A tour of Castellare di Castellina in Chianti Classico

One of the days while staying in the beautiful countryside of Tuscany I toured a few of the wineries in the reknowned Chianti Classico region as discussed in one of my previous blogs, Chianti region. A known producer, Castellare di Castellina, was one of our stops. Loredana gave us our tasting and tour of the vineyards.

The owner has three vineyard sites, one in Tuscany, “Castellare di Castellina”, one in the Maremma area of southern Tuscany, “Rocca di Frassinello”, and the other in Sicily, “Feudi del Pisciotto”. Rocca di Frassinello is about five times the size of Castellare and is a joint venture with Domaines Baron de Rothschild-Lafite. 

In the Chianti region there are over 400 Chianti Classico producers. Castellare di Castellina is considered a mid-sized producer with  about 57 acres and produce about 200,000 bottles annually.  They have 4 different vineyard sites named Coniale, Piano a Casa, Pendicciaccia and I Sodi Di San Niccolo. My favorite wine from my tasting was the 2008 Castellare di Castellina I Sodi Di San Niccolo. This is their prized Super Tuscan wine. This wine had beautiful structure with rich fruit and beautiful length on the finish.  The labels of the wines for Castellare di Castellina display all the endangered birds of the areas.

The grape harvest at Castellare di Castellina

We visited during the grape harvest and they were right in the middle of harvesting.  It takes them about 6-7 weeks to harvest their grapes with a crew of 30 people. Ten of those folks are their normal crew during the slow season and the other 20 are folks brought in from the area that come back year after year. Eighty-five percent of the grapes being harvested are Sangiovese, the principal grape in making Chianti Classico. 

 

They had already picked their Merlot and Chardonnay grapes and were working on the rest. This region is known for their reds, but white wines are also made there. Castellare di Castellina produces both Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, but only about 1,000 bottles so it's not for tasting, only for sale.  

Castellare di Castellina has made the top 100 wines on Wine Spectator and some of their wines have earned the 3 Bicchieri del Gambero Rosso, which comes from the Italian food and wine magazine, Gambero Rosso. The 3 Bicchieri, meaning "3 glasses”, is the highest rating from a blind tasting from wine experts valuing them as extraordinary wines. With so many producers in this region it's such an honor to stand out from the rest like Castellare di Castellina does and produce such a quality wines.

Castellare di Castellina was just another reason why I love this region and the wines that are produced here.  Make sure to make a stop on your next visit to the Chianti Classico wine region.

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150 Vins - Celebration of the Grand Cru of Bordeaux in Monaco

Upon my recent visit to Italy for my wedding, we spent three days of our honeymoon at the French Riviera, or as the Italians says La Costa Azzurra. This was my first visit there so needless to say there was a lot to see in such a short period of time. One of the days we spent in Monaco, more specifically Monte Carlo, which was definitely one of the richest places in the world. Between the jewelry, clothes, cars and boats it was astonishing to see how some people live.  

One of the interesting things that we came upon in front of the Monte Carlo Casino was circular display called “150 vins”. It's a celebration of 150 years of the Monte Carlo SBM (Societe des Bains de Mer), which is a public company that runs some of the big establishments in Monaco like the Monte Carlo Casino and the Hotel de Paris. This event started June 22^nd for 150 days where the Hotel de Paris brings up 150 Grand Cru Bordeauxs from their cellars for tastings by the glass. The wine cellar of the Hotel de Paris is personally funded by Marie Blanc, whose husband created the SBM back in 1863. This wine cellar is now to become the largest wine cellar in the world with over 350,000 bottles and is about 16,145 square feet.  

It was pretty neat that right in the center of the roundabout between the Monte Carlo Casino and the Hotel de Paris they had a circular display of all baby vines that were actually growing grapes to celebrate this event. Unfortunately while we were in France we didn't travel to visit any wine regions since there were so many amazing places to see like Nice, Monte Carlo and Cannes. There is always tomorrow!

Brunello di Montalcino, the king wine of Tuscany!

Steps towards better wine quality production in Italy began in the 1980's with the creation of the DOCG, denominazione di origine controllata e garantita.  This designation had stricter regulations for producers to make wines in order to be granted this status.  The first wine granted the DOCG was Brunello di Montalcino.  The others DOCG's to follow included Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Tuscany, discussed in the prior blog, and the Piedmont regions with the wines known as Barolo and Barbaresco.  

About Brunello wines

Brunello is made from a clone of Sangiovese, but it is not blended  with other grapes though as Vino Nobile and Chianti can be. It also requires additional aging requirements, four years with at least two of those years in oak barrels.  Brunello Riserva wines requires five years of aging with at least half of that in oak. In this part of Tuscany, Montalcino tends to be a little warmer, creating wines that have a deeper, richer flavor profile showing fuller bodied versions of Sangiovese.

Biondi Santi of Montalcino

One of the biggest producers in this region that helped to make Brunello what it is today is the producer Biondi Santi, which I'm hoping I'll be able to stop and visit while there. In the late 19^th century he planted Sangiovese in his vineyards. At this time many folks were only drinking light style Chianti and sweeter wines. He let the skins macerate with the juice and then aged the wines at a time when this was unheard of. They didn't even have a road out to Montalcino until the 1960's. Due to his efforts he paved the way for this amazing wine to be what it is today.

The ageworthiness of Brunello

Brunello is a highly ageworthy wine.  These wines can age over 40 years! I myself have some that I brought back to the states years ago that have been aging at least 15 years at this point.  It is recommended you don't drink Brunello for at least 10 years, but if you did it sooner you will definitely want to decant it. These wines need the time to settle down from their youth and develop further in the bottle. As a society we typically don't have the patience and are  usually grabbing a bottle to enjoy that night.  

 

The best part about opening these bottles years later are the memories that are revisited from the times spent at the winery. Do yourself a favor and splurge one day, hold on to the wine and open it years from now for a special occasion and you will experience a treat.

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Pictures copyright of Consorzio Tutela Vini Soave