Clochard La Calcinara 2023

"Everything we seek is under our feet, in the authentic character of the sandstones, in the white rock, in the scent of the sea and the woods. Making wines that had the ability to send you back to these places and that had the blood bond with our territory was our choice. Wines that can tell the story of Contrada Calcinara and declare who we are."

Vineyards grow on clayey-sandy soil, definitely calcareous, with layers of tuff at a depth varying from 10 cm to 2 m from the surface. The presence of a large number of fossils of marine origin hints at the origin of the soil and heralds the mineral richness of its wines. Furthermore, in conjunction with easterly and north-easterly winds such as the Bora, it is sometimes possible to observe an unusual white powder on the surface of the berries consisting of sea salt carried by the wind.

The influence of the sea can be clearly seen in wines, which are savory, with subtle tannin.

In this natural landscape, Montepulciano grows in all its vigour and it expresses its potential, offering a unique experience in its complexity every year. 

The climate is characterised by the combination of typically continental elements with others that are distinctly Mediterranean, which mitigate the rigours of winter and the heat of summer. Winters are moderately cold and wet (average January +5 °C), with fairly frequent precipitation and fog and snowfall in the hills. The summer, on the other hand, is hot and rather sultry (average August +22.5 °C), due to the proximity of the sea. The periods at the end of September and October are generally cool and with significant temperature swings between night and day, allowing for considerable aromatic richness.

The company was established in 1997 in Contrada Calcinara di Candia (Ancona), as a result of Mario Berluti's experience in the wine-growing and oenological sector and, above all, his intuition that the soil composition of the Candia hills was an excellent location for the development of vines. This is how, in 1999, the first 4 hectares of Montepulciano vines were planted in the 20 hectares of the property, trained by the spurred cordon system. The project is to bring the Montepulciano vine to its maximum expression, enhancing its merits and highlighting the interaction that this vine is able to express with the Candia soils. This is why the new wine cellar was established in 2005, and it was not until 2007 that the first Folle was born.
In the meantime, the vineyards have been expanded to a total of 11,5 hectares, and the first monovarietal oils have been produced from the 2,5 hectares of olive groves.
The whole family takes part in the entire production cycle, from pruning the vines to harvesting the grapes in small boxes, from ageing in oak barrels to marketing the wine.

At every harvest, in October, the grapes are picked in small boxes. A perfect, healthy grape, rich in everything that is available from the soil and the plant. The berry thus becomes a precious casket in which the vine, like a mother, shelters the seed and substances useful for its life. Sugars to make the fruit more appetising, organic acids for longer longevity, phenolic substances to protect. And then the aromas, those fragrances that make the wines recognisable and different from each other. In the light of all this, it is easy to understand how the wine cellar is a place where we maintain and respect to the maximum those qualities contained in the fruit, the same ones for which we have sweated and worked throughout the year. In the modern wine-making cellar, we therefore want to preserve these qualities and steer our wine towards one stylistic path rather than another, according to our choices, highlighting its fruity richness or preparing it for a long ageing process. Hygiene, cleanliness and meticulous care of the cellar make it an experimental laboratory, where the help of modern equipment makes it possible to choose the right formula for each vintage and then make it possible.

Ageing. In the barrel, wine ages, or as it is perhaps more accurate to say, matures. A calm, forward-looking place where millions of reactions take place in the silence of the barrels. Large oak barrels that mature the Terra Calcinara and barriques that house the Folle. It is here where one must know how to wait. And if you are not able, you will learn.