Bibi Graetz Colore 2020

98 Points - James Suckling

"The subtlety and perfumed nature of this wine is enchanting, offering flowers, orange peel and cherries. Wonderful ripe strawberries, too. Full-bodied, but not over the top, with 
tannins that are polished and run the length of the wine. It’s tight, but gives you every 
indication of a terrific wine.”

Notes from the Winemaker

The “Dream” 
Colore is the highest expression of Bibi Graetz dream, from very old vineyards of Sangiovese. Poor soils mixed with sand and stone and high altitude create 
the perfect terroir for a wine that tells a lot about Tuscany and its ancient taste. 
Only the best few barrels of the whole production will become Colore.  
Winemaker’s Tasting Notes 
Sangiovese 100% 
“Colore is my first love, my love for the old vines which produce incredible and 
world class wines. The climate in 2020 has been warmer than usual and gave 
us a powerful vintage. The combination with our old vines, high altitude and 
exposure created the magic effect. A wine with a perfect and lively tension 
where the power of the vintage dances harmonically with the elegance of our 
vines. We have closed the circle, I think that this year we made the best Colore 
we’ve ever made” 
            Bibi Graetz 
Vintage 2020 
Three new elements characterize the 2020 vintage. One is the climate. Our best 
vineyards have never expressed their self so well as in 2020. The new vineyard 
in Olmo, which brought an incredible freshness to the wines. It has a magic 
terroir at 420m high. The third element is the new winery in Fiesole in which 
we managed to work in more evolved and comfortable way. We have now all 
the tools we need for creating the Testamatta and Colore that we want. In 2020 
the growing season was generally warm. After a mild winter, spring started with 
rains just before the flowering allowing the water supply of the plants. Summer 
came quickly with high temperatures and drought but fortunately cool nights 
brought refreshing breezes which helped to preserve both the grapes acidity and 
aromatic character. Some rainy days before the harvest allowed to reach the 
ripening of the grapes. The harvest started on September 24th and finished 
October 15th.  
Vinification and Ageing 
The grapes of Colore were selected from 4 vineyards: Lamole, Vincigliata, 
Olmo and Siena. Each vineyard was harvested up to 8 times, allowing to hand
pick the grapes at the perfect level of ripening. After the first selection in the 
vineyards, a second selection occurs at the winery before the destemming. At 
this stage the berries were softly pressed and placed in open-top barriques, with 
extreme attention on keeping each plot and parcel separate from the others. The 
fermentation is conducted by indigenous yeasts naturally with 6 to 8 manual 
punch-down and pump-over per day and lasted up to 2 weeks, with one extra 
week of maceration on the skins. After the fermentation the wine is moved into 
old barriques, where the malolactic fermentation happens. Each parcel is aged 
separately for almost 20 months before the final blend is decided.  
“My family has always been into art and my father has been a sculptor all his life creating mainly stainless steel 
sculptures. The artwork of my father inspired me to create these special cases one-off for the 2020 vintage. They are 
a little pieces of art, combining my passion for wine with my family's artistic background.”