Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot A tribute to Justus, the patron saint of Val di Cornia’s capital, the town of Suvereto, and to Tua Rita’s first vineyard, which was planted at Notri. Giusto di Notri, a classic Bordeaux blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, is Tua Rita’s signature wine.

www.tuarita.it

When in 1984 Rita and Virgilio purchased the property that was to become Tua Rita, the land and the buildings on it were only to be the setting for a life together lived in contact with nature, farming nature’s bounty. It was their overwhelming passion for making wine that changed those plans. The couple tended the original two hectares of vineyard with such scrupulous care that Tua Rita became one of Italy’s first successful producers of vins de garage. In barely a decade, the hectares under vine had risen to nine, at the start of the new millennium there were twenty and today Tua Rita farms some thirty hectares planted to vine. Estate and cellar went from strength to strength, driven by Rita and Virgilio’s commitment. Meanwhile the winery’s image was flourishing under the skilful hand of Stefano Frascolla, husband of the owners’ daughter Simena, who herself became involved in managing the enterprise following the death of her father in 2010. The estate’s name is a simple inversion of Rita Tua’s given name and surname.

• Cabernet Franc

  Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard - it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St.Emilion where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils - Cheval Blanc is the most famous Cabernet Franc wine in the world, with the final blend consisting of up to 65% of the grape.
  Cabernet Franc thrives in the Loire where the cooler growing conditions serve to accentuate the grape's herbaceous, grassy, lead pencil aromas. The best wines come from the tuffeaux limestone slopes of Chinon and Bourgeil where growers such as Jacky Blot produce intense well-structured wines that possess excellent cellaring potential.
  

• Cabernet Sauvignon

  The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.
  It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.
  
  The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese
  

• Merlot

  The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.
  In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.
  
  Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.