About Soldera
Soldera is a small, prestigious estate located in the Montalcino zone of Tuscany, founded by Gianfranco Soldera in 1972. The winery is known for producing Brunello di Montalcino from organically farmed vineyards surrounding a naturalistic garden, using minimal intervention in both vineyard and cellar. Soldera's wines are aged for extended periods and are regarded among the most sought-after and long-lived expressions of Sangiovese in Italy.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Soldera
History
Soldera Case Basse was started by Gianfranco Soldera, born in Treviso in 1937, who ran an insurance brokerage in Milan until 2003. At the end of the 1960s he and his wife Graziella decided to buy land and make one of the best wines in the world. The search took a long time. In June 1972 they found Montalcino and the Case Basse estate, 23 hectares that had been left uncultivated for years and had no vines. They bought it two months later and planted the first Sangiovese that autumn, about 2 hectares, followed by roughly 4.5 hectares in 1973.
The first harvest was 1975, and the first Brunello was sold in 1982. From January 1976 Soldera worked with the master taster Giulio Gambelli, whom he credited for the high quality of the wines. Gianfranco Soldera died in February 2019. Graziella, together with Monica and Paolo, and Mauro and Valeria, carry the estate on.
The land and the vineyards
Case Basse sits at 320 metres above sea level in the southwest of Montalcino, on hilly ground of Eocene origin. The winery describes the soil as well drained, rich in minerals and not very fertile, with a dry, sunny climate. Of the 23 hectares, about 10 are planted with vines, a small size chosen so that all the work and the harvest can be done by hand and finished quickly.
The vines grow among many other plants, insects and animals. The estate uses no herbicides or other chemical products, feeds the soil only with organic material, and works the rows by hand. The Soldera family restored the old farm buildings in the Tuscan style, with dry stone walls that shelter swallows, robins and small mammals, and keeps beehives, fruit trees and a botanical garden.
The wines
Everything is 100 percent Sangiovese from the estate's own vineyards. Grapes are selected in the vineyard, again in the cellar, and finally berry by berry. Fermentation takes place in large Slavonian oak vats with the grapes' own native yeasts and no added ones, and the wine then ages for a long time in large oak casks. Today the wine is labelled Toscana IGP Soldera. Production averages about 15,000 bottles a year and is cut sharply when the weather makes a vintage fall short. The wines are sold in over 40 countries.
Today
The estate works with university research teams, including long running analysis with Professor Massimo Vincenzini's group, and the winery backs an international prize for young researchers. Tasting stays at the centre of the decisions: the lab data is there to support it, not to replace it.
- Founded
- 1972
- Area
- Montalcino, Tuscany
- Vineyards (hectares)
- About 10 planted, on a 23 hectare estate
- Main grapes
- Sangiovese
- Owners
- Soldera family