We welcome back Luigi Maresca of Vinaiocaprese Imports as we are featuring six wines from his portfolio. The wines are from Pietracupa, Villa Le Prata, Sesta di Sopra, and Salicutti.

Pietracupa was founded in the early ‘90s thanks to Mr. Giuseppe Loffredo’s passion for wine. In 1999, Sabino, his son, decides to quit his job and dedicate his life to the winery with the same strong passion that his father once had. The vineyard, on the Prata P.U. area, is located at an altitude of 1,968 feet above sea level planted with 7 hectares of Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo, and Aglianico. The soil is clayey and chalky. Each vine is between 10 and 30 years old. The plants enjoy a south-eastern exposure on the hillsides of this beautiful region. Thanks to their great location, they benefit from a microclimate with adequate temperature excursions particularly favorable for the ripening of the grapes. About 20,000 bottles are produced.

Villa Le Prata was built in 1860 by Count De’ Vecchi as a hunting lodge. Afterward it became the countryside home for the bishop of Montalcino. In 1980 Massimo Losappio, chief surgeon of Montalcino hospital and his wife Marialuce, a philosophy teacher, purchased the Villa and, driven by their passion for wine and the pleasure to share with their friends the fruits of this generous land, planted the first hectare of vineyard near the Villa. Later on, with the absolute desire to enclose in a single bottle the most authentic atmosphere of the Montalcino terroir, two other vineyards were planted in the area of Castelnuovo dell’Abate. Their three vineyards, located in three different areas, make the perfect combination of elegance, aromas conveyed by altitude, and the body and structure of the land south of Montalcino.

Sesta di Sopra has a 44-hectare estate southwest of Montalcino and about four kilometers from Castelnuovo dell’Situated in Abate. It was acquired by the Spina family in 1980. The main house, believed to be an old lookout tower, was renovated before a two-hectare area covered with olive trees was built. After that, vines were planted on a further two hectares of land. In less than ten years, Sesta di Sopra has become a leading Brunello producer. The first vintage of aristocratic wine was pressed in 1999.

The Salicutti winegrowing estate, owned by legendary Munich restaurateurs Felix and Sabine Eichbauer of Tantris fame, is a place of untamed beauty located in the southeastern corner of Montalcino. The precise history of the property, which lies roughly two hours from Florence, have been lost to the mists of time, but at least the origins of its name are clear: it refers to the stream that marks the estate’s southern boundary. Certainly few would have expected this patch of land to become a cradle for grand terroir when Francesco Leanza first tilled it almost 30 years ago. The estate house and cantina now form the heart of an enclosed 11-hectare cosmos, including 4.5 hectares of vines, an olive plantation and forest. “The land preceded us; it now nourishes our vines, and it will be here when we are gone,” Sabine and Felix Eichbauer affirm — a mantra that encapsulates their abiding respect for nature and its creatures and their growing concern about the impact of humans and the technology of culture.