Tuscan Collectibles: Tenimenti d'Alessandro Migliara – The Vineyard

Until recently, few people would rank a Syrah as one of Tuscany’s great wines, but the d’Alessandro family – who own a winery under its own name, Tenimenti Luigi d’Alessandro, near the popular tourist town of Corton – is making some superb examples, particularly the single vineyard Syrah Migliara.

The Tenimenti Luigi d’Alessandro Syrah Cortona Migliara is my No. 12 Best Collectible Wine of Tuscany.

The first vintage of the Migliara was in 2006, and the wine continues to get better every year. I think that the 2008 is the best ever. (Stay tuned for a video tomorrow on tasting the wine.)

Migliara is from a small plot of vines on the estate that was planted about a decade ago in Syrah. Piedmont winemaker Luca Currado of the Barolo house of Vietti consults on the production of the wine, as does French winemaker Christine Vernay, whose family is famous for making Condrieu in the Rhone Valley. The wine shows all the class, complexity, and finesse of a top Côte-Rôtie.

The d’Alessandros have established the appellation of Cortona as THE appellation in Italy for Syrah. I remember tasting bottles of its other Syrah – Il Bosco – from the early 1990s and thinking that they were something very special. Tasting new vintages of Tenimenti Luigi d’Alessandro Syrah Cortona Migliara today, I believe it’s even more true.