2 Wineries from 2 Different Sub-Zones in the Chianti Classico Area
Here, I will discuss two different Chianti Classico wineries from two different sub-zones in that area. The Chianti theme has been extended also to November in the Italian Food, Wine, and Travel group. Thus, I have chosen to talk about the two wineries Leonardo Manetti in Greve in Chianti and Fattoria di Montemaggio close to Radda in Chianti.
Two areas very close on the map yet very different in terms of the wines they produce. Last month, I wrote about the Vignaioli di Radda and the concept of zoning and sub-associations within the Chianti Classico consortium. Today, we can see more up close the difference in territory and wine between two wineries.
Leonardo Manetti — A Young Winemaker with a long History Behind
I know Leonardo Manetti since several years now, in fact, he was my first guest at my very first #WinesOfItaly #LiveStream back in November 2015. I was very nervous about my first wine live stream and about finding a guest wanting to take the chance on this live ‘thingy’ which was quite new in 2015.
He did great and since then, as some of you know, my live stream has continued to develop. In 2015, his parents family winery, Sagrona winery, was still in business so he was talking about those wines. Since then, his parents decided to close down the Sagrona winery, that they had founded back in the 1960s. This winery was situated in the center of Greve in Chianti, just a few steps from Piazza Matteotti, the main square.
The old Sagrona winery is now the base for Leonardo’s new winemaking activity. He decided to branch out on his own and starting to slowly produce a Chianti Classico wine under his own name: Leonardo Manetti.
Leonardo Manetti is not only an oenologist, he graduated from Florence University in 2007, but also a published poet. Yes, it is quite cool, right? A poet winemaker. He has published a couple of volumes of poetry and he has a blog called Chianti Poesia. The website for his winery business is still under construction but you can read more about Leonardo at his website Leonardo Manetti, a contemporary Tuscan poet.
Leonardo produces one Chianti Classico wine and the 2015 vintage was his first production year on his own. I tasted this wine earlier this spring when I visited him together with my partner in wine, Nadia Padrin. It is a wine with a nose of beautiful red fruit and a touch of the typical violet. It is still a young wine so you feel the acidity which is so typical for the Sangiovese, though the tannins are smooth. All in all an elegant wine with a great potential.
Fattoria di Montemaggio — A Winery between Panzano and Radda
Fattoria di Montemaggio is a winery in Radda in Chianti close to Panzano, Greve, also in Chianti, and Lamole, to just name a few of the well-known places in Tuscany. The winery produces wine within the Chianti Classico denomination and belongs to the Consortium of Chianti Classico.
The owners of Fattoria di Montemaggio are Valeria Zavadnikova and her family. Ilaria Anichini is the manager of the winery, she was born and bred in Florence where she studied agronomy at the university.
A special and fitting particularity of the winery is its logo picturing an Etruscan woman with a basket full of grapes. The Russian artist Andrey Remnev created the original painting, and his wife, who is a designer, then created a logo and wine label with the painting as a model.
The estate has 190 acres of land where the part being cultivated as vineyards are about 22 acres. They cultivate mainly Chardonnay, Sangiovese, Merlot, Malvasia Nera, and Pugnitello. The soil here is of galestro, sandstone, and alberese. So, as you can see that there is a clear difference as the soil is more of rock, which together with the altitude, make the wines fresh, mineral and elegant.
Fattoria di Montemaggio produces a selection of different wines but as the theme of this article is Chianti Classico, I will only mention those. They produce a Chianti Classico Annata, Chianti Classico Riserva, and a Gran Selezione. There is a small percentage, max. 5%, of Merlot, added to the Sangiovese in all their Chianti Classico wines. This is a way of smoothening out the acidity of the Sangiovese a bit. A particularity of the Merlot at Fattoria di Montemaggio is that the Merlot has almost taken on the traits of Sangiovese having amalgamated the characteristics of the soil in Radda so typical for the Radda Sangiovese.
Two Chianti Classico wineries, so different yet so close…
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