Montevertine, Sangiovese, "Pian del Ciampolo," Tuscany, Italy 2023

According to Martino Manetti, Pian del Ciampolo is “a wine of the people; the kind of wine a native Tuscan loves inherently”—a clear understatement, but also an apt summation of Pian del Ciampolo’s relative ease of use and broad appeal. Still, Montevertine’s “basic” wine bests almost anything else from the zone in terms of purity of expression and age-worthiness. As with all the estate’s wines, Pian del Ciampolo undergoes both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in large cement vats with no added yeasts, and extraction takes place solely through pumping-over rather than punching-down. It spends twelve months in well-worn Slavonian casks between 7.5 and 18 hectoliters in size, and the wine is bottled by gravity, unfined and unfiltered. The Pian del Ciampolo vineyard—a north-facing 1.5-hectare parcel of Albarese limestone—comprises the bulk of the wine, with smaller plots in Selvole, Il Casino, and Borro ai Colli rounding out the blend. The vines are 20 years old on average, and it has been thrilling to witness Pian del Ciampolo gain depth and nuance over the years as these vines have developed deeper root systems. Martino considers the 2023 Pian del Ciampolo to be one of the best of his career, and we’d be hard-pressed to disagree. Weighing in at a modest 13% alcohol, this combines chiseled, elegantly muscular tannins with succulent but vividly articulated fruit; a sense of serene harmony underpins the whole thing, and while Pian del Ciampolo always drinks well relatively young, this 2023 possesses the structure and balance to age for many years.