Mangiacane - 'Malchiodo', San Casciano Val di Pesa, Tuscany, Italy (20231)

TASTING NOTES

Everything you love about Sangiovese/Chianti, but with a slightly different texture owing to the amphorae aging...at once bright and dusty, but with a slightly more velvety palate and rounded tannins than the norm. 

Spontaneous fermentation in amphorae, zero sulphites added.

San Casciano in Val di Pesa is in the north-west of DOCG Chianti Classico. The area is hilly, with vineyards and olive groves located between 250 and 350 meters above sea level. The soils are mainly clay with limestone and sand, while the soil is rich in the skeleton with the presence of round pebbles of river origin and galestro and alberese stones.

Glynn Cohen purchased Villa Mangiacane about 20 years ago — it was a deteriorated estate originally designed by Michelangelo and was the 15th-century country home of the Machiavelli family. In fact, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote the infamous political piece The Prince here. Due to the significance of the property, original building plans had been saved in Florence's Uffizi Gallery,

During World War II the villa served as a German military command and later as an Allied hospital.