SommSelect Editorial Director David Lynch has sung this tune before: Cabernet Sauvignon from Tuscany, be it from a more coastal terroir like Bolgheri or the densely wooded hills of Chianti, is no mere novelty—there is a real affinity of grape and place here, creating wines that don’t much resemble Bordeaux or Napa, but don’t suffer for it in the least.
Today’s wine from Montesecondo is a Cabernet Sauvignon grown in Chianti Classico and packaged in a Burgundy bottle. Come again? Purists, Italian and otherwise, might balk, but it makes perfect sense to me: Cabernet Sauvignon just plain works in Tuscany, and while many of the greatest ‘super-Tuscans’ take their cues from Bordeaux, the cooler, limestone-infused marls of Chianti Classico can deliver focused, perfumed Cabernets with the some of the nerve of great red Burgundy. “Solaia,” to name one famous example, is a Cabernet-driven wine from the heart of Chianti Classico that is, by anyone’s measure, a world-class interpretation of the variety. And just 20 kilometers northwest of the Solaia vineyard is Silvio Messana’s organically farmed jewel of a property in San Casciano Val di Pesa—source of this 2014 “Rosso del Rospo,” a Cabernet of serious structure and unmistakably Tuscan personality. It reminded us as much of top-tier Brunello di Montalcino as it did Left Bank Bordeaux, displaying a brooding, woodsy character and an overall level of depth and class rarely (if ever) seen at this price point. I am a great believer in Chianti Classico as a terroir, and this is a great wine from Chianti Classico that just happens to be from Cabernet rather than Sangiovese—and one that belongs in the company of much-more-expensive ‘super-Tuscans’ from the zone, including Castello di Rampolla’s “Sammarco” and “Santa Croce” from Castell’in Villa. “Rosso del Rospo” is no novelty wine; it’s the genuine article.
The same could be said of its maker, Silvio Messana, who employs organic and biodynamic principles in his vineyards and is a committed anti-interventionist in the cellar. He spent time working in the wine business in New York before returning to Chianti Classico in the 1990s, taking over a property first purchased by his father in 1963. Located in the hamlet of Cerbaia, just outside San Casciano Val di Pesa in the northwestern-most corner of the Chianti Classico DOCG, the Montesecondo “home” vineyard is now augmented by a six-hectare vineyard in a tiny village called Vignano, about 18 kilometers away.
Silvio’s parents had planted Sangiovese, Colorino, and Canaiolo, along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, and had sold the farm’s grapes to the local cooperative. It wasn’t until 2000 that Silvio bottled his first ‘estate’ wine from the family’s fruit, and not long after that, he began the conversion to organic farming; by 2005 he had stopped selling fruit to others and begun to establish Montesecondo as a source of classically styled wines of exceptional energy and purity. His are some of the most perfumed, high-toned Sangiovese wines around (some of which are labeled as Chianti Classico, others as Toscana IGT Sangiovese), and “Rosso del Rospo,” which hails from the clay and marl soils of the original family vineyard in San Casciano, is a perfumed, high-toned take on Cabernet Sauvignon—not a shrinking violet, by any means, but not a heavily extracted fruit bomb, either.
Crafted from Cabernet Sauvignon blended with a small percentage of the Petit Verdot with which it is co-planted, “Rosso del Rospo” was fermented and aged in concrete tanks, with no sulfur added during fermentation and only the tracest amount used at bottling. In the glass it’s a deep ruby with garnet highlights at the rim, with an inviting nose of ripe black cherry, black and red currant, cassis, ginger bread, licorice, damp violets, pencil shavings, and a note of damp, smoky underbrush that hints at Sangiovese from Montalcino. There are many Brunellos (including many that cost twice and three-times this wine) that wish they had this wine’s mix of bright, deep fruit and mineral savor; not only is the oak influence not missed, the wine displays great power and grip with very moderate alcohol. It’s really a phenomenal wine, and one that’s poised to improve over time: If you’re enjoying a bottle now, decant it a good hour before serving it in copious red wine stems—I’m not going to choose Bordeaux or Burgundy, it could go either way—at 60-65 degrees. Re-visit it periodically over the next 5-10 years, as I expect it to mellow and deepen into one of the more elegant and aromatically persistent Cabernets in your cellar. All this, meanwhile, for just $32—not bad at all, and pitch-perfect with a Tuscan-style
ragù over fresh pasta. Like I said, it just plain works. Enjoy!
