Overview:

• La Spinetta Casanova is situated 35km south east of Pisa, nestled among the Pisa hills, it benefits from the cooler and more humid ocean breeze
• The Estate combines 65 hectares (150 acres) of old and young Sangiovese, Colorino and Vermentino vineyards as well as a recently built cellar.
• All Tuscan wines are exclusively made from Estate grown grapes of indigenous varieties
• First vintage was Sezzana 2001, first vintage made in the new cellar was Il Nero di Casanova 2004
• In 2008 the cellar construction was 100% completed
• Current wines:

Il Nero di Casanova: 100% Sangiovese, grapes come from young vines, annual production 140.000 bottles

Il Colorino di Casanova: 100% Colorino, grapes come from young and old vines, annual production 15.000 bottles

Il Gentile di Casanova: 100% Prugnolo Gentile (Sangiovese clone, mainly used in Montepulciano), grapes come from young and old vines, annual production 15.000 bottles

Toscana Vermentino: 100% Vermentino

Sassontino Riserva: 100% Sangiovese Cru, grapes come from vines older than 35 years of age, annual production 8.000 bottles, release in 2012

Sezzana Riserva: 100% Sangiovese Cru, grapes come from vines older than 40 years of age, annual production 8.000 bottles, release in 2012

L’olio di Casanova: extra vergine made from “Razzo”, "Leccino" and "Muraiolo” olives, approximately 1.000 olive trees with an average age of 50 years provide an annual production of 5.000 bottles (0.5l). At the beginning of October the olives are handpicked and immediately taken to the winery, where they get cold pressed at our own press at 25 to 27 degrees. Bruno Rivetti discovered his passion for olive trees and oil production, when he moved to Casanova.
The moment of harvest is essential to the quality of the oil. The later one picks the olives, the riper the olives will be. With riper olives one can produce more olive oil, while gradually losing quality of the fruit. This is why we pick our olives as early as possible. We make our olive oil with the same philosophy, that we make our wine. The quality of the fruit matters above all.

• The Casanova cellar is build entirely into the ground of a hillside facing 50 hectares of vineyards. The winery, 7.000 m2 is equipped with the most modern technology, air-conditioning, floor heating, use of gravitation and temperature controlled steal tanks as well as rotofermentors make cellar work more convenient and help avoiding mistakes in the wine making progress
• Maceration is exclusively done in rotofermentors
• Aging is done in new and one passage used frenchoak Tourneau barrels.

How did the Rivetti family end up in Tuscany?

 An Estate this size was actually never planned. Just ten years ago, the Rivetti brothers would not have dreamt to one day run a Tuscan winery this important and big. But if one Domino stone gets into motion, the others fall and the movement is difficult to stop… The first stone was tipped over by Giorgio Rivetti, whose philosophy of only using indigenous varieties, made him severely criticize his Tuscan winemaking colleagues. Giorgio did not understand why in Tuscany the producers were ripping out beautiful old Sangiovese vineyards in order to make space for young Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Mostly wanting to serve a global taste market. Often these discussions ended in verbal fights. During one of these disagreements, one Tuscan producer challenged Giorgio by accusing him that he can just talk and criticize. Perhaps it was time he said, that Giorgio tried to make some good Sangiovese himself. If he did, he would have to realize, that it was not so easy. Giorgio took on the challenge. Once agreed, Giorgio felt, that there was no going back. He had to make Sangiovese and face the challenge. He immediately started looking for old Sangiovese vineyards in the area of Pisa.

The 2001 Sezzana was the result of this challenge. After the acquisition of a Cru vineyard near Casciana Terme, the grapes were transported in cooled trucks to Castagnole Lanze winery in Piedmont and 10.00 bottles of Sezzana 2001 were made.

With the success of this wine, everybody was of the opinion, that La Spinetta had met the challenge. Nobody was aware, that the Rivettis’ friend, Gabriele, who lived in Tuscany, was looking for further Sangiovese vineyards. In 2002 Gabriele offered another Sangiovese Cru vineyard, Sassontino near Terricciola (Casanova) to the Rivetti brothers. Also this Cru had beautiful old Sangiovese vines, of which one no doubt could make another very good single vineyard wine. In addition to the vineyard the owner was looking to sell 50 hectares of land. The price of the land seemed very reasonable, especially since the Rivettis were used to prices in Piedmont. The family felt, that they could not turn down this offer and ended up with 4 hectares of old Sangiovese and 50 hectares of surrounding land, that was yet to be planted with vines. Needless to say, with so many hectares of vines and potential vineyards, in 2004 La Spinetta started building its third winery at Casanova.

Two very special wines:

Just recently released are two new Tuscan wines, which are both a bit unusual and require some explanation. Il Nero di Casanova 2005 and Il Gentile di Casanova 2005.

Il Colorino di Casanova is made of 100% Colorino, a Tuscan indigenous variety that in the past was always in small percentages blended into Sangiovese. Why wines made of 100% Colorino are rare to find, most people don’t know. Colorino, one can guess by its name, not only adds a beautiful dark red color to the wine, when blended into Sangiovese (our cellar man, when working with the Colorino at harvest time, still has stained hands at Christmas) but gives the wine structure and tannins. Colorino is nevertheless known as rather bitter and harsh, a grape variety that on its own cannot impress. Thirty or forty years ago, wine producers have planted Colorino mixed into the Sangiovese. It was common to plant approximately 5% Colorino. Unfortunately Colorino and Sangiovese do not ripen at the same time. The Colorino needs about two more weeks than the Sangiovese. Most producers however harvest the Colorino together with the Sangiovese. When blending Colorino, unripeness matters little, but if you intend to make a single variety wine, this error is fatal. La Spinetta harvests Colorino separately and waits until this variety with its tannins are ripe.

Il Gentile di Casanova 2005 is made of 100% Prugnolo Gentile, a Sangiovese clone that is synonymous for Montelpuciano. Although this clone is unusual for the area, La Spinetta acquired Prugnolo vines together with the two Cru vineyards. This implies, that forty to fifty years ago the local producers had already worked with this elegant Sangiovese variety. Since the La Spinetta Terricciola terroir and climate does great justice to this clone, the Rivettis planted also Prugnolo Gentile, after they had bought the 50 hectares of land.

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