We are in the heart of Chianti Classico, on a hill that rises about 450 metres above sea level with a wonderful exposure to the sun, hence the name: SOLATIONE .
The estate covers 14 hectares of land, of which 6 are planted with vines. The soil has an important structure with 65% of pure Alberese, a considerable skeleton of calcareous rock that particularly enhances the structure and minerality of the wines produced. The mixture of mineral substance gives colour, brilliance and secondary aromas that are characteristic of this structure.
Our vines are trained in the guyot and spurred cordon shape; the main variety grown is Sangiovese and in 2006 we started using also our Merlot grapes, partly to make up the blends of Chianti Classico and Riserva, but mostly for our I.G.T. “ROSSOMBROSO”.
Making high quality wines is our mission, our philosophy, and for this we work hard in the vineyard: between July and August we carry out the “Green Harvest”, that is the manual selection of excess bunches, which are removed to let those that are left on the vine to reach perfect ripening and to improve the quality of the final product.
In October, after the accurate monitoring of the ripening values, the Harvest starts, carried out exclusively by hand. We carefully select only the best bunches, with particular attention for those that will be used for our Riserva and that are collected inside small boxes from a specific section of our vineyard called La Croce.
Once in the cellar, the grapes go through the de-stemming machine that separates and discards the stems from the berries, which are in turn gently pressed (without damaging the skin or breaking the seeds). The must is then left to fall by gravity into the glazed cement vats where the alcoholic fermentation will take place, along with a maceration of the skins in contact with the liquid for about 3 weeks.
After the alcoholic fermentation, the next step is to let the malolactic fermentation take its course. This is the real starting point to obtain wines that are balanced, microbiologically stable and especially suitable for ageing. Our Chianti Classico is aged in large Slavonia oak casks for 18/24 months, our Riserva in Barriques for 18 months, and finally our IGT Rossombroso in new Barriques for 16 months.
Until 1991 our wines were not sold in bottles, but starting from 1992 we decided to start bottling and marketing our own “brand” and in time we have been able to gain recognition of our labels also obtaining several awards and high scores by the main guidebooks on the sector.