Sergio Manetti, the late founder of MONTEVERTINE, located just outside of Radda in the heart of Chianti Classico, was Tuscany’s signature grape. Manetti strongly felt that this noble grape should stand on its own. He took issue with “super-tuscan” wines that propped up the elegant, graceful sangiovese with copious amounts of cabernet and merlot. Manetti pursued a lonely course in his beliefs and left the Chianti Classico consortium in the early 1980’s. His son Martino proudly carries on the family traditions.

2003 MONTEVERTINE di MONTEVERTINE $45 A wine of great concentration and powerful structure from a traditional Chianti blend of 90% sangiovese, 10% canaiolo and colorino. The Montevertine 2003 has formidable tannins and firm structure. At the same time, it offers an ethereal bouquet of crushed red cherries and the wild scent of “sotto bosco”, the forest undergrowth with its hints of mushroom, truffle and dried pine needles. There is the strength and subtlety, the yin and the yang, of great wine to be found here, the result of the profound traditions of this fine estate that has fought to preserve Sangiovese as the supreme grape of Tuscany.