Toscana Rosso San Martino Montesecondo 2018

Toscana Rosso San Martino Montesecondo 2018 certified biodynamic 100% sangiovese. Incredibly rare and intriguing take on Tuscany’s most famous grape variety. The Grapes are from a single high altitude (around 650m) parcel at San Caciano in Val di Pesa, on the northern edge of Chianti Classico. The vineyard is on galestro soils, steep and North East facing with the aspect and altitude as well as early picking contributing to the relatively low ABV (11.5%) for a sangiovese. Normally the fruit from this parcel goes into the Chianti Classico, 2018 was the first time Silvio bottled it separately as the San Martino, so a kind of limited edition wine for want of a better phrase.

Grapes where hand harvested and mainly destemmed, but the berries where left largely uncrushed. Fermentation was spontaneous with indigenous yeasts and no added sulphur during the wine making process. (Just a tad at the bottling stage) Fermentation is without temperature control with a 6 week maceration, but very little intervention via extraction just a process known as “submerging the cap”. The wine then goes into oak for 12 months in oak and then matures in the bottle for 5 years. The wine wasn’t actually released until 2024!

A very pure elegant expression of sangiovese with the classic sour/red cherry character with notes of wild strawberries and cranberry. Then on the back palate we tasted mediterranean herbs, tomato leaf, earthy notes and a touch of leather. A truly intriguing bottle of wine that is packed with flavour but very light on the palate almost akin to a top red Burgundy!

Silvio Messana took over the Montesecondo estate in 1999 and since then has steadfastly stuck to his ideals about natural production and quality Tuscan wine with freshness and drinkability.

Originally created in the 1970's by his father who planted the vineyards, the grapes used to be sold in bulk to local coops for a low price.  As a young man Silvio was obsessed by music and influenced by his father, left the farm and spent the first half of his career as a musician in America, touring the bars and night spots of New York and having and by all accounts, a fantastic time!  However, on meeting his first wife and having Children, he decided he needed a more reliable income and so returned to the small family farm in Tuscany and set about becoming a wine maker. 

Silvio started making wine soon after with very little experience but always with the knowledge that he had wine in his blood.  His very first vintage was produced in the year 2000 and his wines quickly established a reputation for their quality, authenticity and drinkability, in a time when Chianti was going in the American influenced direction of over extraction and new oak.

Surrounded by olive groves in Cerbaia val di Pesa, the stunning 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 (well over 35 years old on average) of Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Colorino, Cabernet Sauvignon and whites grapes Trebbiano and Vernaccia.

Everything is biodynamic, and they manage to obtain naturally low yields (30hl/ha) from the vigorous Sangiovese vines and great fruit that genuinely expresses the terroir.

In the recent past, Silvio has rented a beautiful old farm house further up the mountain and lives alone surrounded by his magnificent biodynamic vineyards and a panorama which looks out over the Tuscan hills and vines.  He is well into his sixties now but maintains a very good physical fitness and still loves what he does.  He is working as hard as ever and planning new vineyard plantings and development.  He is now helped by his sons and the Montesecondo name looks set to continue long into the future.  We love his wines and the guy himself, a true Tuscan gentleman and craftsman of the vine.