Well, I arranged to visit the winery and had a longish visit with Francesca Padovani, an attractive young woman who speaks remarkably good English. I was more than a little surprised to discover that the sisters do not have any formal training in winemaking. They simply started about 7-8 years ago, initially with a consulting winemaker but dropped him pretty quickly so they could make the wine the way they wanted to. They now make five wines: a rose, a 100% Sangiovese for pretty early consumption, a Rosso di Montalcino, a Cabernet Sauvignon IGT called Lupo di Fonterenza and a Brunello di Montalcino. The first vintage of the Brunello was the 2004 and the others haven't been made for many more years since they only planted the first vineyard (the Brunello vineyard) in 1999. There is more information on the website so I will concentrate on what I thought was interesting.
The sisters are taking what I would call the enlightened approach to organic and biodynamic winemaking, i.e., limited intervention, mostly organic, mostly biodynamic but without some of the craziness of both regimes. A lot of hand work in the vineyards, very careful selection, a willingness to take risks with Mother Nature, i.e., being willing to leave the harvest on the vine to get to maturity and to allow the grapes to dry out if necessary, Very, very low use of sulphur. Long, long maceration so the colors can be a bit less intense than other producers. An emphasis on reacting to each vintage individually. Looking for elegance, balance and perfume as opposed to power and concentration. The result is a fair amount of vintage variation but each year and each wine comes across as exceptional in its own right. Francesca insisted that the very limited use of sulphur meant that her wines did not tend to oxidize after being opened so one can open them and decant them for hours before serving without them going off or losing anything. One of the wines we tasted, the 2005 Lupo, had been open for a couple of days and I did not taste any of the off-flavors that I normally get within 24 hours.
Aging is in largish, oldish tonneaux. Ideally they would like to be using 23 HL Slavonian oak, which are a slightly smaller version of the tonneaux one sees in the most traditional producers (but which fit in their cellar). But they started with a mix of smaller barrels, new and old, so there is an element of evolution in the aging process.
The bottom line is that the relatively "modern" quality of the wines is being obtained not through a judicious use of oak but by a very tight focus on balance and phenolic maturity.
We tasted a number of wines. I was not taking formal notes so these are my impressions.
2009 Rosato - This was the unfiltered version which she said has a bit yeastier nose and somewhat more weight on the palate. Very pretty, pleasant but built around a solid core of fruit. Good acidity, nice length, a certain amount of tannin on the finish. I bought six bottles of this. My suspicion is that this will improve, possibly quite a lot, with some time in bottle. Very Good +, possibly more with time.
2008 Rosso di Montalcino - Quite pale and paler than I remembered the 2007 but Francesca said the two were not materially different in color. Still very young and still in tonneaux. Seems lighter bodied and perhaps more fruit-driven than the 2007 but still very good. Very Good +, possibly more by the time it gets to bottle. Again, Francesca said that the 2007 Rosso somehow went into the bottle as a relatively lightish wine and became bigger as it aged.
2007 Cabernet Sauvignon - Really big, really dark wine with a nose that speaks more of terroir than cepage. Looking at the color, one is immediately struck by the idea that it would be easy, easy, easy to bump up the color in a Brunello by tossing in a bit of Cabernet. Especially since the bouquet on this was not a million miles from what one would expect to find in a mature Brunello. On the palate, a big wine with fully mature but not over-mature flavors, fine and not obtrusive tannins, excellent balance and length. Already extremely drinkable (at least after it had been opened a while). This is a Cabernet for people who don't like Cabernet or maybe a Cabernet for people who like Brunello. Very impressive. Excellent +, bordering on Outstanding
and four vintages of not yet released Brunello and now I wish I had taken notes. The worst of these is going to be an Excellent+ plus. The best may be the 2009 which seems likely to be Outstanding with just an exceptional balance of fruit and structure. The 2006 seemed a perfectly balanced wine on the elegant end of the Brunello spectrum. The 2007 seemed a bit more full-bodied as was the 2008. Normally one goes through a run of vintages and has a very clear pecking order. I did not have that reaction; rather it was a string of "Boy, that's good and it's going to get really great!"
I will go back in the Fall and take a closer look and will post a more careful note at that time.
The last time I was so impressed with a youngish winery was when I visited Romano Dal Forno in 1992.
Regards,
Robert