Vignavecchia - Chianti Classico producer in Radda, Tuscany

My first stop for my day out in Tuscany's wonderful world of vineyards was the winery, Vignavecchia. They are located in Radda, which is one of the main provinces in Tuscany for Chianti Classico production. It has been in the Beccari family since the 1870's. They had inherited the estate from the original owners, the Minucci family, that had started the winery in the 18^th century. 

There are about 7.5 acres of olives groves planted and 47 acres of vineyards with 70% sangiovese, 10% canaiolo, 7% colorino, 5% each of merlot and cabernet and 3% chardonnay. They produce about 10,700 cases with Chianti Classico dominating the output. About 34.5 of those acres are dedicated to Chianti Classico which is under the DOCG status.

It takes about 2 weeks and ten people to complete their harvest and when we were there they were going to be done in about 5 days, so by now they have finished.

The director, Stefano Miniati, was fantastic. He did the tasting for us and couldn't have been any nicer. Of all the wines that I tasted they were all great in their own way, but I enjoyed their 2009 Vigneto Odoardo Beccari, which is their Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva. It's a blend of 90% sangiovese and 10% canaiolo. It comes from a smaller parcel of land and only 1,000 cases are produced annually. It goes through about 18 months maturation time with about 6 months in the bottle. It was a classic Chianti Classico and was a lot drier than the others, but had a long beautiful finish. Stefano's opinion was that the last great vintages were 2007 and 2008 and everything else since then had been average.

If you have an opportunity to taste any of the wines from this vineyard make sure you do so and if you're ever in Radda make sure you stop by.  Stefano is a pleasure to deal with.  You can't go wrong with any wines from here including their vin santo as well.   Visit their site at Fattoria Vignavecchia. 

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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!