In the northernmost part of the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany on the hill of Cigliano, boarded in by forest, sits the six hundred-year-old farm that has been transformed into one of the most exciting “young” estates of Tuscany. Young in that the name is new to you and me, and young in the sense that Maddelena - the newest generation of her family to participate in the viticulture here - and Matteo, her partner, are, well, young. “We are natural assistants,” Maddalena offers, referring to the fact that this plot of land, long overlooked by the world, has something special it wants to offer us, in turn.
In the 1400s, this farm was built, and in the following century Maddalena’s family took ownership. It wasn’t, per se, a working winery, as when she was young the family lived in Florence and the farm was overseen by cousins and other relatives. “My parents were lawyers,” she admitted, and her siblings have taken other more “noble” jobs, such as a doctor. In 2013, she spent a large part of the year in Cigliano, and felt a bond forming with the land. After spending a summer abroad in Santa Barbara, she fell in love with the area, and the following year sent letters to Raj Parr, trying to land a job at Domaine de la Cote.
As many of us at Thatcher’s have discovered, there are so many parts dotting the landscape of California that resemble parts of Europe’s most beautiful vistas. So many Tuscans landed here for that very reason, and in Santa Barbara the wine culture is vast and lively. Spending time with Raj and winemaker Sashi Moorman, Maddalena and Matteo - whom she had met while in university - returned from the experience charged with energy. “We started to dream up plans for the farm,” Maddalena told us, and in 2016 they made the first thousand bottles of Chianti Classico.
As the estate fruit was largely sold off in bulk, the 35 hectare property on the hill of Cigliano only had three hectares with which to make fruit at first. A full eight are back in their grasp now as of 2020, having been treated fully organically since 2016. The opportunity to make wines bearing the famous Chianti Classico name was an attractive proposition, and the duo will aim to continue this as long as the appellation’s tasting panel allows at least one of their wines to carry the name each vintage. “The Judges can be very hard,” Matteo admits, “And sometimes, the wines don’t pass what they think of as ‘Chianti’. In that case, we make them into IGT.”
Having now convinced her family of her chosen career, Maddalena, along with Matteo, are quite aware of the history of Chianti, and also what potential lies in this special portion of the appellation. “The 1960s and 70s bottles that we had in the cellar [from the vineyard] were made very simple, and were so beautiful,” she recalls admiringly. “We can create something here from almost zero.” Chiming in, Matteo adds that their passion for this came from drinking good wines, and taking the years during university and in stages at la Cote and later at Evening Land to ponder the styles they wanted to make. Ultimately, he said, “If you do not love what you put in the bottle, you can not do this.”
VITICULTURE & VINIFICATION
The forest surrounding the estate on the hill of Cigliano provides a natural cooling system at night. The geology of the land is quite different from other Chianti Classico houses, in that there is a duality formed while crossing the river valley, almost two distinct faces of the appellation. The west side contains more river stones and sand, and is quite fertile. “Branca” is “More Mediterranean, a very solar wine - it has similar soils to Chateauneuf-du-Pape,” Matteo explains. “Cigliano,” on the east side, is more of a limestone, yellow-ish, rocky clay. “This is more quiet, minerally,” he adds. Cigliano contains three big terraces, with biodiversity encouraged, varied trees intermingling with the vines. The vineyards are trained in a high gobelet style, with 2-3 spurs per shoot to maximize ripeness and balanced extraction.
In the cellar, the work is done as gently as possible. The aim is not extraction, but elegance and perfume. Elevage is performed in 15-hectoliter Stockinger casks, topping up to prevent early oxidation. In addition to the Sangiovese, they make about one thousand bottles of Trebbiano, which they love for its “close relationship to Aligote.”
Patience is often key for Matteo and Maddalena - rushing a wine out of cask could strip away the slow-developing finer characteristics of the vineyard. “The 2025 vintage has very good acidity, and while aging on the lees, we’ve seen it develop slowly. Bottling it now would be like cutting it in half,” Matteo claims.
