Tenuta di Carleone ‘Il Guercio’ Toscana IGT 2020 750ml

About Tenuta di Carleone

While Tenuta di Carleone di Castiglioni seems like a new estate — it was established only in 2012 — this winery in Radda, Chianti, has a long history behind it. The monks of Badia al Coltibuono founded the first winemaking venture on these lands in 1078, and the Carleone’s 494 acres (74 under vine) had been home to various winemaking enterprises for centuries. The modern age of Carleone was born when Austrian businessman Karl Egger and his sister, Kristine, partnered with winemaker Sean O’Callaghan with a shared vision of creating ultra-elegant, terroir-driven, wholly natural wines. Today’s Carleone estate has spread beyond Radda with plots in Gaiole and Vagliagli as well. Sean, the “one-eyed bandit” who inspired the estate’s cult wine Il Guerico, employs a range of artisanal techniques in his winemaking that can include foot-stomping; using whole clusters; open-top fermentation in cement or wood; and aging in steel, vats, or amphorae — whatever he thinks will give the estate’s natural, unfiltered wines the greatest “bevibilità,” or drinkability.