Messana moved back from New York to take over his family farm, Montesecondo, in the village of Cerbaia in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. Pretty quickly thereafter he began to run afoul of the... Read More

Messana moved back from New York to take over his family farm, Montesecondo, in the village of Cerbaia in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. Pretty quickly thereafter he began to run afoul of the Chianti Classico powers that be. While Silvio's methods in the vineyard and cellar yield what many would and do consider pure, classically expressive wines, the way he gets there and occasionally the actual results (higher acidity, lighter color or darker color, etc.) led to enough issues over time that he bottles only one Classico and the rest of his wines as IGT Toscana. The property is split into two with the lower vineyard producing fleshier more fruit driven wines all grown organically. The second higher part of the property is biodynamically farmed and tends to produce more high toned mineral driven fruit.