The promise of a a great Terroir
Geography
The geography of Lucca has cooler climatic conditions and higher rainfall than the rest of Tuscany: this explains the composition of the traditional blends which, for centuries, have combined Sangiovese with more precocious vines such as Merlot, Ciliegiolo and Syrah. In a situation of global warming this configuration was particularly advantageous and made the area very interesting for the development of quality wines. Wines that are perhaps less exuberant and less concentrated than those of southern Tuscany, but much more subtle and elegant. A bit like Burgundy wines compared to Bordeaux ones.
In Pieve S. Stefano all our work tends to express the complex aromas of this particularity in the best possible way and makes our wines elegant, fresh and easy to drink.
The position of our estate offers a particularly favorable environment to the grape culture: the altitude of the vineyards, between 180 and 290 m, the South-East / South-West exposure, the ventilation, the inclination between 10% and 20%, the temperature variations accentuated by the presence of the surrounding woods… everything contributes to an optimal ripening of the grapes and the freshness of the wines, endowed with the complexity of the typical aromas of our terroir.
Geology and pedology
The high draining capacity of our soils, natural or reinforced (in particular in clayey areas), allows us to exploit the contribution in water without problems for a proper health of the vineyards, in order to obtain structure in our wines. The morphological variety of the soils and subsoils (soil in general loam-clay, rich in mineral elements and poor in organic matter) gives our wines a complementarity of structure and aromatic intensity.