Mastrojanni
The Vineyards
The Winery
The People
Extension: 59 acres
Clay, tuff, ancient limy river pebbles, sandstone and almost forty-year-old vines give us the finest grapes.
We are in Montalcino, in the hamlet of Castelnuovo dell’Abate.
The 13th century observation tower which then became the Poderi Loreto and San Pio culminates on the hill at a height of 400 metres, two kilometres from the Orcia River mouth, between the Rocca d’Orcia and Castiglione d’Orcia.
200 m below, the famous overflow river passes.
The vineyards look to the south, south-east, some to south-west. The woods and steep rocks are dispersed like leopard spots. Each has its own geological characteristic: those to the south-east have more clay and tuff with sandstone inserts. The river conglomerate with limy pebbles can be found in the south and south-west facing vineyards.
These are in any case very sparse lands with very low yield which require the vines to have years and years of rooting in order to reach the nutrients they need. For this reason the oldest vines give the best wines, such as that from the famous vigna Cru Schiena d’Asino which takes its name from the shape of the hill, positioned south-east to south-west.
Schiena d’Asino and other vineyards have even more plants than they did in 1975. As one died it was substituted with a new vine to maintain the average age of the vineyard for as long as possible.
Production: 70.000 bottles
Our elders did not have cement to throw or iron to strengthen. Only bricks and mortar. But their buildings are beautiful, long-living and irradiate a very pleasant harmony for everyone. This is why we decided to build “in the old way” and my son, Ernesto Illy drew up a plan in bioarchitecture for a new wing of the wood ageing cellar. Stone gabions to hold back the thrust of the hillside in which the cellar is buried, construction walls and brick arches full of terracotta, wooden beams and chestnut flanges and terracotta bricks are the building materials used.
We have adapted ourselves to this imperative of nature knowing that it would give us resounding results and our philosophy comes from this: intervening as little as possible in the vineyard and in the cellar, being able to preserve – in the transformation phase – the wonder that nature has provided these grapes maintaining their aromas and structure intact.
It is a simple philosophy, almost Zen, which above all requires great humility and visceral respect for its master.
Man is not used to acting as a disciple in front of nature, but it is the only way to make fine wines, because this – notwithstanding our long experience and all of our knowledge – each year teaches us something: only this opening to learning enables us to understand, learn and improve.
Proprietor: Illy family
Winemaker: Andrea Machetti, Maurizio Castelli
It was in 1975 that lawyer, Gabriele Mastrojanni bought the San Pio and Loreto estates and decided to plant his first vineyards, of which part are still producing our wines today. He came to Montalcino in 1975 and immediately decided to make a wine that would have made history. As he got older he found help in his children and the young Andrea Machetti who took the reins of the company in 1992 transforming it into one of the most highly respected producers in Montalcino.
Andrea is a man of few words and by now knows each of the estate’s vines perfectly. He knows how to grow them and make them feel good bringing ripe fruit year after year because he is there, always there, following every single detail, from a barrel which needs to be replaced or planed to a plant in need of help.
And he knows that this is the only way to make a fine wine: to be at its beck and call.
In those days, already a friend for a long time with Andrea, the poet and winemaker Maurizio Castelli arrived. A world famous winemaker for his fine wines, Maurizio is like Andrea and like the rest of us a “non-interventionist”: he tries to leave the wine to carry out its own evolution, dictated by its own nature.
But it is clear that a winemaker is like a doctor, and he has to know when there is a problem and how to cure it. His trick, like that of the best doctors, is “prevention”. Or rather working in a preventative fashion, through a careful and continuous presence in the winery and systematically controlling in order to protect the wine from any possible “colds” that might attack it.
In this way, thanks to the set up created by Andrea and Maurizio, Mastrojanni wines are free from those rather common interventions which make a wine more “constructed” than “natural”.
Paolo Pellizzari (left), Andrea Machetti (right)