Tuscany, Italy
IGT Toscana
One of our favourite of the avant-garde wineries of Tuscany is Salcheto. New generation winemakers swept through the, quite frankly, outdated methodologies of years past to totally revitalize a winery that was caught in the lacklustre affairs of generic winemaking. Think of Italy's burgeoning natural wine scene as the Italian Renaissance 2.0, a transformation from the Middle Ages of wicker basket Chianti to the modernity of low-intervention juice. Fitting then that the renaissance of the 15th century also started in Tuscany, no?
The transformation from sharecropping farm to innovative leader in wine and estate management happened under the watchful eye of Michele Manelli, who has helmed Salcheto since 1997. The work in estate management is particularly unbelievable with their off-grid cellar considered a model of environmental efficiency and technological innovation (literally award-winning) and an integrated environmental estate management model (GHG, Water, Biodiversity) which has achieved premiere world status in indexing of Carbon and Water Footprint. All that to say, Salcheto is walking the walk and talking the talk on sustainability, reducing environmental impact and in minimizing their carbon footprint.
Even better, the wines are so delicious and fun. Obvius is Salcheto's all-natural lineup and the Bianco Toscana is a slick mix of organically and biodynamically farmed Trebbiano and Vermentino. The 2021 is slightly less savoury than 2020 with nectarine, wild flowers and light honey highlighting the beautiful aromatic profile. The palate has richness and complexity with crisp yellow apples and pink grapefruit featured alongside the light honey and nectarine. Fairly mild acidity but certainly enough to maintain freshness. Once again, an intriguing and highly quaffable rendition of this beautiful white from Tuscany and Salcheto.
Best enjoyed lightly chilled as an aperitif or with Dan Dan noodles, chicken kabobs, veggie stir-fry or lightly fried foods. Really though, there's a wide world of food pairing options so have fun with it cause that's kinda the point of this kind of wine.