At Montecalvi, we have a little over four hectares under vine, spread across five different vineyards. Le Terrazze is our oldest and finest vineyard, planted on dry stone-wall terraces in 1932, making it one of the oldest vineyards in Tuscany. Then we have the Montecalvi vineyard (in three parcels) which was first planted to Sangiovese in 1990 and expanded in 2006. The San Piero vineyard was planted in 2003 to Cabernet Sauvignon and, more recently, we planted Il Pozzo in 2019 to Ciliegiolo and La Chiantigiana in 2022 purely to Sangiovese.
One of the tasks that we are faced with in the vineyard is to try and maintain a consistent ‘canopy’. A full canopy yields more fruit (obviously) but also maximises light interception in these warming times. But we lose vines from time to time, generally to age, injury or disease – so we have to replace them. This Spring we set about replacing all of our missing vines, some 1,400 in total. It is a fairly straightforward task – dig the hole, plant the young vine, add water and nutrients – but it takes time. A crew of 14 spent two weeks working dusk till dawn to get the job done. Now we watch, wait, water, and pray!
