Sassotondo

Managed as an organic farm, Sassotondo is a typical farm in this marginal part of the Maremma Toscana where the cultivation of the olive and the vine are side by side with the extensive pastures and woods. The farm's 72 hectares are located on the boundaries between the Etruscan townships of Sorano and Pitigliano. The area is considered hilly by altitude, but actually is better described as a series of "highlands," divided by deep creeks carved into the “tufo” stone by semi-permanent watercourses. We are at the outskirts of the Bolsena volcanic basin, and the volcanic compressed sandstone, “tufo”, is the leading element: on ”tufo grow the vineyards, our houses are mado of “tufo”, our cellars are dug into the tufo stone, and in the middle of a field, rounded by the weather, stands the sassotondo, a big round stone. The farmland is included in the zones of Bianco di Pitigliano DOC and in the new DOC Sovana. The vineyards today total 10 hectares about 8 of which are red varieties (at the present mostly Ciliegiolo, Sangiovese and Merlot), and two are whites (Trebbiano, Greco, Sauvingon). Ciliegiolo, an old grape variety typical of the Maremma, has found in the old San Lorenzo vineyard, just in front of the overwhelming landscape of Pitigliano, its ideal terroir: our cru "San Lorenzo", 100% ciliegiolo, is made from its grapes. Sassotondo's cellar is an old cellar completely dug into the ground in a “tufo” cliff on the farmland. In the last room, separated from the rest of the cellar by a long corridor, 14 meters below the ground and 30 from the entrance door, are the barrels that enjoy the ideal conditions of humidity and temperature that the natural underground environment provides. Sassotondo's wines endeavor to communicate the power and mistery of the land they come from: the local varieties of vines combined with an unique environment, with the tufo stone that appears everywhere, make wines that are fine and elegant, naturally concentrated, sapid and spicy.