Montepeloso

Montepeloso

[An elegant, fresh style of Tuscany, untouched by the heat of recent years]

When Fabio Chiarelotto, then pursuing a career as a historian, bought the Montepeloso property in 1998, it was already on its way to international stardom. He could have rested on that reputation, but he understood that the land was only beginning to show what it could do.

The winery lies in the hills around the town of Suvereto, just a few miles inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Petrified clay soils and a warm Mediterranean climate give the wines a remarkable depth of flavour.

Cut off from central Tuscany by the Colline Metallifere, Suvereto has as much in common with Provence as it does with the rest of the region. The vegetation here is macchia — a tangle of evergreen shrubs and herbs, very close cousin to the garrigue of Provence — and it is this that lends the finished Montepeloso wines their unmistakably Mediterranean character.

Fabio began by painstakingly rebuilding the vineyards. International varieties were gradually replaced by indigenous grapes and traditional clones. He concentrated on healthy viticulture, on finding the balance that allows a vine to thrive through Suvereto's warm, dry summers. Vintage by vintage he has experimented with blends and techniques that draw on the innate strength of this place, adjusting deftly so the terroir can speak at full volume.

He is still refining the wines today. As summer heat pushed them towards ever greater concentration, he has steadily phased out Montepulciano — once so promising here — and chased freshness by planting new vineyards higher up the macchia-covered slopes. That constant pursuit of small, subtle gains has produced wines that grow a little more distinctive and a little more refined with every vintage. Montepeloso's wines now count among the most beautiful, profound and expressive in Tuscany.