2021 Alessandro Tofanari Ancestrale

WINEMAKER: Alessandro Tofanari & Simona Orsini
REGION: Tuscany, IT
VARIETY: Vernaccia
VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic

Vernaccia made with Ancestrale method. Slow pressing of the grapes, the wine then spends 4 days on gross lees, at cold temperature. This helps with texture and complexity. After bottling, the fermentation continues until no sugar remains. No sugar added, and de-gorged before release.

Ripe grapes on the nose, with some floral characters (rose), fresh and fragrant. On the palate it is savoury, and moreish, but still holds a lot of freshness. 

Husband and wife duo, Alessandro Tofanari and Simona Orsini, have been producing wine in the San Giminiano area of Tuscany for over two decades. They started the winery project in 2001 founding the perfect plot of land nearly 10 years earlier, but it took years of convincing the owner to sell him Podere La Castellaccia outside of the famous Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano.

From the Estruscan times in this area of Tuscany, vines were grown together with fruit orchards, were the fruit tree itself was the support for the vines. This technique, called “vigna maritata”, has gone almost forgotten until recent years. Alessandro has recently started working with a small plot planted this way. Between rows of fruit trees, which were around 10 metres wide, vegetables and grains used to be planted.