Montalcinese down to his roots, twin son of Ennio & of Iva, Andrea Mantengoli farms his family’s La Serena estate that lies on the prime north-east flank of the Montalcino comune at circa 450m asl on cretaceous ‘pietraforte‘ clay, sandstones & siltsones.
Andrea is a farmer very attached to his land, be it vines or spelt wheat. Organic, his philosophy & that of his family, is to ‘do nothing’, 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.’
Alto Adige/Südtirol – located in Caldaro/Kaltern south of Bolzano/Bozen, the Andergassen family at Weingut Klosterhof used to supply the cantina sociale until 1998 when Oskar started to bottle their circa 5ha, situated at between 380 – 450m asl on free draining pink porphory & calcareous clay soils.
Their focus is on growing & vinifying Weissburgunder/Pinot Bianco, Vernatsch/Schiava & Blauburgunder/Pinot Noir. Starting in 2002 the family began to replant their local Pinot Noir clones with those from France. The approach in the vineyards is organic without certification; they use drip irrigation for their Pinot Noir (especially during invaiatura).
Since 2005 Oskar’s son Hannes joined his father at the domaine, assuming responsibility for the wines in 2009, having graduated from Trento wine school. From 2012 – following trips to other regions – Hannes began to apply his learned approach (yeast, stalks, wood), with 2016 being the year they started using some whole bunch Pinot Noir, fermented in large open wood tubs & aged in barriques. The winery was transferred to Hannes’s name in 2025. Hannes takes full responsibility for the pruning of their vines, be it their pergola (Weissburgunder & Vernatsch) or guyot (Pinot Noir).
The Weissburgunder is vinified plot by plot before being blended together, 100% wood tonneaux, wild yeasts, & undergoes malolactic conversion when nature dictates; the Vernatsch is vinified in 16HL wooden tini & stainless-steel; the Pinot Noir in open wooden tubs often with up to 35% whole bunch & then in up to four-year-old used barriques for 12mths. Their top Pinot Noir is from the limestone rich St.Nicholaus vyd higher up behind the cantina.
The wines are closed using DIAM10 & 30 Origine.
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.
High up the Val Curone valley, at the entrance to the comune of Brignano-Frascata, with vines at circa 300m asl among the Colli Tortonesi on calcareous clay (marne sant’agata fossili) soils, the Poggio family is now on its fourth generation with the return of figlio Matteo from his vinous travels in Gennaio 2024. He follows in the footsteps of bisnonno Giuseppe, nonno Desiderio (‘Derio’), e padre Paolo.
In the early 1900s, Giuseppe Poggio began selling ‘vino bianco‘ to Swiss & German customers. The family first planted Timorasso in 1989, using the family’s plant material dating back 100 years. In the 1990s it was Giuseppe’s grandson Paolo who recognized the potential of Timorasso, a variety tightly linked to their territorio, & who initiated the first commercial bottlings. Paolo also began replanting the 15ha estate in 2008 & then in 2020.
They vinify their (Derthona) Timorasso in stainless-steel, allowing the wines to go through malolactic fermentation & then bottling the new vintage 12 months after the harvest, in September. From vintage 2022 they have released tiny quantities of 1989-planted Timorasso ‘Ronchetto’ that enjoys a further year in bt prior to release.
They also produce small quantities of Croatina, Barbera, & Cortese.
Located in the Monferrato Casalese comune of Vignale Monferrato, NE of Asti, the family cantina of Carlo Santopietro takes their name from the single vyd Il Mongetto that lies in the frazione of the same name. The vineyard sits on a block of marne sant’agata fossili, rich with limo (54%), argilla calcareo (31%), & sabbia (15%), with an alkaline pH of 8.0; detto ‘franco limoso agrilloso’, it appears to be the perfect environment for growing Grignolino. The cantina is also famous for their old vine Barbera, grown on the single site Guera. Plus they have a small plot of Malvasia di Casorza, a red grape.
Bottling began in 1979, with Carlo Santopietro joining the family business in 1982. They have 10ha of vines, divided up between four vyds in the comune of Vignale Monferrato: Il Mongetto, Rudifra’, Guera, & Solin. Vinification takes place in cimento, using selected yeasts for security, the Grignolino skins being racked off after a week, along with the infamous vinaccioli, with fermentation completed without, while the Barbera is affinato in barriques, some new.
Carlo looks for full phenolic maturity in all his fruit, not least Grignolino with its plentiful ‘grignole‘ (seeds), facilitated by the calcareo soils, & assisted by low pH (minerally) must. Since 2007, working alongside Carlo is the talented enologo, Dott. Umberto Lucano. They make circa 6k bts/anno of Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese, closed with sughero & DIAM; however in 2023 the Grignolino harvested was destroyed by hail. Carlo also makes a tiny quantity of metodo classico from Grignolino vinificato in bianco, which enjoys 26 mesi on its fine lies prior to release.
Located in the Monferrato comune of Agliano Terme, an ancient paese famous for its magnesium-rich thermal springs & Barbera grapes, seventh generation Samuele CASTINO started working alongside his padre Angelo & zio in 2020, having graduated in agronomia e enologia in Alba/Turin, then gained experience in Bordeaux, Burgundy, & Priorat. The family cantina was founded in 1854, with customers principally in Turin & Asti, & until recently was buying in fruit & wine, vinified in a series of old 50HL cement tanks, to supplement their 6ha in order to supply a local market.
The family cantina lies on a ridge between frazioni Bansella-Banchetti, Dani-Scorrone, & Vignole south-east of the village, on gently sloping calc-clay, gypsum, & sandy/limo soils. The 6ha is divided up between Barbera (3.5ha), Grignolino, Nebbiolo, & Cortese. Agliano Terme is the most western comune of Nizza DOCG, & one of 18 that form part of the territory; indeed the family make a Nizza DOCG from a small south-facing plot planted in 1992. They have some ancient (& younger) Grignolino vines, & in 2016 they planted their first Monferrato Nebbiolo vines. They also have a Barbera vineyard in the sand-rich comune of Mombercelli.
On joining his family, Samuele stopped the practice of using herbicides, & renovated the existing tino & botti grandi. He uses selective yeast, has introduced new tonneaux, & he prefers to vinify his Grignolino d’Asti without malolactic fermentation so as to retain as much freshness as possible.
The family recently invested in a GAI bottling machine, & they are trialling DIAM & Stelvin screw-cap closures, along with cork.
Soaring above la città of Dogliani at 480-520m asl lies the comune of Pianezzo, with its pretty chiesa di San Martino. This is also where the Valletti family are to be found. On predominantly marnoso-calcareo soils they tend 6ha of Dolcetto, Nebbiolo, Barbera, Timorasso, & more recently Liseiret (Gouais Blanc!) vines. They also buy some Freisa from a nearby biologico vyd, with a view to planting it in future…
Now onto their 5th generation: youngest son Roberto (nato ’85) officially joined his father Giacinto & brother Mauro in 2011, having completed Viticultural & Enological studies in Alba & Torino. In più, Roberto brought with him invaluable experience gathered whilst working in Burgundy (Dme. Armand Rousseau), Australia (Torbrek), & California (Lambert Bridge). They had begun commercializing their wines in 1988, in 2017 they stopped using herbicides (& witnessed a leap in fruit expression & joy!), & then in 2018 they changed the bottle from Bordelais to Albeisa.
Roberto makes two cuvees of Dogliani DOCG: one ‘Pianezzo’ blends the fruit from three versanti (West, Est, Sud-Est) in stainless steel, while the oldest, 60 yo vines of Dolcetto located on the steep ‘San Martino’ east-facing slope go into making their top, griotte-like Dogliani Superiore ‘Vescu’, which may or may not see a passage in wood (tonneaux/botte grande). The wines are very lightly clarified & filtered.
They also make a stand-out Langhe Bianco from Timorasso planted on their limestone-rich soils, & in 2023 produced their first demi-jon of Liseiret (Gouais Blanc) with its rapier-like acidity!