Blog: Castello di Ama · 1/2

At the end of the seventies the great awakening began in Tuscany, and it is therefore not surprising that precisely in those fertile years, 1977 for the chronicle, a group of four Roman families decided to buy an estate in one of the best areas of the Chianti Classico, between Gaiole and the village of Monti, and to revamp it with the clear intention of producing quality wines here.

Marco Pallanti, one of Italy's most talented winemakers, is hired as oenologist, and Silvano Formigli, a volcano of energy and ideas who has excellent contacts with the media, is hired to manage the estate and, above all, to handle public relations. Ama soon becomes one of the flagship wineries of the area, a winery where some of the most important innovations in Tuscan viticulture are introduced and developed to a level never seen before.

This starts with the Chianti Classico, which is produced in different single-vineyard versions, each of which brings its own varietal typicity: the San Lorenzo, with its blend of Sangiovese and Canaiolo, the Bellavista, in which a little Malvasia nera complements the two, the 'late-born' Bertinga, with perhaps the most traditional Chianti blend, and finally the Vigneto La Casuccia, in which the Sangiovese is enriched by Canaiolo and, above all, Merlot. This Merlot, as it will turn out a little later, has it all: in 1985 the first vintage is pressed from the grapes of the Vigna l'Apparita, which then caused a sensation with the '87 vintage. - Gerardo [TS03/23]