Chianti — like Beaujolais or Sicily or the Loire Valley — is a region of incredible terroir where you can still actually buy land and start a winery. Thus, we have had an explosion of biodynamic farming, natural wine-making and other experimentation. Not all of the results are good. But the wines of Le Boncie are truly great.

Giovanna Morganti, however, did not need to buy land, as she inherited a grove of olive trees from her dad. She planted Sangiovese and many of the other traditional varieties of Tuscany: Ciliegiolo, Colorino, Fogliatonda, Mammolo and Prugnolo. She farms them all, alongside those olive trees, according to biodynamic principles.

Her signature wine is a Chianti Classico, “Le Trame”, but it is quite different from most other wines in the DOC, standing apart for a combination of wildness and elegance that calls to mind the wines of Paolo Bea. It’s a style that nature gives her, when it meets her traditional wine-making practices: the blending in of those non-Sangiovese indigenous varieties, fermenting the wines slowly and naturally in open-top casks, and long aging in old neutral barrels and in bottle.

“Cinque" is her second wine, made from younger vines. “Cinque”, says Giovanna, refers to your five fingers, which you will never want to keep very far from a bottle of this extremely drinkable wine!

Some of the young vines that used to contribute to “Cinque” are now old enough for separate bottling and so now we have “Chiesamonti”. Some Le Boncie fans like this one best of all – it is a little fuller, the cherry fruit a little deeper.

For a number of years now, allocations of these wines have been tight, and these will be available for a limited time only:

Podere Le Boncie, Chianti Classico 'Le Trame', 2021 $74.99

Podere Le Boncie, Toscana Rosso 'Cinque', 2022 $41.99 (limited!)

Podere Le Boncie, Rosso di Toscana 'Chiesamonti', 2021 $77.99