Castellari del Giglio – Isola del Giglio, Tuscany

Castellari del Giglio is a wine making project of Manfred Ing, cellar master at the Querciabella estate on Giglio, the tiny granite island carved by the wind and adorned by Mediterranean bushes off the southern Tuscan coast. Love of this land opened the door to rediscover abandoned vineyards with their ancient terraced walls still standing strong. The plan was simple: produce fine wine from grapes grown on different terraces to express the incredible complexities and uniqueness of each single vineyard. As a designated National Park the island will never see any new vineyard creation making the work to rescue and work these historic sites even more important.

The grapes come from a handful of the best, most historic vineyards still in production on the island and embrace ancient production techniques. Once hand picked, the Ansonica grapes spend three months fermenting naturally on their skins, the wine then being pressed to old French barrels where the wine further matures until release. The wine has both power, from the structure extracted from the skins, and elegance, imparted by the unique granitic soils and high altitude vineyards. White blossom, peaches, mangoes and pineapple all meld to create a mesmerizing wine of true contemplation. Total production 900 bottles.