Montevertine Pian del Ciampolo 2007
We tasted this wine a little while back, and while it stuck in my memory, the post I had begun working on gradually fell farther and farther down the queue as other drafts accumulated in front of it. Thankfully, I had cause to revisit it after attending a tasting featuring Neal Rosenthal himeself at local wine shop named Brix. The tasting included several Montevertine wines, including the Pian del Ciampolo, Montevertine, and Le Pergole Torte.
Without doubt, Neal Rosenthal is my favorite importer of wines today. His selection focuses on France and Italy, and all of the wines he brings in are consistently wonderful. I particularly enjoy his Italian wines, and have had several from Piedmont and the Valle d’Aosta in particular. What I find so enjoyable about Rosenthal’s wine selection is the degree to which each wine is such a unique, distinct expression of the winemaker and the place in which the grapes were grown and the wine made. I don’t mean to wax overly poetic about terroir, typicity, etc., etc., but across the board I’ve found that these wines all say something different from one another. This certainly owes to Rosenthal’s explanation of what motivated him to begin importing wine in the first place,
The objective from the outset was to work as directly as possible with growers who were dedicated to producing limited quantities of the finest quality wines and who shared [our] passion for “terroir”, that ephemeral “sense of place”…We prefer to seek out other small sources of supply rather than work with a cooperative, negociant, or large commercial producer to keep the flow of wine coming.
The Montevertine Pian del Ciampolo fits this driving motivation to a tee. The winery was founded in 1967 by Sergio Manetti and produced its first vintage in 1971. From the start, Manetti focused production on the Sangiovese grapes. Because the then-rules governing production of Chianti Classico did not allow for using the amount of sangiovese Manetti desired, in 1981 the winery left the Chianti Classico consortium and began producing its own unique, regional wines.
The estate is small, numbering just 10 hectares of vines spread over 6 vineyards:
- Le Pergole Torte: planted in 1968, surface 2 hectares, exposed towards N-NE
- Montevertine: planted between 1972 and 1982, surface 2.5 hectares, exposed towards SE-S
- Il Sodaccio: planted in 1972 and completely replanted in the year 2000, surface 1.5 hectares, exposed towards SE
- Il Casino: planted in 1999, surface 2 hectares, exposed towards S
- Selvole: planted in 1997, surface 3.5 hectares, exposed towards SE-S
- Pian del Ciampolo: planted in 2003, surface 1.5 hectares, exposed towards W-NW
The winery’s website states that 90% of the grapes cultivated are sangiovese, with the remainder made up of canaiolo, colorino, and malvasia bianca. According to the site,
We have deliberately avoided cultivating other types of grapes such as Cabernet, Pinot Nero or Merlot because we want to distance ourselves from the worldwide trend. Some say that the aforementioned grapes reflect the current globalized taste. And what happens if one day, after an excessive production, we are bored by such grapes? Switching back to traditional grapes would take many years. And, after all, isn’t it altogether possible to make great wine from Sangiovese? Our own experience says “yes”, especially when the Sangiovese in question is Tuscan…
The Pian del Ciampolo is the estate’s basic red wine. It is composed of 90% sangiovese, 5% canaiolo, and 5% colorino. After a manual harvest, the grapes are pressed and the wine fermented in cement cuvees for at least 25 days. The wine is then aged in large Slavonian oak barrels for 18 months before bottling (without filtration), and is held in bottle by the estate for 4 months before being released.
Tasting Notes
The bottle sports a simple, tasteful label, perhaps speaking volumes about the wine itself. It pours a velvety purple red, the color of rose petals. The nose is enticing, displaying a wide range of flavors, with notes of violets, cherry cordials, dark chocolate, damp earth. The palate is vibrant and fresh tasting. Initial flavors of flavors of sweet raspberries and cherries gives way to ripe strawberries, milk chocolate, and a touch of apple skin acidity. The texture is smooth and mellow, with soft tannins providing some additional body. The finish is bright with acidity, complementing flavors of early season raspberries and strawberries.
On the whole, this wine was utterly delightful. Flavors of ripe fruit and chocolates were supported by a sweet, lithe body. Definitely try this wine if you have the opportunity.
At the tasting Rosenthal held, we also got to try the Montevertine and Le Pergole Torte. Montevertine is the estate’s middle-level wine, and their year-in, year-out premium bottling. In complexity and nuance its a step above the Pian del Ciampolo. The Le Pergole Torte is the estate’s reserve wine, only made in exceptional years. It is certainly an exciting wine, displaying more power and depth than the other two reds. All three are very good, highly recommended wines.
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