Our wines of Tuscany

A brief history of (our) wine

The history of our wines (and our extra virgin olive oil) can be told both in the short or the long way, depending on how far back you want to go in the secular relationship between our family and wine.
For a more detailed historical overview, please refer to the page “history of Fattoria Palazzo di Piero“. For a brief reference to history and current production of our extra-virgin olive oil instead, refer to the page “Extra-Virgin Olive Oil of Toscany“.

Here, instead, we only consider the new course that has its beginning around 2003, with the decision to start again to invest in the wine sector.
Until that date, in fact, the grape cultivation in our farms had become an absolutely marginal, with only a little wine production for family consumption, done in an empirical way and on a single, old vineyard.

In 2003, in fact, it was decided to plant a new vineyard (bundling the “rights of implantation” of the ancient farm’s vineyards and buying new ones) primarily of Sangiovese, with smaller portions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Canaiolo, reaching an area of less than 2 hectares.
After three years, in 2006, before the first harvest of the new vineyard (called “vigna di sopra”), the existing vineyard (now known as “di sotto”) was uprooted and replanted primarily with Sangiovese.
Today we have the “vigna di sopra” in full production and the other that is slowly growing. Our (my) program, based on an unbridled confidence in the terroir of this area, is to proceed to expand our wine-cultivated surface in the next years. There is no shortage of suitable land, in Palazzo di Piero.

Back to the wine, right in 2006, the management of wine is taken in charge by the undersigned, Gregory Galli, nephew and son of the owners, Giuliana and Anna Maria Galeotti Ottieri of Ciaja.
With the valuable collaboration of our worker Ionel Farcas, now experienced winemaker and vintner, and taking advantage of advice from different scattered sources, in the first year we made wine, trying to recover the old tradition of Palazzo di Piero, that, among all the farms of our family, was once considered the best one with vin santo and one of the best for red wine. At the mean time we were starting the real research of both an identity characterized by modern technique and a personality strictly linked to this terroir.

At that time I started from the bottom of the darkest pit of (enological) ignorance, then I began an intense “amateur” study in the manuals, to attend classes offered by various institutions and the road to become a professional sommelier, also.

Today I can not say that I replenished that canyon of horrible (enological) ignorance, but I think that I am at the beginning of the process of awareness, having acquired a certain expertise (thanks also to the classes of chemistry when I was studying physics).
The world of wine theory caught me perhaps more than the study of wine as a sommelier and I hope, sooner or later, you can get to at least call me “amateur wine maker.”
In all this, Ionel followed me becoming more experienced and expert, particularly on viticulture.

Speaking of wine, at last

I apologize for this small “personal history”, but it seemed the only way to effectively illustrate the state of art of our wines. In short, the vintages since the 2006 were as follows (from most recent to the oldest):

Vintage 2010

Please, for now refer to the post: 2010: great little vintage

Vintage 2009

A year of big production of grapes that we are still considering, regarding to the red. But it was the year I decided to try the creation of a rosé of Sangiovese: the Mustiola 2009 IGT.
This product is new to us, but we are confident that we will give full satisfaction.

Vintage 2008

A strong incidence of “mal bianco” has discouraged to use most of the grapes to make wine. We were able only to realize a small production of Bachiarro 2008.

Vintage 2007

Second harvest of the “vigna di sopra”, year of highly concentrated juice (vino “buccione”). This wine was removed from the wood in the september 2010, and is now awaiting bottling. The 2007 wines will be:

Purneia 2007 IGT Sangiovese 90%, 10% Canaiolo. Pending the passage (at least 6 months) in the bottle.
Bachiarro 2007 IGT Sangiovese 80%, Canaiolo 10%, 10% Cabernet. As above.

For 2007 it was decided not to leave Sangiovese in purezza.

Vintage 2006

As said it was the first harvest (third leaf) of the “di sopra” vineyard, whe the screws were still evolving. Sangiovese this year had in fact not reached full ripeness and phenolic tannins, so we decided to divide the production into three wines:

Purneia 2006 IGT: Sangiovese 90%, 10% Canaiolo. This wine, bottled in 2009 and until then consumed in bulk, has become a favorite among customers of our holiday cottages. He, in essence, the characteristics of the wine you are looking for. Pleasant and very drinkable and perfect with the meat, is what is certainly better than all the traditional flavors of our terroir.
Bachiarro 2006 IGT: Sangiovese 80%, Canaiolo 10%, 10% Cabernet. One comment: we finished it, he went like hot cakes. Sold out.
Galeotto 2006 IGT: Sangiovese. Sold out.

The choice of I.G.T., why?

As you can see all of our wines are IGT, while we could access to the DOCG Chianti.
We leave ourselves the possibility to change our minds in the future, but for now we believe that, as the essence of “Chianti” has moved away from what had once wanted to represent, the nature of our wines requires a choice of distinction from that cauldron that is the most famous Italian wine name in the world.
The very idea of supetuscans also is not a temptation for us: what we want is a wine with an identity, closely tied to the land of our vineyards, as well as our need for elegant and very drinkable wines, not only shaped on the evaluation criteria of fashion, away from the sense of the land that we like.
We do not want to demonstrate anything special: just want to find our way, a small path but entirely “personal”.

Here are the labels of the wines currently on the market