CASA SOLAFATTORIA · CHIANTI CLASSICO
Where it all begins: twenty hectares of vineyard, Sangiovese and the care of every plot through the year.
Where it all begins
About twenty hectares of vineyard, all within Chianti Classico, with an ancient vocation for quality: excellent exposure, a favourable microclimate and olive trees alternating with the vines as a natural barrier against disease.
We firmly believe that wine is born in the vineyard. That is why we give each vineyard specific care: we favour mechanical work and, on our way to organic certification, treat the vines with natural substances rather than synthetic chemicals.
Casa Sola dedicates fourteen of its twenty hectares of vineyard to Sangiovese, with plantings of different ages, from one to fifty years old. Among the most representative is the Cabina vineyard, planted in 2006 and now dedicated to Gran Selezione.
It is the emblematic grape of Tuscany and the most planted in Italy: in Chianti Classico it must make up at least eighty per cent of the wine. It has medium-sized leaves, compact bunches and oval berries, a notable vigour kept in check with spur-pruned cordon training; it gives its best on hillsides, while on fertile flat land it yields a lot at the expense of quality. It ripens slowly: here it is picked between late September and early October.
Like a sponge it absorbs terroir and climate: at Casa Sola it gives floral notes of iris and violet and a flavour of cherry and wild berries. The challenge in winemaking is the balance between acidity and tannin, and it is played out in the vineyard, with the growing practices and the choice of the harvest date, to soften tannic exuberance without losing energy and freshness.
Alongside Sangiovese we grow eight other varieties, each with a precise role.
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, prized for their powerful fruit and soft tannins: they are the grapes of Montarsiccio, our Supertuscan, and in a small share they enter the Chianti Classico. Canaiolo Nero, the historic companion of Sangiovese in Chianti. Malvasia Nera and Petit Verdot, which complete the palette of reds.
Among the whites, Malvasia Bianca and Trebbiano Toscano are the grapes of Vin Santo, hung to dry for four months; Petit Manseng is the latest arrival.
The vineyard's year begins in winter with pruning: each vine is left the right spurs for the season to come, and this is where yield is decided. Casa Sola's mild winters bring budburst and flowering slightly forward, in spring.
In summer the work is all in green: leaf removal and trimming to give the bunches light and air, the grass between the rows managed mechanically, treatments with natural substances only when needed. At veraison, when the berries change colour, we watch the sky: the less hot summer of this part of Chianti stretches ripening.
Then the harvest, and right after it the rest: the leaves fall and the vineyard prepares for the next turn. Each plot has its own rhythm, and we follow it.
Wine is born first of all in the vineyard, and the harvest is the crucial moment. Every year the vegetative and climatic conditions are different: that is why it is a real challenge for a producer.
It has a double dimension: it is a celebration, a time of conviviality, but it is also the phase of critical decisions. The meeting of nature and human ingenuity to make the best wine possible: the grapes must be picked at the optimal moment, by hand, plot by plot, and brought to the cellar quickly and smoothly, with logistics planned in advance.
At Casa Sola we pick between the end of September and the first two weeks of October, waiting for the Tyrrhenian breezes and the full ripeness of the pips.
Casale, Cortine, Montarsiccio, Bosco, Nuova: on the interactive estate map you find the soil, exposure and crop of every plot.
Open the estate map
