Tenuta Regaleali: Vigna San Francesco Chardonnay 2022

One of the most exciting challenges for the company’s leaders. In the mid-1980s, the project began to create a wine of the highest quality and status from the world’s most famous and widely planted white grape variety. The San Francesco vineyard was planted in 1985 by Lucio Tasca on the lower part of the slope on soil that was more fertile than the average Regaleali soils due to a deeper active layer and a special freshness caused by lower rainwater runoff.

The clone material partly comes from Burgundy. The cultivation area extends over about 5 hectares with a planting scheme of 2.60 meters by 1.20 meters (3,200 plants per hectare) at an altitude of 520 to 532 meters. It is a remarkably deep, well-structured soil, although the roots do not extend deeper than 70 centimeters.

The fermentation of the grapes takes place in 350-liter barrique barrels made of French oak, 70% new wood and 30% wood used for the second time, with daily bâtonnage for the first 10-15 days, then weekly for the remaining 8 months of aging.

Chardonnay is a very early-ripening grape variety that usually ripens in Regaleali between late August and early September, with only slight variations from vintage to vintage.