Initially, Merlot was not our ‘glass of wine’. But the soil comes first, and a pure blue-clay bank (locally called mattaione) was a treasure we could not neglect. It took a few years to find a balance between the vehemence of the vines and the surly soil. These are terrible lands: cold and humid in rainy years, hard as rock in the summer sun.

In spite of all this, Appunto, our IGT Toscana Merlot, finally came into its own in 2015.

It was a hot summer – a vintage in which Merlot could fully express itself. We controlled the herbaceous and vegetal aspects of the vine with careful, precise management of the greenery. In short, everything went right, and the name came by itself.

Appunto is vinified and aged in concrete to preserve the authenticity of the fruit and the freshness of the taste.