We had just finished tasting six wines from Damilano with Thomas Cuni at The Fine Wine Source, Livonia, Michigan and then we were going to taste four wines from Azienda Agricola  Tua Rita.  Tua Rita is located just outside Suvereto in the Colline Metallifere hill country of Tuscany.   They are famed for their Redigaffi IGT Toscana and the 2000 vintage was the first Italian wine to get a perfect 100-point rating from Robert Parker.  Rita Tuan and her husband, Virgilio Bisti bought two hectares of land in 1984 and planted it with Cabernet and Merlot.  They later purchased an additional 17.5 acres and did more planting.  It has been said that the wines of Tua Rita are some of the most difficult wines to find in Italy.

We started off this tasting with Tua Rita Rosso dei Notri Toscana IGT 2019 and is their entry-level wine showcasing recently planted vines of Cabernet, Syrah, and Merlot.  A hillside vineyard of twenty-five acres of pebbles and clay soil with southern exposure.  The first vintage of this wine was in 2000 and this wine is a blend of forty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, forty-percent Merlot, ten percent Syrah and ten percent Cabernet Franc.  Initial Fermentation is for fifteen days, with maceration for an additional twenty days and then Malolactic Fermentation for twenty days in Stainless Steel.  The wines are then blended aged in French Oak for three months, and then six months in the bottle before release.  A deep ruby wine that offered notes of black fruits along with cocoa and spices.  On the palate tones of black cherries, blackberries, plums, silky tannins, balanced and a nice finish of fruit and spices. An ideal wine immediately.

We then had the Tua Rita Giusto di Notri Toscana IGT 2018 and the first vintage of this wine was 1992.  The word “Giusto” is in homage to the Patron Saint of Suvereto and “Notri” is the name of the winery’s exact location.  The wine is a blend of eighty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, ten percent Merlot and ten percent Cabernet Franc.  Initial Fermentation was for fifteen days, with a maceration period of twenty-five days in Stainless Steel.  Malolactic Fermentation and about twenty months of aging in French Oak barriques (a mix of new and once used).  A deep purple wine offering notes of black fruits, florals and spices.  On the palate tones of blackberry, plum and currants and some vanilla, in a full bodied wine with good tannins, a silky texture and a nice finish of fruit and terroir.  This wine would be wonderful with a bit of aging in the cellar.