2022 Podere Le Boncie, IGP Toscana Rosso, Chiesamonti

Winemaker Giovanna Morganti has proven to be an unrivaled source of untamed, delicious, and utterly unique Sangiovese. After Giovanna’s training in enology, she worked during the 1980’s for Chianti powerhouse San Felice, where she helped plant and monitor an experimental plot of over 300 native Tuscan cultivars. Just as she was in the middle of this massive undertaking, her father (a legendary enologist in his own right) offered her one of the noblest gifts on Earth: a 3-hectare plot in Castelnuovo Berardegna - a hallowed address for fine Sangiovese. Given her formative experience with rare varietals, when it came time to plant her own vineyard, she included lesser-known grapes like Foglia Tonda and Mammolo alongside Sangiovese, and planted them at a staggeringly high-density 7000 vines per hectare. She also made the painstaking choice to work en gobelet, an arduous, labor-intensive way of farming for perfectionists obsessed with quality. Giovanna believes these vines yield higher quality, more terroir-transparent fruit - and in making this choice, she sacrifices half of her yields in the name of quality!  All harvests are by hand, and farming follows biodynamic practices. The Chiesamonti is 100% Sangiovese from a 1.3-hectare parcel called “Chiesa Monte,” three kilometers from Le Boncie and just outside the limit of Castelnuovo Berardegna. This used to be blended into the ‘Cinque’ bottling, but since 2018 Giovanna now feels these vines merit bottling separately. Gets better each vintage.