Cecilia Beretta

The Cecilia Beretta estate was founded in the 1980s, just to the east of the famous wine village of Valpolicella. It was named after the 17th century agronomist and poet Count Giuseppe Beretta, who built the beautiful Villa in Mizzole in the heart of the estate, now surrounded by vineyards. The local Pasqua family had owned the surrounding vineyards since the 1940s, but a renewed drive for quality and a concentration on modern oenological technologies became a priority in the 1980s with competition from the ‘New World’; traditional winemaking countries like Italy were forced to up their game. Thus the quality-focused Cecilia Beretta winery was born.

By 1998, this experimental terrain became the research centre within the Agricultural faculty of the local university. The main objective of the winery today is to make wines of the highest quality from the indigenous grapes of the Valpolicella and Soave appellations. As always in pursuit of quality, the Cecilia Beretta vineyards are now under conversion to organic viticulture and will soon be certified. Today it is Carlo’s daughter Cecilia (most appropriately named!) who is global ambassador for the Cecilia Beretta estate and wines.

Domaine Gourt de Mautens

Several generations of Jérôme Bressy’s family had cultivated vines here but sold their grapes to the local co-operative. In 1989, Jérôme’s father Yves made a life-changing step, converting his vineyard holdings to organic farming – a massive investment given that he would continue selling to the co-op, with no premium. His extraordinary prescience delivered a healthy, balanced vineyard to Jérôme, the first member of this family of viticulturists to study winemaking. For his first vintage, the “winery” was an old aircraft hangar on the estate. By 1998 a purpose-built chai was in situ and the scene had been set to produce wines of great purity and precision, now certified organic and biodynamic. Jérôme is very particular about his wines’ style and, with changes to the appellation laws, his vision was at odds with the prescribed varietals allowed. Faced with turning his back on his own style or accepting he could not have Rasteau emblazoned on his labels, he elected the latter course. The wines come from within Rasteau but are declassified in order to accommodate his preferred blends.

Domaine Marquis D’Angerville

With eight premier cru vineyards – an impressive and enviable portfolio, the domaine is today overseen by Guillaume D’Angerville, following the death of his father Jacques in 2003. Guillaume heads a team which includes his brother-in-law, Renaud de Villette, who had worked alongside Jacques for a number of years, and François Duvivier, in the vineyard and cellar. Renaud, François and Guillaume are acutely aware of their responsibility to these great terroirs. After years of research and experimentation, the Domaine is now fully biodynamic. In the most simplistic terms, biodynamic viticulture embraces cosmic rhythms, philosophy and metaphysics as much as agricultural disciplines. It encourages a complex variety of species which make for living, breathing soils and healthier, disease-resistant vines. With responsibility for some of the best of Volnay, meticulous care is fundamental to the Domaine’s philosophy and this is reflected in the finished wines. This is a complex estate with the highest rated vineyard being Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs, monopole essentially the garden of main house. These are long-lived wines, at the very top of the quality ladder.

Domaine Leflaive

The Domaine dates back to 1717, with founder Joseph Leflaive but recent history owes a tremendous debt to his grand-daughter Anne-Claude Leflaive, who was manager from 1994 until her untimely death in 2015. Brice is Anne-Claude’s nephew and great grandson of Joseph. Domaine Leflaive is a standard bearer for Anne-Claude’s passionately held views on biodynamic cultivation. This philosophy has, at its heart, the individual treatment of vines by plant-based compounds, according to a strict timetable governed by the lunar cycle, allied to a total ban on systemic chemical treatments and insecticides. Biodynamic experiments at Domaine Leflaive started in the early nineties with the disciplines being fully endorsed from 1997.

The prime motivation initially was Anne-Claude’s concern about the sustainability of the land but the rewards have extended far beyond the vineyards, which have thrived under the regime. There were remarkable quality improvements in the finished wines – a welcome, unintended and totally unexpected bonus. The Domaine epitomises classic Puligny style, the wines having exemplary purity, focus and integrity. With the Meursault, they are true to their origins.

Agricola Azienda Case Basse di Gianfranco Soldera®

It is difficult to avoid superlatives when writing about this unique wine. The 24 hectares of vineyards and garden have been transformed from abandoned scrubland to a Garden Of Eden, where wildlife, flowers and vines flourish under the fastidious care of Gianfranco Soldera and his wife, Graziella. At around 320m above sea level, the property is high enough to avoid frosts, to enjoy warm, daytime temperatures and cool nights – ideal for even ripening. There are two distinct parcels of vines, planted exclusively with Gianfranco’s revered Sangiovese Grosso, the only grape he believes truly belongs here. Case Basse®, 2 hectares in size, was planted in 1972 and Vigna Intistieti, 4hectares, in 1973. Gianfranco’s and Graziella focus on creating the perfect ecosystem.

An important early alliance was with the winemaker Giulio Gambelli, “il grande maestro del Sangiovese”. Gambelli continued to consult at Case Basse until his death in 2012. The two men discovered common ground, both ideologically and more prosaically on such topics as minimal intervention, no temperature control, no added yeasts, long maceration on skins and long ageing in large Slavonian botti. Case Basse was and is constantly evolving as Gianfranco and now Monica, Gianfranco’s daughter, and family look for ways in which to encourage a bird- and insect-rich environment. The vines themselves are tended with extraordinary attention to detail. Everything is done by hand. Paolo, Monica’s husband, spent many years in the vineyards working with Gianfranco and it is Paolo who is now very much the man in the vines.

L’Aurage

Louis, hugely talented, had learned his trade whilst working for his father François Mitjavile, the iconic trailblazer at Tertre Roteboeuf in St Emilion and Roc de Cambes in the Côtes de Bourg. Louis had forged a remarkable reputation in his own right, consulting widely, before he acquired this fabulous estate in the Côtes de Castillon, an appellation which borders St Emilion and enjoys the same clay/limestone soil as its esteemed neighbour.

Tenuta di Trinoro

We ought to set the scene for Andrea Franchetti’s vision and waywardness. His family have similarly been visionaries across centuries, a noble, Italian family of Jewish origin, related by marriage to the Rothschilds. Andrea’s uncle was the American artist Cy Twombly, Hemmingway was a family friend. In his early years, Andrea cycled and hitchhiked to Afghanistan – a hint of his intent always to take the road less travelled. He had fallen in love with the wines and modus operandi of Bordeaux and there he learned of the importance of terroir.

Somewhat incongruously it was this understanding of Bordeaux which led him to start a vineyard from nothing but scrubby woodland in the Val d’Orcia, Southern Tuscany. There were no access roads and certainly no vines but that all seems to have had little bearing on Andrea’s determination to produce wine on this site, from scratch, from Bordeaux varietals, in the main. Andrea knew instinctively that Trinoro would be a fabulous site both in its geographical positioning and in its soil, which is rich in marine deposits and, under his stewardship, so it has proved.