Chianti Classico in the 1960s hadn’t changed a whole lot for a few centuries. Land management and agricultural activities were based on the sharecropping system and, as far as wine was concerned, the focus was on quantity, not quality.
That was the situation Enzo Morgante found when he arrived at San Felice, a small hamlet in the Castelnuove Berardenga commune of Chianti Classico, in 1967. Despite the fact that the Sangiovese vines were planted in wide rows interspersed with olive trees, Morgante believed in the potential of the grape variety.
He began replanting the vineyards, as did many leading estates in the Chianti Classico region. In 1968, Morgante introduced a wine from 100 percent Sangiovese called Vigorello. Wine Spectator senior editor Bruce Sanderson recently tasted a Vigorello vertical back to 1969; here are his non-blind scores and tasting notes.
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