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2020 VINTAGE

EXCLUSIVE TO C&B IN ASIA (ECXL. TAIWAN, JAPAN AND KOREA)

INTRODUCTION

2020 will go down in history as the ‘Covid Vintage’.

Despite being a terrible and testing time across the world, vignerons were presented with a rare opportunity to entirely dedicate themselves to their vines. They were unable to travel and so were ‘on call’ to immediately react to the weather’s vagaries.

For the team at Soldera, who work mainly by hand and follow natural viticultural principles, the Covid lockdown afforded them time to further their haute-couture approach. The result is a sublime wine. This marks the second vintage without Gianfranco, yet the wine is as glorious as ever and without deviation from the family’s philosophy of producing an outstanding wine solely from the Sangiovese grape in southern Montalcino.

You will enjoy drinking this wine whenever you decide to open a bottle.

THIBAUT MATHIEU MANAGING DIRECTOR, CORNEY & BARROW ASIA

May 2025

THE WINE

Toscana IGP 100% Sangiovese Soldera® Case Basse® is simple to understand, made from 100% Sangiovese, grown across two different vineyards. Case Basse is the vineyard surrounding the winery, and Vina Intistieti sits to the southeast, a little further down the slope.

The wine is only made from the free run juice (or mosto fiore). They don’t add any press juice; the pomace is simply discarded. The must is naturally fermented (with indigenous yeast, naturally present on the grape’s skin) in large, open oak fermenters, without temperature control. At the end of fermentation, the wine is racked into large botti (traditional large oak casks, of several hundred litres in size) for a long period of élevage (ageing), in their naturally cool cellar. Some four years later, after bottling botti by botti, the wine is released to market.

To state the obvious, you need a crop of outstanding quality to achieve this result. You also need an exceptional terroir, overseen by a focussed and unremitting team who can negotiate each vintage’s variations to consistently produce a naturally superlative harvest. The details are important; Monica Soldera, with her husband Paolo and brother Mauro, are ably supported by their dedicated team to excel in exactly that. They have certainly all been well-trained by Gianfranco over several decades, and continue in the same spirit, with the experience to back them.

THE STORY

Soldera is located south of the town of Montalcino, in an area called Tavernelle. It is a site which was historically considered futile for viticulture and left fallow by locals until Gianfranco Soldera decided to purchase the land. There was nothing but a house, but guided by his intuition, he decided to plant his vineyards on this ‘virgin’ soil.

Gianfranco Soldera was a successful insurance broker in Milan in the 1960s, the city where he grew up. He was born in Treviso, Veneto, where his relatives owned a vineyard, introducing him to viticulture at a young age. In his mid-30s, he finally had the means to achieve his dream of making wine. After several exploratory visits to Italy’s famed wine regions, he decided on Montalcino, following his instinct after discovering the Case Basse property.

The Case Basse plot was purchased in 1972 and is named after the localita where the winery is situated. The nearby Intistieti plot was planted in 1973.

THE VINEYARD

Case Basse spans ten hectares and is divided into two sub-plots, planted only with Sangiovese.

The rocky soil has a high content of limestone and is welldraining. The vines are planted on a southwest exposure, benefiting from the high luminosity so typical in Tuscany.

The Intistieti vineyard comprises six hectares on slightly poorer soil and is 400 metres away (as the crow flies), around 10 metres lower in altitude than Case Basse. The exposure is very similar to the upper plot, and the view over the valley is impressive. At Intistieti, the vines are divided into four sub-plots and the vineyard benefits from the open sky and bright light.

The exposure to the elements was one of the key features that convinced the Soldera family to set up their winery in this secluded part of the appellation. Case Basse is 320–400m above sea level and benefits of cooling winds which help moderate the ever-increasing temperatures. The bright sunshine and long summer evenings are critical for the grapes to reach perfect ripeness. Interestingly, the forest acts as a buffer, creating a special microclimate.

The topsoil is composed of friable galestro, which is the typical limestone and schist composition found in Montalcino. The vines are planted at 3,300 plants per hectare and the vines’ trunks are left to grow tall, with the grape bunches hanging high at hip-level on the canes. The Soldera family cultivate the vineyard following the natural viticulture principles, working the soil and vines by hand. The canes are left uncut during the growing season to allow the root system to extend as deep as possible to find the necessary water and nutrients.

THE CELLAR

Gianfranco commissioned the architect Stefano Lambardi to build the perfect cellar to produce his wine.

It was completed in 2001. In line with Soldera’s philosophy of letting nature perform its magic, following Giafranco’s idea, Lambardi built a simple underground lair, without concrete or plaster. Rocks are encased in a wire netting and stacked on top of each other. The earth, just behind the casing, continues to exchange with the wine throughout the vinification and maturation. The humidity is constant, and the temperature is naturally low, thanks to the cellar being fourteen meters below the surface. An essential element in the design was for the wine to remain connected with the soil.

After harvesting by hand, the bunches are sorted twice upon arrival at the winery, destemmed but never crushed. The grapes are then loaded into truncated cone-shaped Slavonian oak fermenters for 28 to 35 days of spontaneous fermentation with natural yeast — the ‘famous’ GFS1 strain. This indigenous yeast was isolated and identified by the University of Firenze. It is wholly responsible for the alcoholic fermentation at Soldera, therefore being aptly christened ‘GianFrancoSoldera 1’, or GFS1.

When the fermentations are finished, the wine is then racked to the large botti where the new wine will age for an average of four years. During the élevage (maturation), the family conducts frequent tastings and chemical and microbiological analyses to follow the development of the wine. Racking is only performed when necessary to keep the perfect health of the wine and preserve its richness of taste.

When the family deems the wine ready, the bottles are filled directly from the casks, one by one. Soldera is never filtered. After bottling, the wine stays in the winery for a further six months before being shipped. Paolo Franco, who was Gianfranco’s long-term right-hand man, is now in charge of the whole operation at the winery and in the vineyard.

THE 2020 VINTAGE

with the words of Monica and Mauro Soldera

Buongiorno,

Here we are again in this moment of the year sharing with you some news about the two vintages that are leading our thoughts. Two vintages, 2020 and 2024, united by a feeling of gratitude and satisfaction for the achieved results, even though for different reasons.

The first is the result of regular climatic seasons but extraordinary due to the Covid pandemic, which required a new organization of winery activities in a challenging context, also from an emotional point of view. The second, however, is anomalous due to the weather conditions which required rigorous work to accompany the grapes to a maturation that, until the very end, did not allow predictions. Commitment, uncertainty, high risk, and confidence in nature.

We are grateful for both, and we hereby shortly introduce them.

2024 vintage, which was in general hot and rich in rainfall, was characterized by particularly extreme spring and summer trends. In midsummer, there were 59 days in which the maximum air temperature went above 30 degrees, and 21 days in which the maximum exceeded 35°C. The different climatic anomalies determined a gradual and specific ripening of the grapes for each individual plot, leading to a harvest divided by area and period, between mid-September and the first days of October.

In July, we bottled the 2020 vintage, a dry and mild year characterized by a spring with little rain and average temperatures, followed by a summer without climatic anomalies, very favourable conditions for a perfect maturation of our Sangiovese. Despite the unreal context in which we worked due to the pandemic, we were able to guarantee continuity to our work in the vineyards and also in the cellar, thanks to a careful organization aimed at protecting the health of the team.

Sincerely,

Monica and Mauro

SOLDERA 2020

We tasted the wine at Il Silene restaurant in Pescina, with Monica, Paolo and Mauro at dinner. Roberto Rossi, the owner and chef, is a long-time friend of the Solderas.

The first nose was intense, red fruited, with the signature purity of Soldera’s Sangiovese. Then, as it opened, the floral elements came out, always supported by this razor-sharp brightness and minerality. 2020 being a warm year, the colour is shiny garnet. On the palate, the wine was juicy, showing the classic aromas of ripe and fresh red berries. It is so elegant and balanced. A little aristocratic and spheric, this is a wine of volume and perfect curves. The finish was long and precise with a touch of sweetness at the end, begging for another glass. The wine is ripe, for sure, but not marked by any sign of over maturity, on the contrary. It is well born and naturally beautiful.

Corney and Barrow score 19 - 19.5

Recommended drinking dates 2025 - 2040+

WHEN AND HOW TO DRINK SOLDERA

I make no apologies for repeating the below again:

I feel strongly, and more so every year, that the many different ways (though the more sensitive school is winning out thankfully) in which “Brunello” is made can lead to some popular misconceptions that should not be applied to Soldera. Gianfranco was always very definite on how his wines should be served. The wine should always be served cool, at what one might refer to as cellar temperature, allowing time to open and evolve. It should not be decanted. If a decanter must be used for an older bottle, then it should be as narrow and as close to bottle shape as possible. Gianfranco also designed his own glasses as he believed that glasses should not be too wide. Personally, I feel the biggest missed opportunity occurs when people assume these are bold, rich wines that need to be aged for an extended time; Gianfranco believed the bottles should be stored upright, not lying down (assuming good humidity). They do age exceptionally well, but not to drink these wines in youth, as well as with age, is an error. A great wine is always a great wine and that is never truer than here. Soldera wines have amongst the broadest drinking windows of any wines I know. It was well summed up in the 2006 offer: “Tasting these wines, one can only marvel at their complexity, their ability to be luscious, weightless, elegant, refined and yet powerful. They have subliminal authority and intensity.” This may seem a patronising title for a section of this offer. It is not meant to be. Wines this great are rare and maximising enjoyment is everything.

WILL HARGROVE Head of Fine Wine, Corney & Barrow and Director of Corney & Barrow Asia

May 2025

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