Vino — Stella di Campalto

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Grapes release their skins, in their element. Three extra years of aging—simplicity happens. Let it go: press, macerate, mutate, elevate. Into the cellar, from earth to oak. An alchemical pause, perfectly poised. It takes time, an eternity: surprises happen when you stop looking, and wait.

Genius loci

Each of the nine vineyards can be considered a small Cru with its own personality and character. Each one is individually harvested, vinified and stored in one or more vats. The vineyards are carefully cared for to preserve the ecosystem. The aim is to obtain healthy, strong and tasty grapes, expressions of each vintage, which give different wines over the years, closely linked to our land.

Situated on three levels with a drop system, the cellar has been designed to enhance the potential of each individual vineyard: the grapes, hand-picked in small crates, once destemmed, fall into the 30 quintal wooden vats below. Nothing is added before, during and after the arrival of the bunch, except sulphur dioxide in minimum doses.

Once the alcoholic fermentation is finished, the wine goes down to the ageing cellar where we prefer the use of small barrels made of thick wood. The cellar where the aging takes place is 14 meters below surface. Here the temperature is naturally constant and the wine rests until it acquires its optimal maturity in absolute respect of our quality specifications.

Once the ageing in wood is finished, which can last for some wines over 45 months, we finalize the bottling process.

We have chosen to produce only pure varietal wine. Our wines are always 100% from the vintage declared on the label. The bottles, filled by autumn, one by one, are stored in a temperature-controlled environment, until their ideal refinement. We do not intend to deviate from this way of thinking which is fundamental for our activity: we exclusively vinify the grapes of our vineyards.

Our masse

Time passes and our vineyards grow older. The roots deepen and each vine begins to reach its full potential. Remember, we have never fertilized nor irrigated our soils and we consider each vineyard as a unique entity. During the year we make vineyard specific decisions regarding pruning, canopy management and harvest times. We pick our fourteen parcels separately and vinify them individually. During our monthly tastings it has been so clear an increased independence in the way that their fruit expresses our terroir. Despite the geographical proximity of the vineyards, each parcel has its own character which varies from year to year.

With the 2016 vintage we began the practice of creating different masse to exalt these differences. Naturally we are only working with 100% Sangiovese so we are reluctant to use the word blend. We assemble different combinations of our vineyards in order to honor different expressions of the vintage. In our relationship of active surrender to nature, we feel it is right to be steered by the attributes of each vineyard. Sometimes one of our masse can be a single vineyard but this is not a given. In 2016 we made two single vineyard and two "masse".

In the vineyards and in the cellar we do not operate according to a standardized protocol or recipe. This is the beauty of being a small winery. Our job is to listen when the vineyards speak. We approach each wine without preconceptions and allow each vintage to find its own voice in the cellar.

We understand that this can be confusing but it stems from our decision to only release our wines when they are ready and not according to a calendar or external constraints. Our current releases are two; 2018 Brunello Cielo, distinguished by floral notes and aerial grace, flanked by Brunello di Montalcino VCLC 2016. This wine is opulent and generous and comes from a single vineyard, Vigna Curva Lato Cantina.

What will be our next release? Only time will tell.

San Giuseppe

Soil