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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