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Montesecondo
Visits
This visit at Montesecondo took place in May,
2013.
Words by Jules Dressner, photos by Maya Pedersen.
A lot of new, exciting stuff happening at Montesecondo! But before we get into that, here are a
bunch of pictures from the vines you can read all about in the 2011 re-cap. Now you get to know
what they look like in fall AND spring!
Silvio's albarello training is going well.
All the albarello re-plantings are in massale. As an experiment, he's also planted two rows in franc
de pied, as well as re-grafting a lot of Merlot with Sangiovese.
On top of that, Silvio also plans to plant an additional 1.5 hectares of vines on the Montesecondo
property.
There's some new additions to the Messana family: Fluffy and and Scruffy!
Silvio lets them run free and do whatever they want most of the time.
The big, exciting news is that Silvio just started renting 6h of Sangiovese vines on very different, non
Montesecondo terroirs! At 18km away from the farm, it's about a 30 minute drive. The land is owned
by two sisters, and because of the distance, Silvio has hired a full time employee to manage the site.
Silvio is currently working the equivalent of 8h on Montesecondo, so 6 extra hectares is quite a
boost in work/production. He didn't originally plan taking on so much land, but decided that the
opportunity was too good to pass up after visiting the vines.
The vines here are between 17 and 30 years old, growing at 450m elevation, which is very high for
this part of Tuscany. They are being converted to organics this year, and biodynamic the year after
next.
Silvio's son Taddeo and Lucy the dog joined us on the visit.
For now, he plans to make more IGT Rosso with these grapes, but is open to the idea of bottling a
new cuvée once he's familiarized himself with the terroir.
Lucy was very satisfied with our walk.
Once we'de visited the vineyards, Silvio brought us to one of the owner sisters' nearby property.
She was very nice and offered us water and juice. She also loves cats, and has about 20 of them.
You know what else she has? Turtles!
Next visit: Francesca and Margarita Padovani of Campi di Fonterenza! Twin sister party time!
This visit at Montesecondo took place in
November, 2011.
Words by Jules Dressner, photos by Alex Finberg.
Mere minutes after arriving to Montesecondo, Alex found a dead toad that looks exactly like the
estate's logo. We then stepped up to Silvio Messana's cantina.
I swear he was more excited to see us than he looks in the picture. Silvio had a very challenging
2011 harvest but after some initial worries the wine is turning out to be just fine. We tasted a tank
sample of the 2011 young vine Sangiovese which spent a lot of time on the lees that had very good
acidity and lively fruit. The old vine Sangiovese was darker in color and more concentrated in fruit
and minerality.
We then tasted some old vine Sangiovese that had been fermented in amphora. Silvio got his
inspiration from tasting Foradori amphora wines, and he uses the same ones as Elisabetta. The juicy
quality of the fruit and lighter body of the wine reminded me of Beaujolais.
Before heading to the cellar, Silvio offered to let us taste a vat of 100% Colorino yet to be blended
into this year's Chianti Classico. Colorino is an indigenous varietal traditionally blended with
Sangiovese and Canaiolo to make Chianti; it used to be way more prominent but the D.O.C's
aspirations to emulate Bordeaux in the last 30 years have seen it all but disappear, and instead it has
been replaced with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
We then made a quick trip to the cellar where Silvio blended a sample from three barrels of what
will be the Chianti Classico 2010. Put your orders in early: It's fresh, lively, delicious, and will be
bottled in January.
Here's Kevin's "Wine Spectator Editorial" pic.
It was then time to take a tour of the vines.
All of Silvio's vines surround his house, and are composed of three separate and distinct soil types:
the vineyards closest to the village are sandy soils, the lower blocks are clay and and the top of the
hill is composed of heavy clay and Galestro (heavy alluvial rocks similar to the galets ronds in
Chateauneuf).
First we checked out some clusters of Trebbiano and Malvasia still hanging out and waiting to be
harvested to make Passito.
After a tour of the Sangiovese, Canaiolo and Colorino vines, Silvio filled us in on an innovative
experiment of his which seemingly will shape the look and style of the vineyard in the future.
Guyot is the typical vine-tending system in Chianti, but Silvio feels that he's had a great deal of
frustration dealing with an excess in leaves, which he feels smothers the vines. In such - and
continuing the pattern of our vignaiolis questioning and changing their vine-tending to better suit
their work- Silvio has begun planting and re-grafting many vines in the Albarello (goblet) style.
He feels that this way the grapes can hang loose, not be bunched up and benefit from more air.
Furthermore, he is planting them on attached poles with each vine quite separated from the next in
order to avoid having to use wires in the future but also to give each vine enough space and soil for
it excel.
As far as he knows, he is the only person doing this in Chianti.