Sancaba

In 2022 Sancaba was produced for the second time in the new cellar created from converted space in the original farmhouse located on the estate in San Casciano dei Bagni. As with the previous vintage, the new stylistic course aimed at achieving greater finesse, elegance and aromatic expressiveness of the grape varietal, called for an ever more careful choice of picking time, favouring a crunchier fruit, combined with the adoption of the usual light handed, under-extracted vinification protocol in the cellar. Fermentation took place in temperature controlled steel vats, with no punch-downs and only light pump-overs aimed at reducing extraction to a minimum. Malolactic fermentation occurred naturally in cement tanks before the wine was transferred into French oak barriques. The elevage in barriques of second and third passage was then protracted for 12 months. Lastly, the wine was assembled in a large cement tank and left to decant another 6 months with frequent rackings, before being clarified, filtered and ultimately bottled.

The vintage confirms the trend of ever warmer and drier vintages, with ever less rainfall during the winter/spring months. Soil and leaf cover management have become ever more important, especially for “Galestro” shaly soils such as those of Sancaba, thus abundant use of straw mulching has been made as well as recovery placement of vine tips back in the wires instead of tip cropping and needless stressing of the plants. Harvest was moved earlier to the end of August for the drought prone plots and carried on until September 10th elsewhere.