Wine & Spirits - Spring 2022 - 40

F L O RE N CE
S AN
CA S C I AN O
G RE V E
MON T E F IOR A LL E
L A MOLE
S A N
DON AT O
IN POGG I O
R A D DA
PAN Z ANO
T US C A N Y
CA S T E L L I NA
G A IOLE
V A GL IA GL I
C A S T E L N UOVO
B ER A RDENG A
S I EN A
Angela started working full-time at the winery in 2012. She
converted the vineyards to organic farming and focused
on terroir diff erences among her plots. In addition to a
Chianti Classico Annata and Riserva, she now makes three
single-vineyard Chianti Classicos: Vigna Casanova dell'Aia
and Vigna Istine from Radda, and Vigna Cavarchione from
Gaiole-all at the Annata level, at least for now.
Fronti sees some diff erences in style between Radda and
Gaiole. Her Radda plots are a bit higher in elevation, with
more rocky soils, and she harvests them up to two weeks
later than her parcels in Gaiole. " I fi nd the sangiovese from
Gaiole more dense and deeper in color, " she says. " The
wines from Radda are lighter in color, with more minerality
and higher acidity. "
Fronti could bottle her single-vineyard wines as Gran
Selezione, but so far has chosen not to. For one thing, she
considers her top-level wine to be her Riserva, but that
includes fruit from both Gaiole and Radda, so it could
not carry the Radda UGA on the label. She also raises a
concern that many Radda producers voiced to me, an
impression that many Gran Selezione were big and muscular,
bolstered by merlot, enriched by time in new barriques-in
other words, the opposite of a Radda wine. She
hasn't ruled it out for the future, though, and thinks the
consorzio's recent changes are positive. " Even if you can
write the village name only on Gran Selezione wines, it is
a way to speak about the UGA. The UGA is not only Gran
Selezione; it is the people, the territory, the production. In
Radda, it is not just the soil, it is the way we produce wine.
We like wines that are clean, we like to use big barrels, so I
think the people are an important part of the UGA idea. "
Diego Finocchi is another young producer and a true
Radda native, though his father made furniture, not wine.
Finocchi went to oenology school and bought his fi rst
seven acres of vines in 2006. At that time, he says, Radda
was still considered inferior to warmer areas of Chianti
Classico like Panzano and Castelnuovo Berardenga. Finocchi
thought Radda was undervalued, and he knew it could
produce great sangiovese because Montevertine had been
doing it for years. He recalls going to a dinner at Montevertine
around 2009 at which Martino Manetti pulled out a
bottle of 1982 Le Pergole Torte, Finocchi's birth year. At 27
40
WINE & SPIR IT S SPR ING 202 2
years of age, that pure Radda sangiovese was still singing.
Finocchi now has 12 acres of vines, all planted exclusively
to native varieties. In his fi rst few vintages, he
worked as a winemaker at Istine, partly so that he could use
Fronti's cellar to make his wines. Now he is renting a cellar
and hoping to build his own in the coming years. He sticks
to the type of traditional winemaking that he admired in
the wines of Montevertine, aging his Chianti Classico in
2000-liter untoasted casks to put the spotlight on those
pure red-cherry fl avors and high-toned fl oral scents that
are the essence of Radda sangiovese.
There's a road in Finocchi's vineyard called " L'Erta "
(meaning steep incline) that leads uphill to the village
of Radda. Finocchi decided to name his winery L'Erta di
Radda, which translates as " the way up to Radda. " He says
he wanted to include Radda in the name to create a sense
of belonging to a place, but it also seems a bit like an act of
defi ance, a cheeky " I'll show you what Radda can do " from
a local boy. The choice was fortuitous, because now Radda
has become one of the names in Chianti Classico that turns
heads. " I'm very lucky, " says Finocchi, " because I don't
make a Gran Selezione, but I can use the village name. "
T
HERE WAS UNIVERSAL AGREEMENT AMONG THE RADDA
producers I spoke to that the consorzio's offi cial
acknowledgement of UGAs is a positive development.
Even Manetti from Montevertine had some grudging
words of praise. " I don't agree with Gran Selezione,
but I think UGA is something that surely helps. It is a very
important fi rst step to recognizing the single zones of Chianti
Classico. "
A good fi rst step, then, but they are all eager to go further.
They want to put Radda in bold letters on the front
labels of their Riserva and Annata wines, and many argue
that this is even more important because Annatas represent
the largest segment of Chianti Classico, and are the
wines that more people around the world will encounter.
Michele Braganti is particularly passionate about this:
" Chianti Classico does not exist without UGAs. The UGAs
communicate the territory through the glass, and the territory
is completely diff erent. The area from Florence to
Siena is too big to say only that it is one wine with the
black rooster. There is more to say about the soil and terroir.
Radda has its characteristics, and that doesn't mean
our wine is better [than wines from other UGAs], but it is
diff erent, and now is the time to say this. "
Juan Pablo Escobar, the wine director at Babbo in New
York, agrees. He anticipated this offi cial subdivision of Chianti
Classico-starting in 2018, his more than 150 selections
from the region have appeared under village headings. He
thinks it actually simplifi es things for his wine team and
makes the experience for guests more special: " It allows
us to talk about specifi c villages and make the connections
between the soil, elevation and microclimate. " When guests
say they want a lighter wine, or mention an affi nity for pinot
noir, Escobar will often take them to Radda.
" Wines from Radda can be kind of crunchy and bright, "
he says, fi nding them more perfumed and less powerful
than wines from some other UGAs. " A lot of guests might
know the wines of Montevertine, so they have an idea of
how balanced and elegant these wines can be. The acidity
is there, and Tuscan food needs that. " ●
Volpaia Village
SITUATED ON A HILLTOP
AT 2,000 FEET ABOVE
SEA LEVEL, THE FORTIFIED
HAMLET OF VOLPAIA
WAS A GARRISON
TOWN DURING THE
FLORENTINE-SIENESE
WARS. WINE GRAPES
HAVE BEEN CULTIVATED
THERE SINCE
THE 11TH CENTURY.
Wine & Spirits - Spring 2022

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