2015 I Sodi di S. Niccolò, Castellare di Castellina, Tuscany, Italy

Domini Castellare Di Castellina

Castellare di Castellina was born in 1968 from the consolidation of five farms.  A good exposure to the sun, a good drain of the water, a mixed ground of calcareous marls, galestro and little clay give wines both red and white, which are very well structured, intense and proper for a long ageing in bottle.

Poderi Castellare di Castellina is a company of about 80 hectares in the heart of the Chianti Classico area, close to the village of Castellina in Chianti. The hectares of vineyard are almost 33, located on the hills of a natural amphitheatre facing southeast. The production is of about 250.000 bottles of wine per year. To a middle altitude of 370 m. above sea level the vineyards have an age between 5 and 30 years. Besides the vineyards there are about 12 hectares of olive-groves and 15 hectares with a mixed cultivation.

Sangiovese

A black grape widely grown in Central Italy and the main component of Chianti and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano as well as being the sole permitted grape for the famed Brunello di Montalcino.

It is a high yielding, late ripening grape that performs best on well-drained calcareous soils on south-facing hillsides. For years it was blighted by poor clonal selection and massive overcropping - however since the 1980s the quality of Sangiovese-based wines has rocketed upwards and they are now some of the most sought after in the world.

It produces wines with pronounced tannins and acidity, though not always with great depth of colour, and its character can vary from farmyard/leather nuances through to essence of red cherries and plums. In the 1960s the advent of Super Tuscans saw bottlings of 100% Sangiovese wines, as well as the introduction of Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blends, the most famous being Tignanello.