In the last week, I’ve uncorked a Montevertine IGT 2010 and a Montevertine Pian di Ciampolo 2010. Both take me back to a morning I spent with Martino Manetti, walking around his organic, hilltop farm (425 meters up) in Radda in Chianti.
His father, Sergio, bought the land in 1968, planting two hectares of Sangioveto (local name for the clone of Sangiovese used to make Chianti wine) vines in what is now Montevertine’s Le Pergole Torte vineyard.
In these gently sloping vineyards among forested hills, he grows only native grapes of the region: Sangioveto, Canaiolo and Colorino. Like his father, who left the DOCG Chianti Classico Consortium in the early eighties, he rejects the practice of adding international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to Chianti wine.
We enter his small cantina, which was originally the stall for animals on the farm.
Fermentation occurs in traditional cement tanks.
Pian di Ciampolo ages 12 months in these large oak barrels; Montevertine stays 24 months and Le Pergole Torte spends 12 months in large barrels and 12 months in barriques.
Martino keeps old vintages in this corner of the cellar.
Every vintage of Le Pergole Torte IGT (100% Sangioveto, the first “cru”–one vineyard–all Sangiovese wine ever made) has a label with a different drawing by Alberto Manfredi (1930-2001), who taught in Florence and was a friend of Sergio Manetti. Martino offers me a taste of the 2008. The aromas are from the hills and the forest outside. The taste, authentically Sangiovese with clean acidity and a tannic bite that will mellow with aging. In 5, 8, 10 years or more, the wine will just get better and better.
A bottle of Le Pergole Torte is a rare and beautiful thing with a price tag to match. Martino’s other two wines, less expensive but equally authentic, are blends: mostly Sangioveto with some Canaiolo and Colorino.
I opened a bottle of Montevertine IGT 2010 for a holiday dinner of homemade spinach lasagna.
And a bottle of Pian di Ciampolo IGT 2010, which is slightly lighter and fresher, with a pasta lunch.
http://www.montevertine.it/en/prodotti.php
