My first stop for my day out in Tuscany's wonderful world of vineyards was the winery, Vignavecchia. They are located in Radda, which is one of the main provinces in Tuscany for Chianti Classico production. It has been in the Beccari family since the 1870's. They had inherited the estate from the original owners, the Minucci family, that had started the winery in the 18th century.
There are about 7.5 acres of olives groves planted and 47 acres of vineyards with 70% sangiovese, 10% canaiolo, 7% colorino, 5% each of merlot and cabernet and 3% chardonnay. They produce about 10,700 cases with Chianti Classico dominating the output. About 34.5 of those acres are dedicated to Chianti Classico which is under the DOCG status.
It takes about 2 weeks and ten people to complete their harvest and when we were there they were going to be done in about 5 days, so by now they have finished.
The director, Stefano Miniati, was fantastic. He did the tasting for us and couldn't have been any nicer. Of all the wines that I tasted they were all great in their own way, but I enjoyed their 2009 Vigneto Odoardo Beccari, which is their Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva. It's a blend of 90% sangiovese and 10% canaiolo. It comes from a smaller parcel of land and only 1,000 cases are produced annually. It goes through about 18 months maturation time with about 6 months in the bottle. It was a classic Chianti Classico and was a lot drier than the others, but had a long beautiful finish. Stefano's opinion was that the last great vintages were 2007 and 2008 and everything else since then had been average.
If you have an opportunity to taste any of the wines from this vineyard make sure you do so and if you're ever in Radda make sure you stop by. Stefano is a pleasure to deal with. You can't go wrong with any wines from here including their vin santo as well. Visit their site at Fattoria Vignavecchia.
Don't go to Tuscany without this beautiful and detailed map.
No comments:
Post a Comment