Wines

The “second wine” of the estate, sold only at the cellar since 1990 but now made from a newly acquired parcel with very rocky limestone soils in Castelnuovo Berardenga just outside the Chianti Classico zone. Giovanna supplements it with certain vats of the first wine, Le Trame, that don’t make the cut, often a significant proportion. Aged for one year in wood vats (5-30 hl) and bottled in the spring. The cuvée name refers to several numerlogical coincidences, including the five grapes of the estate (Sangiovese, Caniolo, Colorino, Mammolo, Fogliatonda), the five leaves and flowers a grape vine has per bunch, and their home address.

The beauty of Sangiovese is revealed here in its most pure form, unencumbered by manipulation of the wine during vinification and élevage and without exposure to new oak.  The vineyard lies at an altitude of 300-350 meters; the average vine age is 15 years. The essential character of this wine can best be described as “ferociously elegant”.  But, what appears to be an oxymoron is, in fact, the reality.  There is a gracefulness to this wine, an impeccable balance, that belies the intense concentration reflected in its vigorous, ripe tannins.   Annual production is approximately 1,000 cases; we import between 25% to 30% of that amount for the US market.

“Chiesamonti” is a 1.3-hectare parcel adjacent to the town of San Felice in Castelnuovo Berardenga, with a stonier soil profile and a lower clay content than Giovanna’s home turf. The vines, now over a decade old, used to be blended into “Cinque” in their younger years, but she now feels they are ready for prime time, and this wine—bottled on its own for the first time in 2018—provides a fascinating counterpoint to “Le Trame”: silkier, higher-toned, and overall prettier, with a more blatant mineral underpinning and less sumptuously fleshy fruit. It spends two years in Stockinger barrels, just like its sister wine, and it comprises nearly entirely Sangiovese, with just a touch of Canaiolo.