Podere Collelungo or Collelungo is an estate winery in Località Collelungo in Castellina in Chianti in the Chianti Classico DOCG region of Tuscany. Tony Rocca, a London-based journalist, and his wife Mira who worked in the travel business, wanted to move to Tuscany, aiming to create an agritourism business. The estate they bought, Collelungo, also came with a vineyard, which until 1996 had been rented to Rocca delle Maciè. The couple hired Alberto Antonini as consultant in 1997, the latter swapping his job with Antinori with his own independent consultancy. Tony Rocca later sold Collelungo to the Cattelan family (in the furniture business) whose first vintage was 2001.

Owner: The Cattelan family. The family of Lorenzo Cattelan (from Vicenza) and his wife, Monica Sarrolo. Neither Monica nor Lorenzo studied wine.

Vineyards: 2005 24 hectares of vines in total. Of these, 12 hectares are at Collelungo of which roughly 8ha was in production, giving about 1,000hl of wine of which 750hl was sold in bulk. The Collelungo vines are at 540-570 metres (1,650 feet). Stoney, calcareous soils. High so slow ripening. In addition, there are 11ha in two other sites. At Campo Cerchi (the name of their best wine) there is 1ha; and at Santa Maria, which is on the road to Panzano in Chianti there are 8ha. They have 1.50ha of old vines dating from the 1970s. | 2014 The estate comprised 94 hectares (225 acres) of land, of which 19ha (45 acres) are planted with Sangiovese, with 2ha (5 acres) of Merlot. The soil is both ‘alberese‘ (limestone) and ‘galestro‘ (friable clay-schist). All south facing. Vine densities have been progressively raised to over 5,500 vines per hectare (2,250 an acre), trained with the Tuscan arched-cane system for the older vines and cordon-trained, spur-pruned for the most recent.

Winemaking: Wide stainless steel vats for fermentation. Punch downs. French oak barrels.

Red wines

Chianti Classico DOCG, Rovereto: 1997 First vintage. Made by Tony Rocca. | 2000 Tony Rocca’s final vintage.

Chianti Classico DOCG, Collelungo:

Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva, Campo Cerchi:

Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva, Collelungo:

Other activitiesAgritourism | 12 holiday apartments for rent plus a private large villa with private swimming pool.

Contact

Collelungo

Podere Collelungo, Loc. Collelungo

53011 Castellina in Chianti (SI), Italy

Tel+39 0577.740849 | Website: www.collelungo.com/en

Bibliography

Richard Baudains, ‘Meet the neighbours’, Decanter Italy Supplement, 2001, p.24-30.