Tuscany is fast becoming one of the most exciting, dynamic wine regions on Earth. It’s not just the series of remarkable vintages that has recently blessed Tuscany, and it’s not just a handful of its internationally-famous names. It’s also because of a scene that has long been more associated with Beaujolais or Sicily: extreme artisanal producers making natural wines.It’s not as if Le Boncie, located in the Berardenga sub-zone of Chianti Classico, is new on the scene. Giovanna Morganti, the wine-grower proprietor, has been at it since the 1980s. Her Dad gave her a farm with a grove of olive trees. 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.For decades now, Giovanna has been making very artisanal, very old-fashioned wines. Her top wine is a Chianti Classico, 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.No, Le Boncie is not new on the scene. What’s changed is that people have started to notice. This used to be wine we could buy year-round from the importer, Neal Rosenthal. Now, like so many other great wines produced in micro quantities, it sells out to top restaurants and retailers before it even lands.
What importer Rosenthal Wine Merchant has to say about this wine...
The “second wine” of the estate, sold only at the cellar since 1990 but now made from a newly acquired parcel with very rocky limestone soils in Castelnuovo Berardenga just outside the Chianti Classico zone. Giovanna supplements it with certain vats of the first wine, Le Trame, that don’t make the cut, often a significant proportion. Aged for one year in wood vats (5-30 hl) and bottled in the spring. The cuvée name refers to several numerlogical coincidences, including the five grapes of the estate (Sangiovese, Caniolo, Colorino, Mammolo, Fogliatonda), the five leaves and flowers a grape vine has per bunch, and their home address.
Details
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Grape Variety
Canaiolo , Other Red Grape , Red Blend , Sangiovese
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Vintage
2022
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Size
750ml
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Farming Practice
Biodynamic
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Style
Earthy , Floral , Juicy
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Sweetness
Dry
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Body
Medium Bodied