2011 Mongrana

Querciabella is an estate in serious motion. Over the last few years, proprietor Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni has stepped up Querciabella's game, big time. The once super-international Chianti Classico Querciabella has completed its journey to a 100% Sangiovese with the 2010 vintage. Recently purchased vineyards in Radda and Gaiole, outside the estate's home base of Greve, have begun to yield the first wines in Querciabella's project to capture and express the qualities of Chianti Classico's villages through a series of highly distinctive Sangioveses. A vocal animal-rights activist and man of great culture, Castiglioni has spared no expense and overlooked no detail in his quest to make the best wines possible. For that, he and his team more than deserve the huge acclaim that is sure to start coming their way very soon. South African winemaker Manfred Ing's resume includes stints at Vineyard 29 in Napa Valley and Vietti in Piedmont. Ing describes 2010 as a vintage with pretty much normal berry size, while 2011 had smaller berries and smaller bunches, with higher skin-to-juice ratios. At times, the 2010s lack a little bit of depth, which is not surprising for the year. Because of the delicate nature of the fruit, Ing opted for gentle extractions, shorter fermentations and less time on the skins. Given the altitude at which most of Querciabella's Greve vineyards sit, the warmer conditions of 2011 were actually a positive, as the wines have that extra little bit of mid-palate pliancy that is not present in the 2010s. Over the last few years, Querciabella has also begun incorporating larger barrels and casks to complement the standard 225-liter French oak barrels. Today, the new single-village wines (which previously were used in the Camartina) are also single-vineyard wines, but that may not necessarily be the case going forward as the estate's holdings grow. At press time, Querciabella had not decided how the single-village Sangioveses will be labeled. If the new Gran Selezione regulations come into effect relatively soon (see the introduction to this article), it is likely they will be labeled Gran Selezione, otherwise, the wines will be sold as Chianti Classico.