Pieve Santa Restituta
— About —
HISTORY
Purchased by the family in 1994. Had established vineyards there and wine production dating back to the 12th century. Consists of 27ha of vineyards and 13ha of woods.
The Pieve (Church) dates back to 462 AD. When purchased have found records/registers from the monks (Cistercian) referring to the vineyards of Rennina and Sugarrille, so were very early identified as ideal sites for wine production. The church is still consecrated, so if you want to get married there you can . Only 3 PSR churches in Italy…rare St. Family has started restoration and found murals under the paint/plaster that date back to 1800’s.
First PSR wine produced in 1974 and the first one produced by Gaja family was 1995.
Diverse region – varied soils but biggest variable is elevation – varies from 150m asl to 600m asl. Huge contributor to the varied wines and styles of Brunello.
The winery, Sugarille and Reninna situated in the SW of the appellation. Aprox. 350m above sea level in Tavernelle. Looking for a site at this elevation was strategic, protected from spring frosts and have never had a problem at Santa Resituta. This middle elevation means it is low enough that is warms during the day but at night cool air drops down and the night temperature drops – good diurnal temperature variation.
Their neighbours are Soldera (Casse Basse di Soldera).
When purchased they have found registers from the monks in which Rennina and Surgarille were mentioned, so these sites have very early on identified as great sites.
In 2005 purchased another 9ha in the NE part of Montalcino known as Torrenieri, 280m asl and known as Deserti. Here the soils are less complex, mostly clay and sand. Clay component is crucial here at this lower altitude as helps maintain moisture in the soil.
More recently in 2017 have purchased 5ha around Bolsignano, 450m above sea level, protected by woods and consists of more clay and galestro. And another vineyard, Passo Lume Spento, just near the town of Montalcino 630m asl. in 2020. While these two vineyards are not currently producing, will be key moving forward for the estate as will give more robustness and the advantage of being able to adapt and use in the Brunello blend vintage to vintage. Initially will go into the Brunello di Montalcino but after a few years and when quality increases think they will be also single vineyard expression from them. Deliberately purchased both these as they are cooler elevated sites to mitigate global warming.
The labels chosen pay tribute to the Pieve (Church) and represent the same colours as they have traditionally used (black & white) on their Piedmont labels.
WINEMAKING
Winemaking across the three wines is essentially the same, just some difference in elevage. Employ cool, chilled ferments utilising whole berries and some bunch. Stem usage is carefully managed as do not want any green flavours in the wine, key thing about stem usage is they reduce final abv in a wine by up to 1%. The ferments are kept down at 24-25 degrees. Across the vintage they have 40-45 different ferments. So blending is key. Sugarille is the first to harvest and Rennina the last parcel. Ferments started wild using a pied de cuvee, if going through fine will leave but if sluggish they will inoculate. Believe positive results from natural yeast but want clean ferments, they are not dogmatic or extremists about it, will do what they have to too get the best wine. Ferment takes around 10 days to complete then stay on skins for around 20 days after that. The wine is then drained off….they do not press. They only keep the ‘flower’ to use in their wine, the last 10-20% of pressed wine is sold off as bulk. This use of only the flower maintains purity and freshness. Malolactic fermentation occurs in wood, this starts naturally and when the first wine starts some of the lees from it are used to start the others. Wants malolactic to finish before winter. After this a small dose of sulphur is added. The wines do undergo a very light filtering prior to bottling.