Podere Le Boncie "Chiesamonti" Rosso di Toscana, Tuscany, Italy 2023

FROM ROSENTHAL:

THE WINE: A blend of Sangiovese and Canaiolo. “Chiesamonti” is a 1.3-hectare parcel adjacent to the town of San Felice in Castelnuovo Berardenga, with a stonier soil profile and a lower clay content than Giovanna’s home turf. The vines, now over a decade old, used to be blended into “Cinque” in their younger years, but she now feels they are ready for prime time, and this wine—bottled on its own for the first time in 2018—provides a fascinating counterpoint to “Le Trame”: silkier, higher-toned, and overall prettier, with a more blatant mineral underpinning and less sumptuously fleshy fruit. It spends two years in Stockinger barrels, just like its sister wine, and it comprises nearly entirely Sangiovese, with just a touch of Canaiolo.

THE PRODUCER: Giovanna Morganti is quickly becoming recognized as one of the best of the new generation of Tuscan winemakers. Her small estate is a mere three hectares and her only wine is called “Le Trame” (the intrigues) signifying the wheeling and dealing required to purchase the land. Giovanna’s father was a legendary oenologist who believed in Tuscan varietals long before the “flying consultants” identified this area as a profit center. Podere Le Boncie is situated in the hamlet of San Felice which itself is located a handful of minutes north of Castelnuovo Berardenga, in the southern tier of the Chianti Classico zone.

Giovanna studied oenology herself and went to work in the mid 1980s for San Felice wines in Castelnuovo Berardenga, near Siena, on a project to plant around 300 traditional Tuscan grape varietals collected from old vineyards. The vineyard, planted to a very high density of 7000 vines per hectare and dedicated principally to Sangiovese (supplemented by a few rows of Fogliatonda and the others for blending), produces the definitive wine of the estate: “Le Trame”. Vineyard work is conducted according to the general principles of the biodynamic movement. Harvesting is by hand. Fermentation occurs in traditional open-topped wooden tanks. The elevage is long and tranquil with an occasional racking implemented to aerate the wine. Aging occurs in mid-size barrels; the wine is then left to age in bottle for at least six months prior to release.

NOTE: This bottle is allocated and therefore stock is limited. Discounts do not apply to this product.