Y A R D S
THE VINEYARDS
Location: in the plain halfway between Castagneto Carducci and Bolgheri, about 5 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Total area: 9.0 hectares
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon 4.5 hectares, Cabernet Franc 2,5 hectares, Syrah 1 hectare, Viognier and Vermentino 1 hectare.
Training system: density 6,900 vines / hectare, unilateral spurred cordon. All the vines come from a specialized nursery in France. There are 5 different Cabernet Sauvignon clones, which allows us to optimize aromas and complexity.
Terroir: the soil consists of a mixture of sand, crushed stone and clay, partly of alluvial origin, carried by the water courses down from the hills, partly left by the ebbs of the sea. The territory was formerly marshy (the Maremma), which explains the considerable variations in the mineral composition of the soil (patchy) in the plain. The climate is of warm days tempered by winds from the sea and hills, and cool nights, which create a special microclimate, ideal for Cabernets.
i n e y a r d M a a g e m e n t
- The operations in the vineyard are almost all done by hand
- The management follows the principles of “culture raisonnée” with interventions only according to need and not automatically for prevention, that is, with the utmost respect for nature.
- Throughout the year we practice careful management of the foliar apparatus according to the climatic conditions to optimize ripening, green harvesting to keep productivity low and aromas and flavors to the maximum.
- Manual harvest in September / October.
- Average production: about 55,000 bottles a year, or about one bottle per plant
Tuscany
h a t i s o l h e r i ?
Bolgheri is a small medieval village in the municipality of Castagneto Carducci, on the Tuscan coast, where the peasant culture of the past, typical of the Tuscan Maremma, still remains alive.
It is located at the end of an avenue of over 2000 centenary cypresses 5 km long that connects the hills with the sea, made famous by the poetry of Giosuè Carducci, who was from the town and received a Nobel Prize for Literature.
What is the
DOC Bolgheri?
To revolutionize the history of Bolgheri was the Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who moved to Tuscany having married the Countess Clarice della Gherardesca in 1930.
In an area where the red wines that were produced were mostly rustic, Mario Incisa wanted to try to create a new type of wine, inspired by the qualitative model of French wines that he was used to drinking and appreciating. He took from the Salviati Dukes, in Migliarino Pisano, some Cabernet scions (therefore an Italian clone) which he planted in 1942 and later in 1944 in Castiglioncello di Bolgheri.
In 1972 the first official Sassicaia, from the 1968 harvest, saw the light. Just two years later, Gino Veronelli fell in love with that wine and began to make it known to the Italian market. The successes were not only national. In fact, in a blind tasting of Decanter, the 1978 Sassicaia defeated all the other Cabernets in the world present, but it is with the 1985 vintage and the first 100 points awarded by Robert Parker to an Italian wine that the myth is consecrated.
In 1983 the first Disciplinary for the protection of Bolgheri wines was approved. The assembly approved a specification text of a fairly traditional type. From the creation of the first DOC Bolgheri two production trends emerged in the area: the White and Rosé wines protected by the appellation (DOC) and the red wines instead classified as ‘VINO DA TAVOLA’ or commonly referred to as Supertuscans.
Following this, therefore, the territory of Bolgheri was not known for its wine vocation as the finest wines did not have Bolgheri written on the label and the wines with denomination of origin, white and rosé did not have characteristics such as to make a recognizable and renowned territory in the world.
The increase in the number of labels united by a high quality and the impossibility of receiving any form of protection stigmatized even more the inadequacy of the 1983 specification. However, we have to wait until 1994 before the long-awaited modification with which the DOC is reformed, making red wines eligible.
At the same time, the Bolgheri Sassicaia sub-area is also included in the specification, which specifies, among other things, the territorial limits close to the town of Bolgheri in which to produce this wine, falling within the Tenuta San Guido.
A few months later, in January 1995, the Consortium for the Protection of DOC Bolgheri wines was founded.
Today the Bolgheri DOC appellation has a vineyard area of 1370 ha and the 65 producers registered with the Consortium represent 95% of the total.
