Cantina La Serena di Andrea Mantengoli

‘Montalcinese’ down to his very boots, twin son of Ennio & of Iva, Andrea Mantengoli farms his family’s 70ha estate, of which 12ha qualifies as Sangiovese vineyards for making Brunello di Montalcino; his twin Marcello an architect who designed the case/cantina. The majority of vineyard land lies on the East flank of the Montalcino comune at between 250-400m asl on cretaceous ‘pietraforte’ clay, sandstones, marls, & siltsones, rich with fossilized shells.

It was Andrea’s grandfather, Santi, who bought the La Rasa estate – home to Cantina La Serena – in 1933; a Montalcino family, they had always been land-owners not share-croppers. Mention of La Rasa dates back to land registry documents of 1572, when the farm was already tending a typical mix of ‘vignia, paschi, ulivi e terre sodive, machiose, e boschate‘ (vines, pastures, olives, & woods).

More recently, in 1980 brothers Ennio & Vasco Mantengoli divided the estate, & ‘Cantina La Serena’ was born as a producer of bottled Rosso e Brunello di Montalcino in 1988, with Riserva ‘Gemini’ appearing in 2001; Andrea having joined his father Ennio in 1997. 2010 was the year in which they achieved organic certification. In 2023 vigna Quercetonda at 600m asl was purchased, with a subsequent acquisition of land close to La Rasa (La Serena) in 2024.

Andrea is a farmer attached to his land. Organic since early 2000s, his philosophy, & that of his family, is in essence that of ‘hands-off‘ as Andrea explained in 2020:

‘It’s when you see my vineyard thriving, bushy & verdent, that one understands what it is to be in harmony with ones vines, tending to them only when necessary. By recognizing that everything stems from the roots it follows that the key is to look after the soil. Non-intervention does not mean not caring or neglect, but choosing to step in only when required to do so. Hence our belief that it is better to minimize our impact on the indigenous fauna & flora that grows spontaneously, indeed encouraging its spread by delaying the cutting of the grass until the local bee population has had time to complete their important work (of pollination). We bear a great responsibility in looking after the environment, & so by understanding the role of each farming action we are able to work carefully & sustainably. Intervening in the management of water resource & of the vine’s vegetation – the canopy – only when requested to do so (by the plant) & in perfect accord with nature. It’s a fine balance that seeks to arrive at a point where the farm is at one with itself, where flora & fauna live together in harmony.’

Well placed among the hills outside the city walls east of Siena in the comune of Castelnuovo Berardenga on a pliocenic mix of clay, bioclastic limestones & sandstones, lies the fine 18th century Villa di Geggiano of the Boscu Bianchi Bandinelli family, in whose care the property has remained since 1527. The family’s wines were first exported (to the UK) in 1725, ironically, by Niccolò Bandinelli.

In 1959 Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, a disciple of Marxist theory promoting land redistribution – il Conte Rosso? – donated much of the Villa’s land to the mezzadri (sharecroppers) who had been working their land. In 1995 Andrea & fratello Alessandro Boscu Bianchi Bandinelli began overseeing the vines which have been farmed organically since 2003. More recently the 5ha of Sangiovese, Ciliegiolo, Syrah, & Cabernet Sauvignon vyds are now managed by the latest generation of the family, Gregorio, who joined the family business in 2019, becoming sole proprietor in 2025.

In 2018 Gregorio spent much of the year in the Rhône, working at Vieux Telegraphe, during which time he visited the hill of Hermitage & was inspired to create his own super Sangiovese in vintage 2019 – ‘Ai Lecci’ – from a single east facing site. Meanwhile papa Andrea & zio Alessandro (the Marinaio!), aided by their life-long colleague Fulvio & consultant Sig. Vagaggini, continue to bottle their crunchy Toscana Rosso ‘Bandinello’, a Chianti Classico warmed by the addition of some Syrah, & in exceptional years a fulsome CC Riserva emboldened by Cabernet Sauvignon.

Enthused by the success of ‘Ai Lecci’ & of his formative experiences since 2019, Gregorio plans to raise the bar (of qualità) further by investing in the cantina, to bottle more single vineyard expressions of Sangiovese, & to seek more elevated vineyards as the climate changes. His preference is to minimize the time in wood (tonneaux or botte grande) by bottling early, giving the wine more time to harmonize pre-release.

We’ve skipped over the Italian border into (west) Slovenia, on the 45 parallel, to bring you the crystal clear wines of Kmetija Hedele (‘Kmetija’ means ‘Cantina’). More precisely we’ve followed the ponca trail from the Colli Orientali del Friuli, through Collio & Cormons, & into Slovenia’s stunningly green, serene & luminoso Valle di Vipacco (Vipava), that boasts even more of the amazingly deep, 65 million year sedimentary ponca/flysch/clay & silt, & arenaria (sandstone) soils/beds, that give the white wines a glistening brightness, fruit intensity, & sea-salty mineral quality. 

And since 2011, around the village of Goče, local agronomist & ponca expert Andrea Pittana has been planting & vinifying Malvasia Istriana, Sauvignon Blanc, & Chardonnay here, high up on the ponca terraces of the valley. Vines have been planted there since 1892, dating back to Napoleon & the Austro-Hungarian empire. The vineyards are all dry-farmed, with no irrigation. 

All wines are tonneaux fermented using indigenous yeast (pied de cuve), having been whole bunch pressed, & aged in tonneaux for a further 12 mths, without battonage or racking. The wines are then racked – along with their lees – into stainless-steel tanks for another 12 mths, before being bottled. Andrea firmly believes in the added quality imparted to the wines by leaving them on their lees for two summers. The Chardonnays also undergo malolactic fermentation in wood, & sometimes the Sauvignon too, depending on the vintage.  

Since vintage 2018, Andrea has made a couple of thousand bottles of a single vineyard expression of Chardonnay, from his steepest, ponca rich Obelunec site at between 350-400m asl, & since 2019 also a minerally Sauvignon Blanc from the same Obelunec vyd. 

Milanesa/Biellesa by birth, Renata Bonacina was brought up in sight of Monviso & vowed one day to buy a cantina with a similar view. Move forward to 1998, freshly married to a Trevigiano, Giovanni Sartor, the couple bought a tiny Castiglione Tinella property ‘Cà ed Belos’ with its 1.5ha of Moscato d’Asti vyd. Skip forward to 2017 when they took the plunge & bought the 18th century Dacapo estate in the comune of Agliano Terme, with its 3.5ha of Barbera, Grignolino, + Incrocio Manzoni vines; the estate also owned 2.5ha in Castagnole di Monferrato, of Ruche’, Pinot Nero, & Nebbiolo plots.

The scene was set to re-unite the 7ha & three domaines – Castiglione Tinella, Agliano Terme, & Castagnole di Monferrato – a task that called for a new cantina in 2018, with temperature controlled tanks, wooden tini, botte grande, tonneaux, a barrique for the Pinot Nero! Giovanni has swapped his Accounting background for a trattore, while Renata’s realm is in the cantina. Their vineyards lie on three very different terreni: Castiglione Tinella on limestone & sabbia; Agliano Terme on marne sant’agata, clay, & some gypsum; while Castagnole di Monferrato sits on dark red clay & Messiniano sabbia d’asti soils. They are certified organic since 2019.

Belgian (Flemish) by origin, born in 1993, James Marshall-Lockyer’s maternal grandfather Jacques de Liedekerke bought the 61ha Tenuta Licinia estate in the 1970s having been lured to Tuscany by Italian bureaucrats based in the newly established European Commission in Brussels. Being close to his grandfather, James grew up between Belgium, Switzerland, & UK, but it was at the estate he found solace & inspiration, eventually taking over from his grandfather. Given the opportunity to pursue a career in academia or viticulture, he chose the latter, taking up the trowel in 2020 & becoming the winemaker, increasing the vineyard size to 6.5ha, alongside the 60ha of forest.

James’s first vintage was 2021, & compared to his grandfather’s approach: no chemical fertiliser, no topping (except Petit Verdot in wetter years); harvesting at the perfect moment according to taste not analysis; less extraction; the use of less & marginally bigger oak, tonneaux vs barriques; work biodynamically since 2021, notably in the use of 500, 501, Valerian, Equisetum, Camomile (& applying his background in meta-physics to decision-making). The estate has been certified organic since 2012, helped no doubt by its remote location down a long track off the main road to Lucignano.

The estate lies in the Val di Chiana, an ancient Etruscan area, near the delightful village of Lucignano, known as ‘Licinia’ in Roman times, adjacent to the Castello di Calcione, located halfway between Siena & Arezzo, on a fault-line where, as he explained, “slopes seem to fold into each other”, creating a wave effect that lent its name to their top single vineyard Cabernet Franc, Onda, of which they make c.1k bts/anno, vintage allowing.

Italian writer & film Director, Mario Soldati, referred to the Calcione estate on which Tenuta Licinia is located, in his 1969 libro ‘Vino al Vino – Viaggo alla ricerca dei vini genuini’ (Mondadori): ‘Alla tenuta del Calcione, presso Lucignano, sempre in Val di Chiana, facciamo la conocenza del vero vino di queste parte: cosi vero, ma cosi vero che non si trova in commercio: il quantitativo prodotto nella tenuta non sarebbe sufficiente. Vino privato, riservato a quelli chi lo fanno e ai loro amici. Ma proprio per questo, assolutamente incorrotto, antico, eccelso.’ (At the Tenuta di Calcione, near Lucignano, in the Val di Chiana, we come across a real wine of this region: so real indeed that you don’t find on the market: the quantity produced would not be enough (to meet demand). A reserved wine for those who produce it, & their friends. And it’s for this very reason (the wine remains) uncorrupted, ancient, excellent.’)

The soils lying round the cantina, whose vines lie in a natural anfiteatro at circa 350m asl, are predominantly weathered old grey friable galestro/slate, clay & calcareous little stones; James is also farming one plot nearby with outcrops of volcanic, Etna-like lava in one vyd, & another that is more clay, schist & calcareo. Being close to Arezzo & the Apennines, Tenuta Licinia enjoys a more continental climate than Montalcino (that’s influenced by Maremma), bringing with cleaner mountain air, fresh & crisp, & lots of light; October vintage nights can be below 10 degrees while warming up to 25 by day (as per the Langhe); winters are much colder than further west towards the coast, freezing most nights between late December & mid February. Summers can peak at 40 degrees.

The estate stands alone, without any DOCGs or famous points of reference nearby; a fact not lost on their budding single vyd Sangiovese, L’Isolato (2k bts/anno) Their core vineyard is called Sasso di Fata, a reference to a rock hidden in a nearby forest; from this vyd, strewn with galestro, alberese, arenaria & calcareous clay, James micro selects & fillets the plot to create a blend of twenty-year old Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, & Merlot (6k bts) There’s an estate label, Montepolli, so named after the Etruscan settlement nearby, which brings together a broader palette of fruit from across the domaine: Cabernet Sauvignon, Franc, Merlot, & a dash of Petit Verdot.

Stainless-steel conical fermenters for Montepolli, cement for Sasso di Fata, & tonneaux for Onda. Affinamento is in 500L tonneaux for the Bordeaux varieties, & Taransaud 20HL botte for the Sangiovese L’Isolato, followed a spell in vertical tulip cement tanks prior to bottling c. 18 mths after the harvest; 2023 vintage (13.5%) to be bottled with the new luna in April 2025.

Located on the coast of Abruzzo, north of Pescara in the province of Teramo, in Colleranesco near the (shellfishing) port of Giulianova, the Faraone family produce classic Abruzzo wines from circa 12ha.

The family property is focused around one valley that runs perpendicular to the Adriatic coast & two vineyards, ‘Convento’ & ‘Collepietro’ in the comune of Mosciano Sant’Angelo, part of the Colli Aprutini zone. ‘Convento’ with pergola/tendone Montepulciano vines – planted with the R7 clone – while ‘Collepietro’, bought by padre Giovanni in 2000, is made up of filari/rows. They have been organic since 2015. They do not fertilize nor irrigate unless absolutely necessary.

The family Faraone’s story dates back to 1916, & particularly to the 1930s when the family first planted Montepulciano, Sangiovese & Passerina – a variety locally known as ‘Trebbiano Teramano’. Bottling started in 1970 with the family’s first bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, & then in 1972 with Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. Giovanni “Nino” Faraone, padre of Federico the current titolare & his brother Alfonso, was inspired by his honeymoon to Champagne with his wife Paola that in 1979 he began producing metodo classico from Passerina grapes, before receiving official authorization in 1983.

Son Federico studied enologia in Friuli Venezia Giulia, before working in France, New Zealand, & Umbria, joining his father in 2014, then in 2017 as a partner, before the premature scomparso of Giovanni in 2019. Since 2020 Federico has been working hard to produce wines that display more fruit, definition & distinction, while producing more Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo to meet demand, drawing on the quality of the local, tendone-trellised Montepulciano fruit, & for which the family’s pale campari-red Cerasuolo style has become a point of reference for all Cerasuolo producers.

They also make a late release Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane DOCG (since 2003) from Collepietro (filari) fruit that ages for 48 months in 35HL recently regenerated botti grande.

And of course there’s the Dosaggio Zero Metodo Classico Spumante from Passerina, & now a Rosé Spumante made from Sangiovese.

Perched high up & steeply behind the città of Sondrio, capitale of the Valtellina, is found the comune di Montagna in Valtellina. The village is famous for its impressive, 120ha cru Grumello, which faces pure South on broad terraces of granite & morenic, stony soils. The Gianatti family farm a prime, 100 year old, 2ha parcel, vigneto Sassina, & have been doing so for almeno due hundred years. The vines are planted with Chiavennasca, plus 5% Rossola & Pignola (both relatives of Nebbiolo/Chiavennasca). Irrigation is only used in emergency.

Giorgio is the latest in a long line of Gianatti, following in the footsteps of his bisnonno Giorgio, nonno Giuseppe, & papa Silvio, joining the family farm in 1978. Indeed it was Giorgio (nato ’62) who initiated the first bottlings in 1983. Alongside him are his wife Cristina, & figlia Cecilia.

Giorgio makes classic Valtellina Superiore Grumello vigneto Sassina (labeled as such since 2017) – broad & emphatic, with fine tannins – plus a Rosso di Valtellina too. The wines are traditionally made, using stainless-steel & botte grande ageing, for circa 18 mths in the case of the Valtellina Superiore. Despite completing a new bottle store in the centre of the village, Giorgio does not release each vintage, but only the ones he likes! He prefers to offer older vintages to the market; ones that have benefited from time in bottle.

Giorgio is a proud member of FIVI (Federazione ItalianaVignaoli Indipendenti).

Introducing Stefano Campaniello of cantina Morra Gabriele, a talented bright-eyed Romano who grew up near Milano, moving to London to continue his work as a Sommelier before heading off to Burgundy to work for a year in the vyds of Boillot, Volnay, & then on to Muga, Rioja, returning to Italia with a plan to set up on his own, in proprio.

In 2012 Stefano met Gabriele Testa, a keen (bianco!) trifulau & grandson of Morra Gabriele, & together they revived the nonno’s cantina in the comune di Macellai di Pocapaglia, with Barbera & Freisa vyds nearby.

In 2015 Stefano began renting their first Nebbiolo da Barbaresco vyd: a prime 0.3ha old vine Ovello (west facing), & then the cooler East facing part of Ovello (1ha of old vine vigna Bernino) adjacent to Montefico. From 2021 vyd they added 1ha of Fausoni above Neive (near San Cristoforo). And then in 2022: Starderi also in Neive. A total then of 1.9ha of Nebbiolo da Barbaresco vyds planted to Michet, Lampia, & clone 401.

The soils vary from clay-rich marne in Ovello, to blue marne in Bernino, limestone sandy marne soils of Fausoni, & to warmer sand in Starderi…lending Ovello presence/weight, Bernino spine/sapidità, Fausoni rose aromatics, & Starderi fruit!

Stefano tends the vines & makes the Barbaresco, blending destalked Nebbiolo fruit from the four vyds (Ovello, Bernino, Fausoni, & Starderi), the proportions varying according to the vintage (2021: 60% Bernino, Fausoni 25%, 15% Ovello) in stainless-steel, using pied de cuve/spontaneous yeast ferments, with circa 25 day pumping over (less in 2023), & cappello sommerso/submerged cap in exceptional years (in 2021), before ageing the wines for up to 14 months in ten year old, non-toasted 30HL Stockinger botte grande. 

Meanwhile, at their Macellai di Pocapaglia cantina, that’s equipped with a battery of cement tanks & tonneaux, Stefano makes two Langhe Nebbiolos from their Barbaresco vyds: one a classic expression of Nebbiolo fruit, the other, more layered – Foravia (off pista!) – with 60% whole bunch vinified in cement. Plus he makes a juicy Langhe Rosso (Nebbiolo/0.3ha Freisa), a marnoso Chardonnay from 0.3ha vyd Fausoni, & 1ha of Barbera from Macellai.

Spectacular ruins of a Roman pillar were dug up in the vineyards in 2000, sculpted out of the local limestone ‘pietra di Cantoni’. Cantine Valpane of Ozzano Monferrato with its vineyards & crops was first documented/mapped in 1794, but it wasn’t until 1902 that Pietro Arditi’s medical/veterinario family from Torino bought this Monferrato Casalese cascina of 24ha (10.5ha vineyards), installing state-of-the-art cement tanks in the 1930s. The first commercial label appearing in 1991, when Pietro joined his zia Lydia, who actively managed the estate until her mancanza in 2002, having taken over from her father & fondatore Pietro Giuseppe Arditi (“Giuspin”). 

The cascina lies on the breezy coll that effectively links Monte Rosa & Cervinia with the Ligurian Alps & Genova, on the crossroads of four comuni: Cellamonte, Sala Monferrato, Treville, & Ozzano Monferrato. The terreno here is a ‘caotico complesso‘ of marne sant’agata fossili & argilla at circa 260m asl; the Grignolino vines lying on the marne sant’agata soils, while the Freisa favours the ‘pietra di Cantoni’ limestone soils. The name of the vineyard is ‘Euli’, after the German for owl, as Pavia nearby was the capital of the (German) Longobardo kingdom during the Middles Ages. The 10.5ha made up of Barbera, Grignolino, & Freisa. Pietro has always farmed organically, as he consumes his own produce, & maintains a beautiful prato/meadow in the heart of the natural anfiteatro.

In their fine 18th century, naturally insulated cellar, Pietro uses cement & stainless steel for vinification, giving the wines plenty of time in bottle prior to release. He makes one, 100% Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese, two or three Barbera del Monferrato (Superiore), & a fine Freisa del Monferrato. His Barbera del Monferrato Superiore ‘Valpane’ is blended with 15% Freisa, & is the only wine that sees oak.