CASTELLARE Grappa di Sangiovet

In 1977, the year of his first vintage, Paolo Panerai purchased four neighbouring properties in the Chianti Classico hills near Castellina — Castellare, Caselle, San Niccolò and Le Case — and unified them into a single estate. Panerai was 28 and came to the project through inherited family interest in viticulture (his grandfather was a small farmer; his uncle Giuseppe an agronomist) plus several years' working experience at two existing Chianti estates. His specific contribution was institutional rigour: rather than buying existing vineyards and replanting, he set up Italy's first scientifically-supervised experimental vineyard in collaboration with the universities of Milan and Florence, focused on clonal selection of Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera.

Castellare's holdings cover 80 hectares across the four founding parcels — 33 hectares planted to vine, 20 hectares to olive grove, the balance to Mediterranean scrub and bird-friendly woodland (the estate's no-net-loss biodiversity policy is an unusual position for a Chianti producer of its scale). The vineyards range across slopes between 370 and 400 metres altitude on the limestone-and-galestro soils characteristic of the Castellina sub-zone. The clonal-selection program has shaped the wines: Castellare's Sangiovese expressions show consistent retained acidity and a spicier mid-palate than other Chianti Classico estates of comparable size.

The wines run from the entry-level Chianti Classico through to single-vineyard expressions: I Sodi di San Niccolò (the IGT Sangiovese-Malvasia Nera blend that put Castellare on the international Tuscan-wine map), Il Poggiale (single-vineyard Chianti Classico Riserva), Sodi di Castellare (Sangiovese with Sangioveto-clone fruit). The estate also produces grappa from Sangioveto (a local Sangiovese clone) and Vin Santo from dried Trebbiano and Malvasia.