Testamatta Toscana Rosso Igt

Bibi Graetz arrived at winemaking in 2000 with no formal oenology training, a 2-hectare family plot at Castello di Vincigliata in the Fiesole hills northeast of Florence, and a deliberate refusal to pursue the Super Tuscan power template. That founding instinct has since been codified into a sourcing rule: Testamatta draws exclusively from north-facing or cooler-mesoclimate sites — Vincigliata, Olmo, Londa, Lamole, and Montefili — where stony galestro (schist) and clay soils at high-altitude hillside elevations restrict vigour, sharpen acidity, and drive mineral precision over fruit weight. The 100% Sangiovese blend, from vines 35–50 years old, undergoes spontaneous fermentation on indigenous yeasts in open-top 225L French oak barriques with manual pigeage and zero concentration techniques. Aging runs 20 months in French oak, approximately 10% new, 75% second-to-fourth-fill, followed by a minimum 6 months in bottle before release; the wine is bottled unfiltered. The rule broken here is categorical: despite sourcing from Chianti Classico DOCG sites including Lamole and Montefili, Graetz deliberately declassifies every bottle to Toscana IGT, rejecting the appellation hierarchy entirely. The 2019 vintage delivers the fresh, precise character the north-facing parcel strategy is designed to produce — taut galestro-driven structure with the lifted acidity that rewards 3–8 years of further cellaring.