I stayed at the divinely comfortable Hotel Aprile in Florence, once the Palazzo Borgo. Situated close to the station and Piazza del Santa Maria Novella, a great starting off point for the surrounding countryside. Being so close to San Gimignano, I spent one morning as the guest of Pierluigi Giachi, the owner of the Tenuta Torciano estate. He drove me through the winding hills and most explicitly described the soil that he emphatically told me was the only difference between Chianti and Chianti Classico wine. The Chianti Classico soil was stony and very defined as such, the Chianti soil was clayey. Pierluigi waved his arms in pride at the many hectare he owns and said "that's it, soil, soil, soil, everything else he said is marketing, marketing, marketing"! Pierluigi uses only copper and sulphur to be rid of pests and there are no sulphites in his wines.
It was back in 1720 that Bartolomeo Giachi left Florence and moved to Ulignano where he and his family settled. He named it 'Tenuta Torciano' as the first stone was placed where the land was crossed by the 'Gully of Torciano'. Using time honoured methodology which has been handed down through generations to Pierluigi from Bartolomeo to his son Emanuele who, in turn, handed down to his son Gaetano and thus to Angelo, Alfredo, Romano and Pierluigi Giachi.
The green hills of Tenuta Torciano produce an excellent Chianti which is a wine of extremely ancient origin. It is also produced in the territories of Siena, Florence, Arezzo, Pistoia, Pisa and their provinces with grapes of Sangiovese, Canaoiolo Nero, Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia del Chianti in vineyards at altitudes of 280/550 meters. Only vineyards with soils consisting primarily of sandy, calcarious and marly subsoils, clayey schists and sand are considered suitable. Exposures and appropriate slopes are also important.
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