When considering vinification and ageing processes and the materials used in them, the first thing that comes to mind is wood, invariably followed by steel.
Yet there is another material that has almost completely disappeared from the Italian wine scene over the last twenty years – our old friend cement!
Particularly during the ‘50s and ’60s, most of Italy’s wineries made good use of this material, even structurally, in fact, the tanks were often integrated into the vats’ supporting structure.
Currently, many wineries, especially the well-known ones, have reintroduced cement because of its excellent performance, which has been rediscovered and improved thanks to technical developments in its formulation.
Gagliole also made use of this new development and added cement tanks in the new cellar used for the first time for the harvest of 2019. Thanks to this material we can significantly enhance the characteristics of the Sangiovese grape because the cement allows the wine to breath, i.e. to slightly get in touch with oxygen.
After completing the new winery’s second harvest, we are pleased to see that thanks to the use of our new cementvats, our wines are more refined and ideally express the unique characteristics of each of our vineyards in Castellina in Chianti and Panzano .
It is well known that the difference between these two Chianti Classico regions is clearly recognisable, especially when it comes to soil composition, altitude and terrain climate.
Cement vats therefore assists us with the translation of these well-known and distinctive features into our wines.
As neutral material, cement maintains the vine’s organoleptic qualities. At the same time, its porosity allows continuous and constant oxygenation.
With the homogenous integration of the use of cement, combined with French oak and steel vats, we achieved our final goal, i.e. to optimize the quality of our Chianti wines.
An excellent example of this new and effective fusion of the use of different materials such as steel, wood and concrete is most certainly Gagliole’s new arrival; our 2018 Chianti Classico Riserva.
This wine is vinified in steel tanks, aged in small, recycled oak barrels, and then raised in concrete tanks.
The result is a wine that from the very first sip displays the energy and vitality that only a wine made from grapes grown on the steep hills of Panzano can offer.
