Montevertine Le Pergole Torte Toscana IGT 2022

The 2022 Le Pergole Torte is every bit as magnificent as it was last year. Deep and expansive in the glass, with stunning depth, the 2022 stains the palate with layers of dark fruit, mocha, new leather and cedar. The 2022 starts to blossom with just a bit of time in the glass, leading to a finish that explodes on the back end. As has been the case for some time, the differences between Montevertine and Pergole Torte are increasingly mostly about style. The 2022 spent a year in Damy French oak barrels followed by a second year in cask. It will require a number of years to shed some baby fat to be at its most expressive. Drink: 2032-2052. (Jul 2025)

Even after all these years, Montevertine remains a reference point in Chianti Classico. The young 2023s show the natural richness and volume of a year marked by a very hot summer. Conditions were more moderate in 2022. That comes through in wines that offer rich, layered fruit shaped by a warm, dry season tempered by a cool finish and a harvest that stretched into October. Readers will find a more classic Montevertine style in the 2022s, of course keeping in mind that is in today’s context, where the wines are much more approachable young than they once were. When I started tasting these wines in the 1990s, young vintages were hard as nails.

As a reminder, Pian del Ciampolo is the estate’s version of Chianti Classico. It is Sangiovese with a bit of Canaiolo and Colorino aged in cask. Montevertine is a more serious Sangiovese-based wine, also with Canaiolo and Colorino, from the estate’s younger vines and aged in cask. Pergole Torte is 100% Sangiovese from the estate’s oldest vineyards and top blocks that spends one year in French oak barrels and a second year in cask.

This year Montevertine is also releasing Il Duemileventuno di Sergio Manetti, a special bottling made to commemorate founder Sergio Manetti’s 100th birthday of that is a selection of Le Pergole Torte from the estate’s oldest vines planted 1968 and 1982 that spent two years in a single 16HL cask. When Sergio Manetti first conceived Le Pergole Torte, ripeness was hard to come by in Chianti Classico, especially in Radda. French oak helped give the wines some of the textural richness and depth that Mother Nature simply could not provide. Tasting this wine naturally begs the question as to whether French oak is truly necessary in Pergole Torte today given much warmer, drier growing seasons. These magnums will be quite expensive, but beyond that I wonder if this wine opens the door to a more contemporary style for Pergole Torte.

Montevertine is located in Radda, in the Chianti hills in Tuscany. The relatively young winery was started in 1967 when Sergio Manetti, a manufacturer of steel products, bought the property and planted five acres of grapes with the idea of producing wine for family and friends. But Manetti decided his first vintage in 1971 was good enough to take to a wine show. Encouraged by the wine’s popularity at the show, Manetti became a full-time winemaker. Over the decades his wines became known as premier Chiantis. Manetti died in 2000 but his son Martino Manetti now runs the family business. There are now nearly 45 acres of vineyards and about 75,000 bottles are produced annually. Grapes grown are Sangiovese, which make up 90% of the vineyards, as well as small amounts of Canaiolo and Colorino. Montevertine’s signature wine is the Pergole Torte, a 100% Sangiovese. Several other wines have small amounts of Canaiolo and Colorino.