| Region |
Tuscany continues to charm and enchant the world over while books and films are forever trying to capture the beauty and mystic of the region. With its rich history, art, music, food and wine, there is very little to disappoint. Chianti is easily the most well known of Italian wines while Brunello is considered one of the most prestigious. Yet, the wines of Tuscany have not always been recognized for quality and have just recently experienced a renaissance,
after years of being focused on quantity. The initial movement developed in Chianti in the early 1970’s has become a region wide effort that has brought forth serious focus on clonal selection, vineyard management, and winery technologies, allowing a progression in quality unmatched anywhere in the country. The growing success, while focused on the Sangiovese based wines of Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and most recently, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano,
has spread to the entire region incorporating areas not understood even 30 years ago for their potential.
This phenomena of rapidly improving quality spread to incorporate wines that while not DOC were still considered of superior quality. The lack of an official status could not prevent the unofficial designation “Super Tuscan” from becoming part of the vernacular. As awareness increased, many of these wines achieved their own IGT or DOC status. Ironically, it is often misunderstood that Cabernet and Chardonnay have a long history within Tuscany and were
not introduced to satisfy international demand. Cabernet has been grown for over 250 years and while maybe not known by the Romans it certainly isn’t a newcomer to the region!
(Chardonnay dates back easily 150 years).
Roughly 70% of the production is red but one white wine holds its own in quality. The DOCG for Vernaccia di San Gimagnano was the 1st awarded to ANY wine in Italy. A historical grape documented in the 1200’s, the wines today provide the perfect counterpart to the nobile
reds of Tuscany.
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| Vineyard |
Paola Gloder’s are Montalcino’s highest-rising vineyards: 80 acres (out of a total 500) at 380 to 430 meters (1,250 to 1,400 feet) above sea level, southwest of the famed medieval citadel. Their unique location and altitude make for doubly privileged wines: where the hillside terroir south of Montalcino is conducive to powerful and opulent Brunellos, the vines’ elevation signifies cool nighttime temperatures – hence, superb bouquet and mellow harmony such as is generally found only north of Montalcino! Paola’s wines, in other words, are both potently structured for eons of cellar life, and elegantly charming even in youth.
The young and tireless owner (flanked, from 1998, by her husband, Alberto Montefiori) has been firmly at the helm of Poggio Antico almost since its inception, when her father purchased 50 clayey, calcareous acres of galestro vineyards, in 1984… As firmly, of course, as a living dynamo of her caliber can be still and firm – for when you think of Paola, you think of her juggling tasks as diverse as driving a tractor at harvest time, hammering nails and ripping up cartons at wine fairs, giving the best 5-minute lectures on Brunello you could ever get in your lifetime, styling her wines with oenologist Paolo Vagaggini, and introducing her three little handfuls, Arianna, Alessandro and Andrea (‘vintages’ 2000, 2003 and 2005 respectively) to the duties and joys of winemaking.
The 1995 vintage was a major turning point in Brunello regulations. As of that year, the minimum requirement for élevage in wood was reduced to 2 years (total aging remains 4 years). That was also the year Paola decided to develop two parallel Brunello worlds: the more traditional, larger-barrel, longer-aging Brunello (this continues to follow the traditional method of 3 years in oak) and the modern, tonneaux-aged, finesse-driven Altero Brunello.
Recent years have also seen her extend and upgrade the cantina. The new winery allows even lengthier élevage on the premises before wines are released. Moreover, the present vinification equipment is conducive to the gentlest possible extraction. The 2000 vintage was the first to see vinification in the winery’s new wing, in state-of-the-art tanks that allow extraction to take place without the use of pumps, making for much better color concentration and sweeter, softer, less aggressive tannins.
Yearly production: 90-95,000 bottles.
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| Tasting Notes |
As of the 1995 vintage, the minimum requirement for regular Brunello’s élevage in wood was reduced to 2 years (total aging remains 4 years). Nevertheless, Paola has decided to maintain the traditional method of 3 years in oak for what she calls her “classic” Brunello, reserving the curtailed oak age for Altero.
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Devil’s Staircase
Villa La Selva: Vin Santo “Vigna del Papa” DOC (desert wine)
Pegasus Bay: Pinot Noir
