CABERNET FRANC RISERVA GEORG

The Cabernet Franc Riserva Georg is the most ambitious wine in the Nicolussi-Leck portfolio — the estate's flagship red, grown four hundred metres below the ruins of Castelchiaro that overlook the estate, offering aromas of ripe berries and enveloping spices. It shares its name with the Georg Kalterersee — the estate's lightest, most immediately accessible red — in a pairing of opposites that reflects the full range of what the seven-hundred-year farm can produce: from the delicate Schiava of the Kalterersee to the powerful Cabernet Franc Riserva at the summit.

Cabernet Franc Riserva production is a commitment of genuine ambition in the Lake Caldaro context — a variety that in this specific site and microclimate develops a character that the estate has deemed worthy of its most prestigious designation. The four hundred metres below the Castelchiaro ruins is a geographical reference of unusual specificity: the ruins visible above the vineyard are a constant reminder of the historical depth of this agricultural landscape and of the continuity between the medieval inhabitants of Castelchiaro and the Nicolussi-Leck family who now farm the land below.

The Riserva designation applies the most extended ageing protocol in the estate's range — a period sufficient to develop the full potential of Cabernet Franc's characteristic aromatic complexity and to integrate the tannins that the variety's natural structure initially presents in a less accessible form. Ripe berries and enveloping spices on the nose: the aromatic profile of Cabernet Franc at its most complete and most refined, shaped by the ancient soils below the Castelchiaro ruins.

The Cabernet Franc Riserva Georg is the wine through which the Nicolussi-Leck estate makes its most serious and most ambitious statement — from a seven-hundred-year farm, below century-old ruins, in a wine that honours both the place and its most demanding variety.

Available through UniqueWines.