Salvioni La Cerbaiola

Ours is a family property that has grown from the union of wine with hospitality. Umberto Salvioni, who had studied agriculture, chose to make wine so that he could offer it to his friends. His son Giulio decided to extend the range of friendship, creating a winery that could produce a limited number of bottles of absolute excellence. The first Cerbaiola Brunello was the fruit of the 1985 harvest, to be followed by other remarkable vintages that carried the name of Montalcino and the passion of the Salvionis far further afield. "We have adopted the traditional approach." Surrounded by woodland, the 20 hectares of La Cerbaiola look out over the Val d’Orcia from an altitude of 420 metres, opening up like a gently sloping plateau four kilometres to the southeast of Montalcino. The air is clear, a slight breeze rustles the leaves, and on the hillside opposite the outlines of Pienza, San Quirico and Ripa d’Orcia are clearly visible. There are three small vineyards for a total of 4 hectares, each with its own characteristics: soils that vary from chalky schist to stony marl; and subtle differences of micro-climate that influence the ripening of the grapes. All the work in the vineyard is carried out by hand, with hard pruning to obtain low yields of fruit and careful selection during the manual harvest. Production is deliberately limited, to obtain the very best from a unique terroir: 10,000 bottles a year when only Brunello is made; and 15,000 for the years in which there is also some Rosso di Montalcino.