Producer
The Poggiotondo estate is situated in the hills to the northwest of Empoli in western Tuscany. These hills are south and southwest facing, and are planted primarily with Sangiovese. Alberto Antonini’s estate has been certified organic since the 2014 vintage. His aim is to make wines with a strong sense of place, which exemplify the very best from Chianti.
Vineyards
The vineyards are situated on beautiful hills, some of them ‘conche’ or shell-shaped, which are south and southwest facing. They are planted primarily with Sangiovese, though Alberto is increasing the amount of Merlot in his vineyards as some of the soils have a high percentage of clay. In general, soils are chalky, with a good percentage of white shells, producing wines which are elegant and complex. The grapes for this wine come from six individual parcels from the best vineyard sites. In 2011, Alberto started the conversion to biodynamic production and Poggiotondo was certified organic from the 2014 vintage.
Vinification
The organically grown fruit was hand harvested, crushed and transferred to concrete tanks where it underwent a spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts. A proportion of the wine was then racked to large French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation, and remained in barrel for eight months.