Hebo, Toscana, Petra 2024
James Suckling 90
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Why this wine
Petra's entry red is the Maremma without the oak — eight months in concrete, so the black cherry and maquis herbs come through clean. It is a Bordeaux blend with Sangiovese folded in, which keeps it Tuscan rather than international. Behind it is Mario Botta's hillside winery and vineyards planted in 1998 to low yields.
At a glance
- Grape
- Merlot 55%, Cabernet Sauvignon 20%, Sangiovese 15%, Cabernet Franc 10%
- Region
- Tuscany, Italy
- Alcohol
- 13.00%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Pasta, Cheese
How it tastes
Black cherry, ripe red fruit and blueberry, with violet, a mineral edge and the herbal note of maquis scrub behind them, and a clear balsamic lift that is this wine's signature. Medium-bodied and fresh, with balanced acidity and fine, well-tailored tannins running to a long, savoury finish. Merlot 55%, Cabernet Sauvignon 20%, Sangiovese 15%, Cabernet Franc 10%.
The producer
Vittorio Moretti came back from a trip to the châteaux of Bordeaux in 1996 looking for Italian land to match them, and found it in the district between Castiglione della Pescaia and Suvereto, in the Maremma hills of the Val di Cornia overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea; construction of the Petra winery, designed by the Swiss architect Mario Botta and built into a hillside to limit its impact on the landscape, began in 2001, and the estate was realised by Moretti with his second daughter Francesca. Its vineyards sit across four sites — Suvereto, Riotorto, Piombino and Massa Marittima — all on hilly, maritime ground of distinctly calcareous soil rich in ferrous material, with the blue clay of the Apennines holding winter water and releasing it slowly through the summer; the vines went in during 1998 at 6,100 per hectare, Guyot trained, with yields kept deliberately low. The grapes were destemmed and fermented with selected yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel, held on skins for ten to fifteen days depending on the variety, then given eight months in concrete vats to keep the fruit clean. 2024 opened with a mild winter that refilled the water reserves and a steady spring; a hot, dry summer followed, tempered by cool nights that held the aromatics, and early September rain balanced sugar and acidity before picking came ahead of the later rains.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16 to 18°C. Good with grilled lamb chops, a rare steak, pasta with tomato and sausage, or a board of young pecorino. Drinking well now and for three to five years; half an hour in a decanter opens the herbal edge. Sealed with a DIAM closure. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.