The Grape Maketh the Wine

At Vini Montauto, we describe our wines pretty succinctly. They’re atelier. Not mass-produced, assembly-line brews.

They prefer to be timelessly tasteful and elegant rather than bend to spur-of-the-moment trends that very quickly become passé. We’re talking to you, bell-bottom jeans…

In the mouth, this translates into an incredible freshness, balance and complexity, and a clean flavour that won’t overwhelm your palette after the first sip.

It’s a reflection our terroir, the Maremma, and not the talents of a few awesome boffins and some not-so-awesome additives cooked up in a laboratory.

Now that the vendemmia (wine harvest) has finished for another year, we’re ready to share the secrets of our wine making process.

It’s all about the grapes.

We shun pesticides and keep our use of sulphur and copper to an absolute minimum. The vineyard is our haven. Well, not just our haven. We share it with a very substantial community of bees – a sign of the purity of the environment and the landscape around us.

In August, the grapes are picked by hand, just like nonno used to do. They’re packed off to the cantina (wine cellar) and the magic can begin.

During fermentation, the wine is tasted four times a day, even if that means getting up at midnight and heading groggily down to the cellar to grab a glass and make sure everything is progressing as it should.

The wine is kept cold to stabilise it and maintain its freshness. When it’s perfect, it’s bottled. And. That’s. It.

Lift a glass of our wine to your mouth and you’ll be able to taste the year that was. The soil. The terrain. The days of sunshine and rain in the Maremma Tuscany.

Every year is different and every vintage has its own subtle notes and variations. We’re not looking for conformity. We love these little differences. They come from the grape. From its journey from seed to plump, juicy berry. And not from chemicals added in the cellar to produce a sweetness and flavour that has absolutely nothing to do with the grape, but plenty to do with that headache you sometimes get from overly processed wines.

This is Italian artisan wine, pure and simple and with the sort of indulgence and magnetism you only get from the handmade.