Two titans of Tuscany: Percarlo and La Ricolma

Luca Martini di Cigala, the person behind Percarlo and La Ricolma, is certainly one of Tuscany’s viticultural pioneers. We spoke to the San Giusto a Rentennano winemaker about his position within the area’s renaissance and the way he turned to the winery to disclose his wines’ true potential.

Few wine areas have seen a change as important as Tuscany has during the last 15 years. Nowadays the area usually produces among the most interesting wines discovered wherever on the planet, whereas retaining a definite sense of place.

Tuscany is the one area on this planet to have actually tamed Sangiovese, with nowhere else capable of develop this fussy grape selection and produce wines of the identical stage. On the similar time, Tuscany has managed to supply among the world’s most interesting renditions of the better-travelled worldwide varieties reminiscent of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot; even Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are discovering a foothold on this magical enclave of central Italy.

Few have been as influential on this transformative journey than San Guisto a Rentennano’s Luca Martini di Cigala, who has managed to supply not one however two of the area’s most iconic wines – Percarlo (100% Sangiovese) and La Ricolma (100% Merlot). In his usually modest method, nonetheless, he doesn’t imagine nice wines are made by nice winemakers – however by understanding the place a vigneron should focus their consideration within the winery. In keeping with Martini di Cigala, winemaking can enhance the standard of a wine by not more than 10%. “Nice wine, nonetheless, is made with nice fruit,” he says.

So what’s it about Tuscany that has resulted within the area’s current renaissance? For Martini di Cigala, it has been understanding how the area’s distinctive soils and local weather, if allowed, can produce wines the place the character of the terroir prevales, fairly than the varietal. “When it’s the reverse and the varietal character is extra evident than the character of the place, of the realm, of the soil,” says Cigale, “to me it doesn’t make a lot sense.” It’s the winery that should do the speaking, not the grape selection, nor the winemaking.

Whereas the Tuscan wine renaissance started within the late Seventies and early ’80s, the meteoric rise of the area was removed from linear. Among the many new wave of pioneers, there was naivety too and, understandably, exterior influences began to influence how wine was being made. Again then, San Giusto A Rentennano didn’t have their very own private model, and have been promoting wine to the massive wineries like Antinori and Ruffino.

Following within the footsteps of the likes of Fontodi, Isole e Elena and Montevertini they determined to give attention to enhancing the standard of their Sangiovese – which started, essentially, by decreasing the yields within the winery. “Earlier than that, we used to supply a great Chianti,” says Martini di Cigala, “a easy wine.” However, with these adjustments, “The stye fully modified and we started to give attention to making wines for lengthy ageing.” Because the motion progressed, nonetheless, he started to sense a interval of self-doubt looming.

“In comparison with at the moment, the place there’s a massive enchancment within the tradition of tasting wines and recognising the character of the totally different varieties,” he says, “individuals have been used to consuming rounder, softer wines. And Sangiovese [made at lower yields] may be so aggressive, so onerous with the tannins – particularly when younger. It was an issue.”

On the time, lots of the vignerons felt that with a view to improve the wine’s ageing potential, the wines wanted to be darker and extra concentrated, whereas additionally exposing the wine to loads of new oak and extra oxygen – choosing smaller 225-litre barrels (barriques) fairly than the area’s conventional bigger casks. You can see the business attraction too, since this method softened Sangiovese’s tannins.

For Martini di Cigala, even his Merlot plantings weren’t performing effectively – regardless of being a spread higher suited to the present developments, with higher resistance to new oak’s affect. The present recipe was not working for him – or for Tuscany. Early in its renaissance, the area started to stumble.

Martini di Cigala’s success got here when he realised that, regardless of sharing the identical vineyards, his Merlot and Sangiovese had little or no in frequent. To provide something higher than strange, he needed to begin treating the 2 varieties fully in a different way and let the vines do the speaking.

Sangiovese is a frustratingly fickle selection. It has the potential to supply wines as ethereal because the most interesting Pinot Noir and as wealthy and stylish as tremendous Bordeaux. But it has didn’t make any actual imprint outdoors Italy and, even at the moment in Tuscany, it stays maddeningly inconsistent.

“In comparison with different varieties like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah,” he says, “these varieties can produce wine in every single place. With Sangiovese it’s onerous as a result of it wants calcareous soil with a view to produce the precise stability of tannins. In some other sorts of soil, it both will increase acidity an excessive amount of or the other, making the wine very flat. To provide a wine with a exact character with a variety of tannin however on the similar time built-in with the fruit, Sangiovese wants calcareous soil.”

However, he stresses, it isn’t solely the soil however the local weather that’s essential too. “It’s tough to have nice Sangiovese that may be very, very mild, low in alcohol and low in polyphenols [tannins]. The wine should be wealthy,” he says. The area should be scorching. The class and the precision, nonetheless, come from one other distinct attribute of the hillsides of Tuscany: cool night-time temperatures. This, Martini di Cigala believes, is significant for the class of the wines – and one thing that may be misplaced in hotter vintages.

“Sangiovese may be very delicate, if there may be an excessive amount of focus, the extent of tannins threat damaging the wine’s pure class and the stability,” says Cigala. For me it’s a nice wine when the wine doesn’t want to indicate muscle. It isn’t essential to be extraordinarily concentrated or to have a variety of color for an ideal classic. It’s extra in regards to the stability of the various factors.” He notes that among the most celebrated vintages aren’t essentially the longest-lived, highlighting that the cooler 2013 and 2014 vintages will outlive the a lot applauded, hotter 2015s – though he insists 2016 has proved to be spectacular.

Percarlo developed as Martini di Cigala steadily understood Sangiovese’s sensitivities. Up till 2008, Percarlo was aged 100% in barriques. First produced in 1983, the quantity of latest wooden has been lowered through the years. At present he doesn’t use any barriques in any respect for Percarlo, or for any of his different Sangiovese wines (Chianti Classico and Riserva). He believes Sangiovese is just too delicate to oxygen to age in smaller barriques. At present it’s matured 50/50 in massive 5,000-litre and three,000-litre barrels.

Martini di Cigala didn’t begin producing Merlot till 1993, however for the primary 10 years, he managed the vines equally to his Sangiovese – with combined outcomes. “Typically the classic can be very Tuscan in type after which the other in different vintages – the aromas have been extra like Merlot from north Italy with extra pepper on the nostril. I used to be by no means satisfied with the outcomes,” he says. The Merlot in Chianti Classico can be very totally different to the Merlot grown on the Tuscan coast of Bolgheri. The larger diurnal temperature shifts within the Tuscan hills produce Merlot with extra acidity. The wines are, in Martini di Cigala’s phrases, “extra vertical”.

The actual success of each Percarlo and La Ricolma, Martini di Cigala believes, lies within the bespoke variations he began to make within the winery for every selection. Sangiovese actually advantages from an early inexperienced harvest in July – decreasing the pure yield. Merlot, however, proves to be a catastrophe should you do the identical factor and restrict your yields so early within the rising season – inflicting a spike in sugar manufacturing on the expense of tannin improvement.

Martini di Cigala additionally painstakingly picks the Sangiovese destined for his Percarlo bunch by bunch, assessing every vine individually. Selecting Merlot bunch by bunch, in distinction, is unnecessary – “it’s far too irregular”. Whereas Sangiovese yields may be manipulated all through véraison to its profit, Merlot must be left alone. “The important thing for Merlot”, he says, “is to attempt to decelerate its ripening. If the variability doesn’t have a protracted rising cycle, the wine stays quick.”

Through the years Martini di Cigala has moved his Merlot vines to the best elements of his vineyards. He admits his unique La Ricolma Merlot plot is his worst, its west-facing exposition making it too heat. He a lot prefers his plots nearer to the river the place temperatures are decrease. However the important thing viticultural work for each his Merlot and Sangiovese begins earlier – he’s eager to level out that there isn’t a recipe annually, the cultivation must be very exact relying on the vines’ wants. “It’s important to be a great interpreter of the season. Usually you don’t discover the stress within the winery till July, by which era it’s too late. It’s important to observe the developments of the climate earlier – that is essentially the most tough level of our job and has turn into very true in the previous few hotter years.” Every viticultural step has to observe the pattern of the season. That, for him, is the important thing.

Over almost 40 years Martini di Cigala has continued to make tweaks within the vineyards, additional enhancing the wines. Up till 2004 he used to pick the Percarlo grapes solely from sure elements of the winery, however now the fruit is picked bunch by bunch – one other elementary cause, he believes, the wines’ high quality has escalated.

Martini di Cigala has confirmed that wines produced from Sangiovese and Merlot may be each daring and delightful, aligning the Tuscan hills’ distinctive local weather with precision viticulture. The new summers and funky night-time temperatures matched with the calcareous soils are the proper mixture for Sangiovese and are testomony to Merlot’s adaptability. After a interval of self-doubt and combined outcomes for the area, the Tuscan renaissance at the moment has effectively and actually discovered its foothold and is on a unprecedented run. And it’s Percarlo and La Ricolma main the pack.

“When you requested me to call 15 nice wineries in Chianti Classico 20 years in the past, I might be in hassle,” says Martini di Cigala. “At present I may arrive at 50 or 60.” What has modified most at the moment, in response to the winemaker, is a paradigm shift in focus from vineyard to winery. Whereas he’s somewhat dissatisfied extra of them haven’t turned to natural farming (of which he’s a longstanding proponent), he believes the change has been very constructive. A noble title, a fort, or a well-known winemaker at the moment now not makes the headlines in Tuscany. It’s precision viticulture that has taken these distinct wines from the Tuscan hills to the highest of many collectors’ want lists.

Hold an eye fixed out for the most recent releases from San Giusto a Rentennano, coming quickly.