Silvio Messana, once a New Yorker, returned with his family to his mother’s farm in Chianti Classico in the mid-1990s, eventually transforming the inherited vineyards into Montesecondo. Motivated by his wife Catalina’s insistence on avoiding chemicals and guided by biodynamic pioneers like Nicolas Joly and Stefano Bellotti, Silvio shifted the estate toward natural farming and spontaneous fermentations, building much of the winery himself. His contiguous 11.5 hectares of Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Colorino, and Cabernet Sauvignon sit on a sun-rich south-facing ravine, and by 2003 he completed his first vintage fermented only with native yeasts. A tank-aged Chianti he bottled that year was rejected twice for DOCG status—ironically deemed “atypical” despite its traditional makeup—leading him to release it as IGT and highlighting growing tensions between tradition and bureaucracy in Italian wine law. Over time, Silvio expanded both his approach and his vineyards: he introduced amphora-aged wines like Tïn, embraced tiny quantities of Trebbiano, and in 2013 began farming an additional six hectares of high-elevation Sangiovese biodynamically, adding greater brightness and complexity to his IGT Rosso as his thoughtful, ever-evolving winemaking journey continues.
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