Il Palazzino

Podere Il Palazzino, owned by Alessandro and Andrea Sderci, and now managed by the young generation – Claudia and Edoardo – is located in Monti in Chianti, 20 km northeast of Siena, in the southern part of Chianti near Gaiole. The estate is part of a network of farms and of country residences built or restored in the eighteenth century during the land reform enacted by Leopold Hapsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The Sderci family became owners of the estate in the mid nineteenth century. But wine started being produced and sold more recently, at the beginning of the 1970s, when Alessandro and Andrea took over the management. The first vineyards were planted then, replacing the earlier system of interspersing grapevines with olive trees and planting crops on the aisles between the rows of trees and vines. As the original cellar was not large enough, a new underground cellar was built under the garden of the homestead. Il Palazzino is an estate with a traditional style, but with a firm organic approach to viticulture, which has received a strong boost from the young Claudia and Edoardo. Environment friendly practices are particularly meticulous here and are carried out through canopy management, soil management and grape yield management. The estate is not only certified organic but wines are produced with the highest respect for the different characters of the soils and vineyards and a natural attitude in vinification. In the cellar Sulfur dioxide is reduced to a minimum quantity and nothing else is added to the wine. Only wild yeast is responsible for the alcoholic fermentation aided by some additives in order to favour natural fermentation. All types of filtering have been eliminated. The flag wine of the estate, Chianti Classico Grosso Sanese, started being produced in 1981 as a “super Tuscan”, but after some years became one of the two Chianti Classico wines of Il Palazzino together with Chianti Classico Argenina. The estate also offers three IGT/proprietary wines and a Vin Santo del Chianti.