When the lawyer Giuseppe Mori began planting his first vineyard in Montalcino in the seventies, his two sons Andrea and Alessandro also showed great interest in his project. However, while Andrea later embarked on a legal career, Alessandro developed into a thoroughbred winemaker. With devotion and sensitivity to Tuscany, with its luxuriant nature and great agricultural products, he has developed his little-known historical small business Il Marroneto, situated around a medieval watchtower, into one of the most important producers of Brunello full of character in the north-western and therefore rather cooler part of the famous cultivation area.
Alessandro Mori is supported in his work by the creative soul of the company, Lucia Nannetti, and the cellar manager Maurizio Valeriani. The management of the vineyards, which occupy only six hectares, is based on a traditional and minimalist philosophy. The plants are influenced as little as possible by human hands and are not treated with herbicides or conventional pesticides. The vines on the almost 400-metre-high slopes of Montosoli, which surround the estate in a continuous manner, are arranged so generously on sandy soils that each plant has sufficient space for good root penetration.
From a stylistic point of view, Il Marroneto’s drops, produced in a small number of bottles, are classic, very elegant and rich in aroma, without being over-concentrated. With a few new plots at lower altitudes, the exquisite wines of the Tuscan jewel that has been producing Brunello di Montalcino since the 1980 vintage have become even more complex over time.
Alessandro Mori carefully follows every step from harvesting to bottling. Both the traditionally vinified vintage wine and the Cru Madonna delle Grazie, named after a medieval chapel, mature in the cellar expanded in the 1990s in large barrels from Slavonia and Allier. The careful work of the Il Marroneto winery, known far beyond the borders of Italy, has of course not remained hidden from influential wine critics. The Madonna delle Grazie vineyard wine, for example, was produced by the “wine pope” Robert Parker journalist Monica Larner for the first time.
Winery Profile:
- Owner
- Allessandro Mori
- Founded
- 1974
- Winemaker
- Allessandro Mori & Iacopo Mori
- Annual Production
- 26.000 bottles
- Vineyards
- 6 ha
- Web site
- www.ilmarroneto.com
- Owner
- Alessandro Mori
- Founded
- 1974
- Winemaker
- Alessandro Mori & Iacopo Mori
- Annual Production
- 26.000 bottles
- Vineyards
- 66 ha
- Web site
- www.ilmarroneto.com
Gallery:
Montalcino, Tuscany
A romantic medieval Tuscan town, Montalcino is surrounded by hills and dense woods located about 80 km south of Florence. The soil, altitude and lush topography make Montalcino the ideal home for the Sangiovese grape and the celebrated wine of the area, Brunello di Montalcino.
Although geographically and culturally similar to Chianti, Montalcino has sandier soils and more limestone than those further north. In the northernmost reaches of the DOCG, soils are more calcareous and enjoy a cooler microclimate. Throughout the region, vineyards are planted at 300 to 500 meters elevation; due to the steep terraces here, much of the harvesting is done manually.
The first recordings of red wines from Montalcino date back to the early 14th Century. However, the all-Sangiovese Brunello di Montalcino style we know today did not emerge until the 1870s, just after the creation of a single Italian state.
Brunello, a diminutive of Bruno (“brown”), is the name that was given locally to what was believed to be an individual grape variety grown in Montalcino. In 1879 the Province of Siena’s Amphelographic Commission determined, after a few years of controlled experiments, that Sangiovese and Brunello were the same grape variety.In Montalcino the name Brunello evolved into the designation of the wine produced with 100% Sangiovese.
