Le Pergole Torte 2011

The wine in this vintage

A warm year, 2011 saw an even summer followed by a heatwave in late August that sped up ripening, producing rich, generous wines. In Radda, altitude helped maintain good balance. Le Pergole Torte 2011 shows riper, more enveloping fruit than usual: dark cherry, plum, sweet spice, dried flowers and a balsamic touch, with a full palate and soft tannins, supported by a savoury thread that keeps it flowing. It is now in a beautifully expressive phase and can be kept for several more years without losing its harmony, a warm-year version that remains unmistakably Montevertine.

The producer · Montevertine

Montevertine was born in 1967 in Radda in Chianti, when Milanese industrialist Sergio Manetti bought an old farmhouse in the Sienese hills, initially as a country retreat. The first wines, made for friends, soon revealed extraordinary potential. In 1977 Manetti, advised by the legendary Giulio Gambelli, made Le Pergole Torte, one of the area’s first pure Sangioveses, at a time when Chianti Classico rules still required white grapes in the blend; the choice took it outside the appellation and made it a symbol of Tuscan independence. Today the estate is run by his son Martino Manetti, who guards its style with great consistency. The vineyards, at around 400 metres on galestro and alberese soils, are farmed for low yields and with deep respect for tradition, alongside small plantings of Canaiolo and Colorino used for Montevertine and Pian del Ciampolo. Aged in large casks and partly in barriques, the wines are a manifesto for mountain Sangiovese: luminous, savoury, fragrant, never manipulated, and able to age for decades.

Critics' scores

• 95 Antonio Galloni
• 94 Robert Parker

Technical details

Producer

Montevertine

Region

Toscana

Country

Italia

Type

Rosso

Vintage

2011

When to drink

Hold, still evolving

Critics' average

94.5/100

Sizes

75 cl, Magnum 150 cl, Case of 6 × 75 cl

eWibe code

0660111