An Icon of traditional Tuscan winemaking, Montenidoli has produced Vernaccia based whites that completely transcend the category. Elisabetta Fagiuoli is to Vernaccia what Eduardo Valentini was to Trebbiano. Organically farmed since the sixties, Elisabetta (and her Montenidoli estate) is the mother of the movement back towards sustainable viticulture in Italy. Her estate is high on the mountain just west of the town and the vineyards are perfectly exposed, meticulously farmed and totally buffered from the outside world. Believe it or not, the soils even at this altitude, are former sea floor beds thrust up during ancient times. The size of the remaining undisturbed mollusk shells is absolutely "Jurassic", while those that have broken down have given the distincly gray soil the necessary calcareous content so necessary for the development of complex aromatics in white wines. Rarely does the confluence of natural conditions converge on one spot so favorably for the production of world class wine.
