Vignamaggio Winery

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The wedding is at a 700 year old winery in the Chianti region named Vignamaggio. For a wine to be called a Chianti wine, the grapes must be grown, processed and every step of the formation of the wine must be completed within the borders of the Chianti region.

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The Chianti region is prime for the growing of the grapes because of many reasons. The soil is extremely nutrient rich, and the weather is warm enough, but not too warm because of the cool winds.

Global warming has even begun to affect this process. In the last hundred years, because of the warming, the alcohol content in Vignamaggio wines has risen from 12% to 13.5%, a huge jump. While in the short term this is great, it is a scary long term thought since the grapes need such delicate conditions to thrive.

Each grape is grown in different areas of the winery, depending on which area gets the best sunlight. Different grapes need different amounts of sunlight, care and maturing time and so each area is split up and different grapes never cross paths on the way to becoming wine.

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The normal Vignamaggio wine is aged in wood barrels for a year. The barrels allow for air to slowly seep into the wine over time to help oxidize it.

The special Vignamaggio reserve wine is kept in smaller barrels in the back and aged for two years. The reserve wine is kept to such high standards that it is not even released during certain years if the conditions were not perfect.

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Well water is still used, although the soil has such a great composition that it does not need to be irrigated. Different soil compositions help to add different notes of flavor to each wine, although my palette is not very refined. I am not very good at noticing 'plum' or 'white pepper' notes in the wines.

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