WINE MAKING VALUES

OUR WINE MAKERS

We are blessed with having the advice, assistance and wine making flare of consultant oenologist, Atillio Pagli. Atillio has the honour of being featured in Decanter Magazine’s list of the world’s top wine makers as judged by their peers.

To quote Atillio, “the most important thing is the vineyard: that is what provides vision and continuity. And that is why understanding and respecting the terroir is the most crucial attribute for anyone who wants to make great wine. Wine must be a testimonial for its origins and its links with its terroir, which is the sum of the climate, the soil, the people and the culture of a given area”.

“Grapes have unique personalities and each one has to be interpreted in a different way. My task is to ruin as little as possible the raw materials that nature gives me, putting into the bottle as high a proportion as possible of the fruit’s potential”.

Atillio’s vision is in perfect harmony with the values of the team at Tenuta Cappellina, who are committed to creating vineyards in perfect balance. An even distribution of fruit across each vine and across each vineyard does not happen by accident.

We plant wheat between rows where we see too much vigour to reduce the energy of the plants, and conversely, we plant legumes such as fava beans between rows that can be ploughed back into the soil to add nitrogen as a natural fertiliser.

CERTIFIED ORGANIC

We are proud to display the European Certification for organic wine on our labels in recognition of our commitment to growing grapes without the use of artificial chemicals, synthetic chemicals, herbicides or pesticides. We only use low levels of certified organic copper and sulphur where intervention is necessary, and these sit on the surface of plants (and wash away in the rain) to protect the fruit from egg laying insects and mould, in contrast to chemical pesticides that are absorbed by the plant – and end up in your wine!

IN PRAISE OF SANGIOVESE

We are huge fans of the Sangiovese grape variety that is central to the great wines of the Chianti Classico area. Whilst the rules of the Consorzio require a minimum of 80% Sangiovese in a Chianti Classico wine, we are traditionalists at our core and prefer to use either 100% sangiovese, or add a very small amount of Canaiolo, another ancient Tuscan grape variety, to our Chianti Classico wines.

TO OAK OR NOT TO OAK

While it is common in the industry to see wines aged in small French oak barrels, this method of softening tannins can often reduce the fruitiness and freshness of the wine. There is no right and wrong way to age wines, but our preference is to work to soften the tannins in the vineyard through careful cultivation, and to use the age-old commodity of time.

By aging wines in large barrels, or botti, there is less contact of the oak on the wines, and therefore the wines take longer to age. But this way is more faithful to the traditions of Italian wine making and gives us the distinctive flavours of Tenuta Cappellina wines, or as Atillio would say, “to put into the bottle as high a proportion as possible of the fruit’s potential”