2020 Rosso di Montepulciano

Cantine Dei is located southeast of Montepulciano, overseeing 60 hectares of vines spread throughout the region. The wines are always beautifully polished and refined, yet rich and full of character, making them widely appealing to consumers and collectors. Just like a number of longstanding producers with a focus on terroir in the region, Cantine Dei has yet to decide to adopt the new Pieve designation. At this time, two of their single-vineyard wines would already fit the new classification rules. The Riserva Bossona vineyard exists within Cerliana and the Madonna della Querce within Valardegna. While Sangiovese is the focus, the winery continues to blend small percentages of allowed varieties with fantastic results. The exception is the Bossona, a varietal Sangiovese. The “entry-level” Vino Nobile continues to be one of the benchmarks in its category and an amazing value as well.

Caterina Dei is a music and art lover, which becomes quite apparent from the moment you enter the winery grounds and vineyards, with sculptures and all manner of acoustical accents, including an amphitheater dedicated to performance. She’s also the proud owner and manager of Cantina Dei. Her father, whose main business was excavating and processing travertine (a type of limestone used to create uniquely visual tiles and stoneworks), built the winery. In fact, the entire aging facility and much of the grounds were built using the material, creating a natural insulation and slow temperature exchange within. However, since 1991, Caterina Dei has been leading the charge. She oversees sixty hectares of vines, all farmed organically, and split between the crus Martiena, Bossona, La Piaggia, La Ciarliana and Cervognano. Low-impact and sustainable practices continue in the winery, including a geothermal cooling and heating system that uses water that rises from the surrounding countryside. From here, Cantina Dei is producing some of the most elegant and pure wines that I’ve come to know from Montepulciano. The “entry-level” Vino Nobile is a perfect example; it's a blend of 90% Prugnolo Gentile (Sangiovese) and 10% Canaiolo Nero that’s refined entirely in fifty-hectoliter Slavonian oak casks. It’s also an amazing value. On the flipside, the Bossona, a single-vineyard wine (something we can expect to see more of from this region), is one of the more important wines being produced in Montepulciano. This is a varietal Sangiovese (Prugnolo Gentile) from an amphitheater-shaped vineyard planted in 1961 in soils of sand, silt, limestone and marine fossils from 350 to 400 meters in elevation. The Bossona refines in tonneaux for up to three years and another year in bottle, yet it requires further cellaring to show its best. Also of note is the Madonna della Querce, another single-vineyard Sangiovese (Prugnolo Gentile) from La Piaggia vineyard that is matured entirely in Slavonian oak cask. I was able to taste the 2017, which showed the dry and warm conditions of the vintage; but that said, it maintained wonderful balance. It’s a wine that I’ll be very happy to revisit one day, as well as follow through vintages to come. In the end, the portfolio of Cantina Dei runs the gamut of Vino Nobile, and does it with class.