The Montecchiesi wine estate has belonged to the family since 1980, when brothers Giuseppe and Dario, sons of the founder, Augusto, attracted by Tuscany’s great winemaking traditions and great red wines, decided to produce such ambitious wines as well.
The soil is largely composed of clay sands, sandstone marl, and schists that, together with riverine-lake deposits, clays, and acquifer sediments, are the most important testimony to the hydro-geologic past of the Cortona area. With generally little calcareous content, they constitute an ideal balance between clay, silt, and sands of various sizes.
The area’s geologic structure, with fairly well-developed hills, ensures constant ventilation even in the hottest and driest seasons. These mild conditions, even in the winter, are the benefit of the nearby Lake Trasimeno, which exercises a tempering effect on the areas around it.
Sangiovese, syrah, chardonnay, vermentino, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon.
The southwest-facing aspect of the vineyards and nearby Lake Trasimeno both temper the effects of the weather. Pronounced day-night temperature differentials in spring and autumn are crucial for building up and ripening the grapes.
We utilise various vine-training systems: Guyot, spurred cordon, and the ancient bush-trained alberello. In the winter, we apply to the vineyards organic fertilisers and compost, and green manure in the spring. The oldest vineyards on the estate were planted at around 4,500 vines per hectare, and the most recent from 5,000 to 9,000-10,500. The objective of this high density is to achieve high concentrations in the grapes and self-balance on the part of the vine.
Located in the heart of the estate, this winemaking and ageing facility is the fruit of newly-introduced approaches and of cutting-edge technology, and it embodies low environmental-impact methodologies.
When the Dal Cero family turns its mind to the future, we imagine something that will have its roots deep in the past, because that is something that our grandfather taught our father, and that our father taught to us and that we will teach to our children. We are the earth we work and we are the wine we make.
On the Tenuta di Montecchiesi, at Cortona in Tuscany, a growing area recognised for its high quality, we have embarked on a project of training our vines to the alberello, or low-bush style, a traditional method that makes it possible for the canopy of the vine to enjoy a 360o exposure to sunlight. The vine’s natural, spontaneous growth is rendered even more “free” by working the soil exclusively by hand and by using no chemical additives.
This is a new way of turning back and observing the methods of the past, of supporting them with the expertise of the present, with the qualities we have achieved today.
And we have taken on an additional responsibility: we have decided to guarantee the integrity of our project solely with our own word of honour.
