Gagliole

The history of Gagliole is a story full of love and passion: back in 994 AD, the son of the Lombard king Berengario gave the present-day Gagliole estate to his wife as a wedding gift. Monika had already fallen in love with the historic manor house and the surrounding countryside years earlier during a vacation in Castellina. Only then did she fall in love with her future husband. Monika and Thomas Bär-Bettschart have owned Gagliole since 1990. Once Monika & Thomas tasted a wine a local producer created from his own grapes, they decided to embark on a new adventure and become winemakers. The family bought the other part of the estate, known as "la Valletta", in Panzano, in 2011. Today the estate spans 22 hectares across three distinct areas in Chianti Classico.

In Castellina in Chianti, approximately 420 metres above sea level, we have eight hectares of vineyards planted on the famous traditional dry stone wall terraces. Many of these surround the various buildings of the estate in a hemicycle with west, south-west, south-east and east exposure. UNESCO declared these unique terraces to be a world heritage site in 2019. There's another 10 ha of vineyards on the edge of the famous Conca d'Oro, (the golden shell), which is one of the finest subzones in Classico. All the vineyards have a similar, very rare soil composition which is characterised by the well-known Pietraforte. This ancient limestone is the basis for the structure, intensity and aromatic complexity of Gagliole wines. These ten hectares are planted with Sangiovese, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon vines that grow at an altitude of 500 m above sea level on clay soil mixed with Pietraforte. Therefore, the soil maintains a very good level of moisture which enables the vines to develop strong and deep roots.

Thomas Baer left as the owner of the largest private Swiss bank in the world, Julius Baer, to make wine in Tuscany. Cesare Panti and Giulio Carmassi head up the winemaking team and draw on years of experience of making wine both in Chianti Classico and around the world. Since 2016, organic farming has been across the entire estate, but the specific activities and timings vary at each location according to local conditions. Built and designed with the utmost respect for the territory in which it is located, our new cellar completed in 2019, is an example of sustainability combined with the respect of the surrounding environment. All of the energy used in the cellar, the wine storage warehouse and the new offices come from a geothermal and solar energy system. There have been some recent changes in their winemaking, blending and reducing the amount of new oak. These changes are beneficial because Gagliole's wines are now more redolent than their terroir.

The differences between the terroirs of Panzano and Castellina are advantageous because they enable Gagliole to offer seven wines, comprising two whites and five reds. They include Gallule (a Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva, 100% Sangiovese from Castellina) and Pecchia (a 100% Sangiovese IGT only from Panzano made only in the best years). Pecchia is grown in our vineyards in Panzano in Chianti, planted at an elevation of 500 metres on the northwest ridge of the Conca d'Oro. Matured 18 months in French oak barrels and an additional year in the bottle, Pecchia is a single-varietal Sangiovese made only in the finest growing years. The flagship Gagliole wine combines Sangiovese with a small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon from Panzano, while Valletta blends Sangiovese from Castellina with Merlot from Panzano. Rubiolo is Gagliole's entry-level red, an "annata" wine, which is now 100% Sangiovese rather than a blend.