Apistόs is the new Cabernet Franc from Podere Conca
We present Apistós IGT Costa Toscana, our new label
The latest creation from Podere Conca, presented at Vinitaly 2022, is a completely pure Cabernet Franc.
And as with the wines that preceded it the year before, Agapanto and Elleboro, we wanted to continue the series of flowers for the name.
In the difficult search for the name of a third flower, we were inspired by the magic of an important and impressive exhibition of the English artist Damien Hirst that we visited in Venice, at Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in 2017.
Damien had invented the legend of the recovery of an imaginary vessel, sunk in the 2nd century AD, loaded with works of art and all kinds of wonders, which a very rich freedman collector from Antioch was transporting to an imaginary temple of the sun in the Middle East.
The name of the sailing ship was Apistós, which in ancient Greek means incredible.
We liked the idea of giving our wine the name of an imaginary flower, like the treasures found at the bottom of the sea, a flower that does not exist in nature, Apistós for us the incredible, the flower that does not exist.
The label
We then asked the designer of our labels to think of an image with exciting and surprising colours like those of the objects brought to light by the imagination of Damien Hirst.
So a Cabernet Franc that comes from the grapes of the two small vineyards next to the Podere, along the Bolgherese road, the first to be planted in 2015.
Twenty-five rows that have found their place among the ancient olive trees and that since the first year have shown that they can distinguish themselves for the quality of the grapes produced.
Vinification and refinement
In reality, the grapes from the first harvests, together with Cabernet Sauvignon and Ciliegiolo, made up the blend of the DOC Bolgheri rosso Agapanto, but, from the 2019 harvest, Silvia, a fan of pure Cabernet Franc, decided to keep them distinct not only during the harvest and vinification, but also in the choice of refinement.
Harvested in the second half of September 2019, the “home” grapes were then left to ferment in non-vitrified cement tanks in contact with the skins for approximately 30 days.
This is followed by 16 months of refinement in first-passage French oak barriques and, from March 2021, a further six months of bottle aging.
1500 bottles of a cru treated like a Bolgheri Superiore, with an intense and lively red colour with elegant and typical herbaceous and green pepper varietal notes and a complex, velvety and harmonious mouth.
Excellent with first courses with meat sauce, with red meat, game or grill. Perfect to share with friends!
The box
For Apistόs we chose a gunmetal grey cardboard box with a raised flower and a tone-on-tone gloss: a deliberately minimal image to create a contrast with the explosive exuberance of the label's colours.
by Silvia Cirri and Cristina di Bernezzo