CANAIOLO DEI COLLI SENESI

The Canaiolo dei Colli Senesi of San Gregorio is one of the rarest wines in the UniqueWines portfolio — a 100% Canaiolo that represents a genuine rarity in the current Tuscan wine landscape, where this ancient variety is almost universally used only as a minor blending component in Chianti production rather than vinified in its own right. The estate's decision to produce a varietal Canaiolo is an act of both historical consciousness and genuine courage.

Canaiolo is one of the oldest documented grape varieties of Tuscany — present in the region's viticultural records since the medieval period, historically the primary companion of Sangiovese in the traditional Chianti blend before the variety's role was progressively reduced by the modern preference for pure Sangiovese expressions. In its own right, Canaiolo produces a wine of floral grace and medium structure — not the architectural seriousness of pure Sangiovese, but something lighter, more perfumed, and in its best expressions genuinely charming.

The fermentation takes place in cement for six to eight days — a shorter period than the estate's Chianti wines, appropriate to the lighter style that Canaiolo in purity delivers — followed by three months of bottle ageing. The resulting wine is ruby red with marked floral tones of roses — the rose note being among the most characteristic and most appealing aromatic signatures of Canaiolo in its most delicate expressions.

Of medium structure, fresh, and fragrant: these are the three qualities that the estate identifies in the Canaiolo, and they capture accurately what makes this wine genuinely distinctive. In an era when Tuscan reds increasingly compete on weight and concentration, the Canaiolo dei Colli Senesi offers a refreshingly different set of values.

Available through UniqueWines.