If 13th July was an important date for Mamba Nero, the fundamental event for the business occurred a few days earlier: in those days we had in fact, defying the anger of the gods with extremely high temperature, begun planting the young vines in the Montefioralle vineyard: We planted mainly Sangiovese but without forgetting Teroldego, its inseparable travelling companion (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!).
It will clearly be some time before the Vineyard becomes productive, but we are already using this time for further improvements (our intention in the future is to obtain certification for “biological” or “natural” wine), to offer our fellow diners not only other high quality wines but also the opportunity to come and taste them with us – at zero food miles – on the banks of our lake, overlooking the settlement of Montefioralle.
Wine tourism and, perhaps one day, farmstays are a crowning necessitude for the quality of our wines: with these in mind, as well as the continuing efforts to improve Mamba Nero, we are also making plans for a pure Tuscan Teroldego, which will be called “Lo scorbutico” (literally “the grumpy one”), as we have humorously nicknamed this vine for its August habit of twisting its head and turning its back on us.
We also have subsequent plans to begin production of a Chianti Classico.
As for the vineyards, as well as the development of the Montefioralle vines and careful maintenance at Greti, we are also planning to push ourselves even further by planting some rows of Tempranillo, a Spanish and very interesting vine..
Finally, considering that we have (both at Greti and Montefioralle) some rows of Trebbiano and white Malvasia, we will eventually extend to the general market an exquisite Vin Santo, which for the moment is only available to us.
Work has already begun on the banks of the lake where, for our visitor centre, a structure will be erected to permit the tasting of our produce.
The entire project will, however, always respect our philosophy: there are lessons to be learnt on everything from everyone. Whomsoever lives in the countryside and from the countryside knows that tomorrow may destroy everything you have achieved today. Bad weather can destroy it all, but not our passion. We respect everything and fear nothing: we know that at the finish, as in any honest confrontation, only two bottles will remain on the table: different histories, different labels, different vines, different aging processes, different prices. Into our bottle we have put all of ourselves and will face every challenge with heads held high: we will never tire of gambling and taking a chance.
