Tin Bianco Amphora Montesecondo (Skin contact white wine) 2018

Tin Bianco Amphora Montesecondo, 100% Trebbiano, Orange Wine, no added sulphur, rich and complex, very fresh, superb. The TIN is fermented and matured in Amphorae, not particularly common in Chianti, an area still rife with big industrial scale production. Amphorae always make for very elegant and fresh wines that seem to be full of energy and life. You truly taste biodynamic forces at play and this life-force in the wine gives it fantastic ageing potential. If it makes it that far, they only make a few thousand bottles! The grapes come from 40 year old-vines, biodynamically farmed fruit that is hand-harvested and undergoes natural fermentation in 250-to-350-litre clay amphorae. The skin maceration is shorter than the previous vintage producing a fresher style. The wine is bottled without filtration or fining.

Silvio Messana with his wife Catalina took over the Montesecondo estate in 1999.

Originally created in the 1970's by his father who planted the vineyards, the grapes used to be sold in bulk by his mother who was running the estate after the death of her Silvio's father. Silvio soon started making wine and his very first vintage was produced in 2000. Surrounded by olive groves in Cerbaia val di Pesa. The 11.5 hectares of vineyards are planted on two types of soil: calcareous and clay soils with sandy areas which produce lush soft wines; and a limestone soil at 500m altitude, which produces crisper, leaner styles. Silvio mainly cultivates old vines (35 years old on average) of Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Colorino, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Everything is biodynamic, and they manage to obtain naturally low yields (30hl/ha) from the vigorous Sangiovese vines and great fruit that genuinely express their terroir.