Jordbunden i Monte Amiata har vist sig at være yderst velegnet for pinot nero. Til sine vine har Charlotte Horton valgt navne på de sten, der er typisk for distriktet: Piropo er en sten af rødlig farve. Vinmagerens filiosfi er værd at studere, ikke fordi den adskiller sig meget fra andre kvalitetsproducenters idag, men fordi for tyve år siden var Charlottes valg ikke hverdagskost i dette ret isolerede hjørne af Toscana. Længere nede, på engelsk med producentens egne ord, fremstillingsfilosofien . Piropo 2016 bør høre til alle pinot neros elskere vinoplevelser. Årgangen er for Toscana, Piemonte og store dele af Italien, den gyldne 2016. Produktionen er på 2.477 flasker. Vinen har lagret to år på mellemstore egetræsfade og ni måneder på flaske. Alkoholstyrken er 14,5% men igen man skal kigge på etiketten for at tro på det: vinen er i perfekt balance og kan spås en positiv udvikling de næste seks-otte år: 2016- 2027-28. Weekendvin og festvin for alle pengene.
The 4 hectare (10 acre) vineyard is planted at a low density (5,000 plants per hectare) and every care is taken to ensure that the grapes are in peak condition at the time of harvest. Measures include:
- Low Yields - The vines are green pruned to limit the quantity of grapes to only 65 quintals per hectare. Our total production is about 20,000 bottles a year.
- Vines tended by Hand - The vines are tended to and harvested by hand so that the highest and most rigorous levels of quality control are maintained throughout the growing cycle.
- Careful Picking - The grapes are carefully picked to ensure that they do not arrive to the cellar damaged so that fermentation begins in the cellar under controlled conditions.
- Minimum Intervention - In the castle cellars, attention is focused on ensuring the grapes express their essential quality. Castello di Potentino aims to keep mechanical and chemical intervention to a minimum. A couple of examples of this philosophy can be seen in the:
- Fermentation of the grapes- The fermentation uses only wild yeasts found on the skins of the grapes and is not augmented by the use of industrial aids.
- Pressing the grape skins - When the grape skins are racked off after fermentation they are left to drain naturally without being pressed, further ensuring that some of the harsher more obvious tannins are not present in the wine.
- The aging of the wine - The wine is kept in wood throughout the majority of its time in the cellar. It is fermented and stored in large 5,000 litre capacity French Allier Oak fermenting vats. Castello di Potentino does not use barriques or wood chips that are typical of larger scale more industrial wine producers.
- Fining and filtration - The wines are not fined or overly filtered.
- Low sulphite levels - The only additives used are sulphites - which are necessary to stabilize wine, especially for transport - but at a level lower than that allowed in organically certified Italian wines. This means that drinking our wine does not lead to a terrible headache.
This soft, natural approach results in 5 elegant, mineral and thoroughly structured wines that maintain the vigour of fruit and youth, mature but not old, clean and precise and infinitely drinkable. For this reason we have chosen to name all our wines after stones and jewels.