Blessed with sea and mountain climatic influences, Torre Zambra enjoys a beautiful setting in the picturesque hills of Villamagna. Winemaking is serious and methodical utilising native yeasts, a combination of concrete tank and tonneau ageing, and dedicated sustainable farming. Stunning fresh wines and gorgeous slurpable yet contemplative reds, a producer of amazing consistent quality.
50% Pecorino, 30% Passerina and 20% Trebbiano from plots around the estate, fermented and rested in stainless steel tanks before bottling.
Extensive winemaking trials and evolution see the whites now inoculated rather than wild fermented as per the reds, with reason being they ferment through quicker and cleaner and hit a more pinpoint style. Such an interesting wine here, highly aromatic and fruit-driven but with a ‘more you look, the more you see’ level of complexity. Pineapples, tinned fruit salad, lychees and tropical fruit leap out of the glass on the nose, almost a Sauvignon Blanc intensity here. These flavours continue on the palate, but there’s further elements – almonds and walnuts give a subtle bittering twist, torn mint leaves and white flowers all showing their hands. In simple terms, a delicious, super interesting textural dry white perfect for the warmer months.
From plantings around the estate. Wild fermented in stainless steel, then aged six months in concrete tanks before bottling. Bright and grippy, enough juiciness for casual drinking and enough depth to take seriously. The Montepulciano grape curiously can provide impressions of oak characters in its chocolate and spice notes – whatever the case, fun drinking here.
“Dark chocolate, spice, black cherry, rich and earthy, orange peel and mint. It’s a rich wine, lots of bitter dark chocolate, blackberry and dried fruit and herbs, thick furry tannin with a black tea quality, savoury but ample in fruit, dense and throaty on a finish that’s packed with tannin, offering good length. Quite robust and chewy, but a good wine that has plenty of personality.” 92 points, Gary Walsh, Winefront
50% Montepulciano, 30% Sangiovese, 20% Primitivo.
Drawing inspiration from Provence here for cracking freshness, but unmistakably Italianite. An intense and refreshing style led by cherries, strawberry and damson plums, over Campari notes, crushed fennel seeds and tomato leaf, with crisply defined mineral edges. A fantastic style for food matching, a great option for broadening a rosé section, and right at home among our keenness for pink wine.
100% Pecorino from a single site, raised entirely in stainless steel. Whites tend to sit in either the textural or aromatic category, here’s one with a foot on each side.
Big aromatics popping – fresh and dried pineapple, apricots, a sweet doughy quality (takes me to iced finger buns from the school canteen) and white blossom. Apricot and pineapple run though the palate, with some glossiness to give weight and texture. Peach skin/citrus rind builds on the finish, zippy without being brisk.
Single vineyard here, wild fermented in stainless, then aged four months in concrete tanks before six months in oak; a mix of French and Slavonian barrels, 20% new, and a mix of large and small formats. More obvious seriousness here, initial impressions took us to a freshly opened bar of Old Gold Rum ‘n Raisin dark chocolate.
“Quite some oomph here. Black fruit, mint, coffee beans, dried herbs and damp earth. It’s full-bodied, opulent in dark cherry richness, lots of mocha, rich silty tannin, concentrated and bold, black forest cake too, orange peel, roasted peanut and dried herb on a finish of good length. It’s quite a lot of wine, and while the mint character rides pretty high, and there’s maybe a little too much oak influence, there’s also plenty of wine to wrap your chops around here. Throaty. Bold. etc. ” 92 points, Gary Walsh, Winefront
Building on the same fruit source as the previous wine, the Riserva is again wild fermented in stainless steel before six months ageing in concrete tanks, then 12 months in French and Slavonian mixed format barrels (40% new), with a further six months bottle ageing before release.
A rich and hedonistic expression of Monte, opens with combined aromatics of Old Gold Rum ‘n Raisin dark chocolate and a fresh pouch of Port Royal tobacco. Plush and redolent of blue and black fruits, blackforest cake and coffee and cocoa, it has plenty of presence but stops well short of being overblown. A decent thread of tannin keeps this defined and with some good length, giving enough structural tension, plus a brush of Amaro herb bitterness to balance the richness of fruit. Holds a similar appeal to a big, cuddly Barossa Shiraz.
100% Montepulciano. Fermented wild in stainless steel, aged six months in concrete tanks, then 10 months in French and Slavonian oak tonneau, 50% new, with a further six months in bottle before release. Villamagna DOC (pronounced Villa-manya) is one of Italy’s smallest appellations at 85 hectares, hosting some five producers and two co-ops. Granted in 2011, it’s characterised by limestone and clacaire soils and sits at 120 – 250 metres elevation.
Despite weighing in at 15% alcohol against the Riserva’s 14%, it presents as a finer iteration. Varietal flavours of tobacco, cocoa and coffee are present, but fruit notes of black cherry and raspberry are more present here, with it holding a tighter line in the mouth, the oak providing a lower impression, and finishing with awesome length and definingly, focus.
