Santa Maria Colleoni

What do you do when you discover an ancient vineyard of Sangiovese Grosso in your own backyard? 

This is just what happened to Marino Colleoni and his wife Luisa during an evening walk in 1995 on their recently acquired property in Montalcino.

After clearing the undergrowth a detailed vineyard was discovered beneath. Though some of the vines were dried out and damaged many remained intact and so the Colleoni’s had the vineyard certified by the local inspector to grow grapes for Brunello. Their first harvest was realized in 2000.

The Colleoni’s embraced organic viticulture, constantly pursuing natural methods such as natural predators as remedies for any pests and disease. They seek “… to create a natural balance where the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cope with each other”. 

The grapes are hand harvested and strictly sorted in the vineyards; only indigenous yeasts are used with no temperature control during fermentation. They use no fining or filtration.
The vineyards are some of the highest in Montalcino at 470-500 metres above sea level, are largely north facing and surrounded almost entirely by forest. There are remnants of the sea left in the form of shells within the volcanic marl soil.

We did not want to import anything from Tuscany because we felt most of the wines had become too modern and fiddled with.  That was until we met Marino.  Singing with life, this is hand made Sangiovese at its best.