Before the world changed in 2019, we decided to remove an acre of vineyard that had “wet feet” and needed more than a little TLC. In spring 2020, we planted three different Sangiovese clones: the Brunello clone VCR5, #7 of the Chianti Classico 2000 project, and I-VCR-209. These may be just letters and numbers to you, but these clones have been carefully selected for their quality, not quantity, which is ideal for producing wines that have medium to long aging potential.
We have also created a new vineyard planted exclusively with the native Ciliegiolo grape, which we believe will be very interesting. Ciliegiolo and Sangiovese are related, but it is debated whether it is a parent or descendant of Sangiovese. In any case, Ciliegiolo is little known and too little appreciated, and we hope to change this by producing a single-varietal Ciliegiolo.
We are also in the process of planting another 0.5 hectares with Sangiovese clones F9 and R24. These two clones are, in our opinion, better suited to current climate trends.
Finally, we did a lot of work in our Le Terrazze vineyard, from which we produce our VV. It is one of the oldest vineyards in Tuscany, planted in 1932 and celebrating its 90th birthday this year! The vineyard served Castello di Uzzano as a planting school for all its wineries and is therefore a mixture of Italian grape varieties, but mainly we find Sangiovese there. We quickly realized that this was something special and decided to preserve and renovate the vineyard. It takes some time!
For the first two years we evaluated all the vines to see which were the healthiest. Then we selected three individual vines-a Sangiovese, a Canina Nera and a Trebbiano Toscano-from which we took cuttings. We then sent them to the nursery for propagation, and after two more years we got 150 young/old vines. We just planted these and are now waiting for them to develop (and hopefully grow). In the coming years we will repeat this process until eventually we have a new vineyard of Montecalvi 1932 vines.
