Montalcino Report

Solar Power Lowering the Carbon Footprint of Montalcino Winemaking

The owners of the Tenuta Il Poggione estate, the Franceschi family, are always concerned about the environment. And so they have decided to install on the roof of our cellar a solar panel system that will satisfy the electrical consumption of the cellar and the surplus energy produced will be "sold" to the Italian power company ENEL.

Solar energy is a clean and inexhaustible resource and solar energy technology offers the advantage of directly transforming the light of the sun into electric energy without producing harmful emissions.

In this way, we do not use combustible fossil fuel and we also lower the emissions of poluting gasses into the atmosphere.

We can say that starting today, thanks to this technology, the carbon footprint of the wines produced by the Tenuta Il Poggione will be even smaller.

Harvest Report 2011: The Grapes Have Held Up Well to the Heat of an Endless Summer

We are now harvesting the Sangiovese grapes in the central zone of our estate next to our farmhouse/agriturismo (called the "Capannacce") in the "vigneto delle olivastre" (the "vineyard of the wild olive trees"). These grapes will be used to produce our Brunello di Montalcino. The grapes are at the correct point of ripeness and also have ripe seeds.

The vines have held up well to the heat of a summer that does not wish to end, as can be seen in the new vegetation.

During the hottest hours of the day, we continue to have temperatures up to 28° C. (82° F.), while during the night the temperatures descend to as low as 16° (61°). The bunches still have turgid berries.

In the cellar, the must from the Sangiovese harvesting the day before yesterday is fermenting and we have already obtained good color.

Harvest Report 2011: No Rain in Montalcino and the Harvest Continues

Yesterday, 5 September, we have continued the harvest, picking the Sangiovese with which we will make the IGT Toscana.

The seasonal progression is stable. The rain that fell in the North Italy did not arrive in Montalcino and it stopped on Mt. Amiata where it rained yesterday. A rainfall in the vineyards would have surely been useful, but one cannot command the climatic progression and we must take that which comes.

The temperatures of yesterday have been maximum 29.2° C. (84.6° F.) and minimum 19.3° C. (66.7° F.).

As is illustrated in the photos, the solids have been removed from the Vermentino and Sangiovese Rosè (the impurities, the mucilage, pieces of the skins, and other components are removed) and now they are slowly fermenting at low temperature at 12° C. (54° F.).

As is illustrated in the video, we have also begun the racking off of the Merlot, which was the first to be harvested.

Our worker Fabio Guerrieri receiving the medal for his 20 years service at Il Poggione

During the Benfinita our worker Fabio Guerrieri has received the medal his 20th year of work with us at Il Poggione. Here he is proudly showing it in front of the winery.

Vintage 2010 Vin Santo: picking the grapes for the Vin Santo

Last week we have also begun to harvest the grapes to make the Vin Santo. Bunches of Trebbiano and Malvasia, picked and placed in small crates.

The grapes are then laid out to dry "appassire" on the "cannicci" the straw mats.

Later, after the "appassimento", the drying, the grapes will be pressed and the must will be transferred to the "carati", special oak casks used for the Vin Santo.

Vintage 2010 Brunello: Sangiovese samples for the rosé

We have finished the first sampling of grapes to be used to produce our Brut Rosé and Sbrancato, "the Bronco", the still rosé of the winery, so-called because it "stands apart from the herd".

 

"This is my land" new book by Franco Biondi Santi

 

The great Franco Biondi Santi is the father of our Brunello di Montalcino. He is one of the great pioneers of our appellation and his wines are a model and a benchmark for the rest of those who produce this great wine.

On the Friday of the last week, was presented the new book about Mr. Biondi Santi, "Questa è la mia terra. Franco Biondi Santi, Montalcino, and il Brunello", "This is my land. Franco Biondi Santi, Montalcino, and the Brunello".

The book is composed itself of six chapters: the Tree of the Biondi Santi, the Greppo and the Production of the Brunello, A Special Wood for the Brunello, The Ancient Reserves and the Rite of the Topping Up, The True Moscatello di Montalcino, From the Normandy to the Rebirth of Sant'Antimo.

This important book is a landmark will be in the stores in the next few weeks.

I have made a search in Google and have found this video about the topping up of the ancient riserve. 

"What makes Il Poggione so special" by Mr. Tom Hyland

The photograph of my father Fabrizio Bindocci was taken by wine writer American Tom Hyland.

My father and I were very contented to see Il Poggione in the "Top 100 Italian Wines" selected by venerated wine writer Tom Hyland. Thanks to you Mr. Hyland! And "complimenti" for your fine blog http://learnitalianwines.wordpress.com

Herewith is what Mr. Hyland wrote:

"What makes Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino so special can be summarized by two factors: superb vineyards and outstanding winemaking. Fabrizio Bindocci, a thoughtful, gracious man, makes Brunello today as he always has – in the traditional method. He ages his Brunello di Montalcino in grandi botti, the large casks that ensure the natural flavors of the Sangiovese grapes are preserved along with the characteristics of the Sant'Angelo terroir. A regular bottling of Brunello di Montalcino is produced each year and in the finest vintages, a Riserva bottling is also made (this wine receives at least one extra year of aging in wood)".

Please click here to read the entire post.

Belfrage on Il Poggione: "archetypal... the real thing at a reasonable price from genuine, modest people who know their business".

Thank you Mister Belfrage for your good words about Il Poggione and compliments for your excellent new book "The Finest Wines of Tuscany and Central Italy". We are very proud to be part of your work and we are glad that you have understood our philosophy and history of winemaking at Il Poggione and in Sant'Angelo in Colle.

Herewith a link to buy the book of Mister Belfrage.

"You can buy a bottle of Il Poggione Brunello safe in the knowledge that you are getting the real thing at a reasonable price from genuine, modest people who know their business".

Herewith that which has been written about Il Poggione by Mister Belfrage in his excellent book:

Il Poggione is your archetypal Brunello. When others all around seem to be overoaking or underachieving, overpricing or underproducing, illicitly irrigating here and spraying too much there, artificially concentrating her or adding Merlot there, you can buy a bottle of Il Poggione Brunello safe in the knowledge that you are getting the real thing at a reasonable price from genuine, modest people who know their business. To call it archetypal, mind you, is not to suggest it is middle-of-the-road. Rather, it is the sort of wine you put in a blind tasting when you really want your audience to recognize what it is. It is the benchmark: You maybe be able to find better, but you will not find anything more authentic.

One of the five largest estates in this boomtown wine zone, which has grown from a handful of producers to several hundred in less than a handful of decades, Il Poggione is one of the few that can claim a history. The property has been in the ownership of the Franceschi family for five generations—it used to be much larger but was split between two Franceschi brothers in 1958, the other part no called Col d'Orcia. But 1958 was crucial for Il Poggione for another reason, it being the year they were joined by the late great Pierluigi Talenti, who set the high standards for which they are renowned and ruled supreme unti his death in 1999. Seamlessly, his place was taken by his assistant Fabrizio Bindocci, who had been responsible since 1976, under Talenti, for the estate's extensive vineyards and who now took over as enolgist as well, secure in his mater's teaching that the way to make great wine was to minimize intervention in the cellar.

Obviously, therefore, fruit quality is paramount and to that end Il Poggione adopted certain measures that others might not agree with but that work for them One was to adopt the traditional double-arc method of training, which they claim gives the grape greater exposure to the sun for an enhanced maturation. And while others may push their vine density per hectare upward toward the 10,000 mark, Il Poggione keeps it down to 5,000—the most, they say, one can get away with in a drought-prone zone like southern Montalcino, where not even emergency irrigation is allowed.

As for clones, while in the past they practiced massal selection, since 1990 they have been planting the best clones to emerge from the various experiments on Montalcino. Two of these—R5 and R6—are of in-house origin, being clones developed by Talenti and Bindocci from their own material and currently offered without exclusiveity by the Rauscedo (R = Rauscedo) nursery in northern Italy.

Back in the cellar, there have been a few changes since Talenti's day, but nothing dramatic. The Brunello is still aged for three years in large botti, and the Brunello Riserva for four years, but the oak today is of French origin rather than Slavonian. And from 1997 they have adopted a method for dealing with the wine's solids in fermentation that seems more retro than avant-garde: submerged cap. Indeed, they may be alone in Montalcino in still using this traditional system.

Harvest of Trebbiano and Malvasia for Vin Santo

Here are notes of my father about the harvest of Trebbiano and Malvasia for Vin Santo. Tomorrow I will post more photos and a YouTube video but now we are all very tired from harvesting!

Today, we have harvested the Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes to make the Vin Santo. We have waited the most possible, because of the dry progression of the season, so that the grapes would ripen even more on the vine. Our workers have harvested the healthy and most ripe grape bunches. They were placed in crates and transported by truck to the vinsantaia. The grapes were placed on reed mats where they will remain to dry at least until the beginning of December.

Fabrizio Bindocci