Tenuta Casali

About Winery and Wines

Tenuta Casali was founded in 1978 when the Casali brothers, Valerio and Paolo, took over their grandfather Mario’s farm in Mercato Saraceno, which lies along the Savio Valley in the Appenine hills of Romagna at an altitude of 525 - 800 feet (160 - 240 meters). The estate now consists of 123 acres (50 hectares) of which 44 acres (18 hectares) are under vine, varying in age from 13-28 years. We are dedicated to producing quality wines without forgetting the wine growing traditions of Romagna that were handed down from grandpa Mario and which continue to be passed down from generation-to-generation. In fact, to keep with this tradition the next generation of Casalis, Francesco, Daniele e Silvia, who just returned from an experience with a winery in California, are already at work beside their fathers.

Great care is taken in the vineyards where integrated and sustainable farming methods are practiced, grapes are harvested by hand and yields are low. The soil of the lower lying vineyards is stoney and has a medium consistency with underlying layers of gravel, while the Baruccia vineyard also contains white clay typically found in the ravines of the Romagna hills. The wines are bottled unfiltered. The mainstay of the estate is the indigenous Sangiovese grape which is raised in a unique area of Romagna, in the San Vicinio sub-zone, where the vineyards extend over the terraced and slightly inclined fluvial banks of the Savio River, thus guaranteeing wide temperature excursions between day and night, despite the lack of altitude, the benefits of which are reflected in the intensity of the wines. Although the Sangiovese grape is a bit more renown in neighboring Tuscany the quality levels of Sangiovese based wines now being produced in Romagna are steadily on the rise and from a quality-to-price ratio the Sangiovese based wines of Romagna are quite hard to beat. Tenuta Casali’s terroir driven wines are emblematic examples of this. We would like to underline the important role of our young and dynamic enologist, Emiliano Falsini.