Poggio al Chiuso winery

Along the old Roman road Cassia, as one approaches the town of Tavarnelle, on a hill overlooking the Pesa Valley, we find the old cellar where everything started for the Poggio al Chiuso winery.

Nowadays it is run by the three Corti brothers: Marco, Matteo and Andrea, who each contributes his own peculiar skills to the continuation and development of this family business that their great-grand father Narciso started back in the 30’s.

During our visits to this winery, Andrea, the youngest of the three, is the one who welcomes you and guides you through the old vineyard and olive grove, and the cellar, while telling you about the history of the winery and introducing the wines that you will later try in the tasting room.

With the eight hectares of vineyard that surround the family home, situated just a few kilometers away from the main cellar, they produce six different wines and, of course, Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The reds include a Chianti Colli Fiorentini DOCG, made in a very traditional way; this wine is a blend of local varieties only – Sangiovese and Canaiolo. After fermentation, it is left to mature in the traditional concrete vats, to preserve all the typical characteristics of the grapes used and become a very pleasant and direct wine. It is a perfect expression of a genuine Tuscan wine, suitable for all food occasions, from a simple picnic to a full course meal. If you are after something that offers more body and complexity, then it would be hard to decide between Le Cappelle, a pure Sangiovese, and Voltaccia 49, a pure Merlot. Both these wines have gained important award recognitions. They are aged in French oak barrels of 500L and left to refine in the bottle before their release on the market, when they are already fully enjoyable with richer meals, or just tasty cheese, but also offering good potential of evolution with further ageing to become good meditation wines.

In addition to these, for something light and fresh, there are also the three Voltaccino versions: white, red and rosé.

Poggio al Chiuso is a place where tradition and innovation are perfectly combined together. By listening to Andrea, you can immediately sense both the energy of the young generation approach to wine making, as well as the great respect they have for tradition, which they treasure and exploit to come up with very interesting and innovative ideas. The best example of this is evident during the visit to the cellar, when you see the bottles of their first production of a sparkling wine, made by the traditional blend used for Chianti – Sangiovese and Canaiolo – and applying the Champenoise method.

Unfortunately this first production will not be ready for tasting until 2023, but this is definitely a great reason to keep in touch with them, while enjoying what is already available to keep our palates entertained!