Mobile bottling unit at Selvapianna in Rufina, Chianti bottling 2002 vintage. Selvapianna's new facility, under construction at the time of our visit, will include a bottling line.
Federico Giuntini of Selvapianna demonstrates shoot pulling. Like most of the vineyards we visited, there are three "green harvests" a season to reduce yields.
The new winery at Selvapianna, adjoining the old structure on the left. Selvapianna was one of our three favorite visits. It was one of the few places where we learned a little about the history of the site. A Roman road runs beside the property. The old house was used as a command center by the Germans during WWII and was apparently bombed during the war.
100-year old barrels on display at Selvapianna. By their size, I assume these were used for production of Vin Santo.
Wine library at Selvapianna. This was probably the only winery we visited that had such a collection. We were told that historically, Italians did not consider wine as something to collect, but simply to drink. Thus, the relative lack of such collections. All vintages since 1947 are represented here. Federico was kind enough to include a couple of bottles of the 1981 vintage Bucerchiale Chianti (the reserve Chianti that they produce) from the cellar with our lunch.
Lunch was terrific as were the current vintage of the wines. Apparently, most people preferred the new young wines to the 1981, which I thought was excellent, because a lot of the second bottle of the 81 went untouched.. Federico had chosen it because he had sampled it previously and thought it to be one of the better prior vintages in the cellar. I capitalized on the others' preference and consumed probably 1/2 of the second '81 on my own. No complaint there.
Vinyard view at Selvapianna.
Fanti in Castelnuovo dell'Abate outside of Montalcino. This is the room where we tasted the wines including the Wine Spectator top scoring '99 Brunello (although I preferred the Altesino Montosoli tasted the following day). A taxing uphill walk through the town was required to reach this spot.
A view from Castelnuovo dell'Abate.
Sant' Antimo, an abbey at the foot of Castelnuovo dell'Abate begun in the 800s and reconstructed in the 1100s. Part of the original structure remains on the left side of this view - attached to the main structure. Fanti's vineyards are nearby and the Abbey is represented on one of their wines titled "Sant' Antimo".
View of Castelnuovo dell'Abate from Sant' Antimo.