. Based in Chianti but with the wines labelled as IGT Toscana, these elegant wines are rightfully some of Tuscany and Italy’s most sought-after.