Azienda Agricola Le Chiuse

Located on the north side of Montalcino, Le Chiuse’s vineyards were once the source of Biondi-Santi’s riserva bottling. Fiorella Biondi Santi leased the vineyards to her brother, Franco, until her death in 1986; Simonetta Valiani, Fiorella’s daughter, and her husband, Nicolò 
Magnelli, began making wine in 1992. Their winemaker son Lorenzo joined them in 2006. Vine age determines the grapes for the Le Chiuse Rosso, Brunello and Brunello Riserva wines, along with the cluster size; smaller clusters are more concentrated and higher in acidity.

The estate consists of 18 hectares (44ac), with 8 hectares (19ac) planted to Sangiovese on the north to notheast side of the Montalcino Hill. Reaching up to 500 meters above sea level the vineyards are bordered with forest and olive plantations. Each year, Le Chiuse produces approximately 30,000 bottles of wine.

In the winery, movement of juice and must is done gently, powered by gravity to aid the preservation of phenolics. All fermentations are conducted with indigenous yeasts and Slavonian oak is used for the barrel maturation process. After a light filtering, the wines are bottle-aged in the winery for another period prior to release.