Montesecondo
Silvio Messana is originally from Tuscany but has spent much of his adult life in New York. In 1999, he and his family decided to return to the village of Cerbaia in the Chianti Classico zone, where his father had bought a vineyard in 1963. Until then, all grapes had been sold to the local cooperative, but with Silvio at the helm, production quickly headed in a new and more ambitious direction. The year 2000 was his first Montesecondo vintage, and in 2003 Silvio moved away from conventional cultivation – heavily inspired by biodynamic pioneer Nicolas Joly – and in 2005 he completely stopped selling grapes to the cooperative.
Montesecondo produces classic and consistent wines, but is nevertheless regularly met with opposition from the authorities who inspect Chianti Classico, since his wines (quite intentionally) do not always live up to formal requirements for colour, acidity etc. As a result, he now only labels one wine Chianti Classico and give the rest of the wines the IGT Toscana label.
In the cellar, Silvio uses spontaneous fermentation along with no new casks, no fining and no filtration. Sulphur is only added in very small doses immediately before bottling if deemed necessary at all.
