Cava D'Onice
(Winery in Montalcino, Val d'Orcia, Crete Senesi)
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Piacevole Esperienza!
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Anna
About Winery and Wines
Cava d’Onice entered the superb world of Brunello di Montalcino in 2005, when Simone – owner and winemaker – decided to buy his father’s winery (Colombaio). From that time up to nowadays a lot of work and efforts have been done. Simone approached the wine world when he was a young boy. His father, who worked for a long time in one of the most important families of the Brunello di Montalcino, has been his first mentor. When Simone started this activity with his father, everything was considered a “play”: a hobby as they like to say.
The vineyard they firstly owned and which is still there, is less than one hectare and counts a few rows. The first vintages they released were the Brunello di Montalcino D.O.C.G. Colombaio 2000 with 266 and Rosso di Montalcino D.O.C. 1997, a couple of bottles more. As soon as the wine reached the demand, the wine world started to be a real business and the hundreds bottles became thousands. The single vineyard became a small conglomerate of parcels: the most important represented by Vigna Cava d’Onice, from where the winery name takes its origins. This winery is the intimate expression of their connection with the territory, with its traditions and rules. Here they grew up and here they live, trying to convey to their children the joy of these values.
Being a small family farm means to have a capillary quality control. All the wine making processes is supervised by Simone: from the beginning with the manual harvesting up to the end, the bottling of these beautiful wines. The working methods of the estate embraced the organic model several years ago, however the official conversion took place in September 2017.
In 2020 the family reached a 6 hectares of planted area, with a very diversified soil texture and microsystem.
All of our wines are made by 100% Sangiovese. Today the main line of production includes: the Rosso di Montalcino D.O.C., the Brunello Colombaio, which is the single vineyard wine i.e. a cru, and the Brunello Cava d’Onice, a blend of the various vineyards the family owns. Last but not least the Brunello di Montalcino Riserva.
The most important part of the wine-making process develops in the cellars. Here, the production is divided per vineyard and separately processed. Each vineyard and lately each wine has its own vinification, ageing process and time.
The Brunello ageing process varies according to the different vintages, which goes from 28 to 36 months. The barrels, made by French and Slavonian oak, have a capacity of 5 HL up to 35 HL. Specifically, the biggest barrels are used to age the Brunello Cava d’Onice, whilst the smaller for the Colombaio, which includes a passage in barrique.
The Brunello Riserva is produced in a limited amount – 2.000 bottles carefully hand numbered – only when Simone considers it appropriate. The Riserva born as a selection of specific bunches coming from all the different family vineyards. Unlike the regular Brunello, the vinification of the Riserva happens exclusively in wood.
Summing up the Cava d’Onice development in numerical terms. The family started with 266 bottles of Brunello di Montalcino Colombaio. The later introduction of the Brunello Cava d’Onice 2005 – first vintage – counted an amount of 2.000 bottles.
In 2010, thanks to the new lands, which started to be productive, the numbers increased even more. The Brunello production became 10.000 bottles and the Rosso di Montalcino 4.000. Nowadays, the yearly production reached the 15.000 bottles of the D.O.C.G. wine and 7.000 to the Rosso.
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