ABOUT TENUTA SETTE PONTI
The estate is one of Tuscany’s most innovative, quality-driven producers of world-class Super Tuscans. It is owned by luxury goods entrepreneur Antonio Moretti, who engaged the finest team of enologists, viticulturists, and agronomists to help ensure the highest quality wines. The estate includes property in the famed Maremma coastal zone, which produces the wine Poggio al Lupo, sister to the Sicilian Feudo Maccari estate also owned by Moretti.
THE HISTORIC SETTE PONTI ESTATE
Tenuta Sette Ponti lies on historic land in the heart of the Chianti zone at the end of the Via del Monte, known locally as the Via dei Sette Ponti, in a beautiful hidden valley. Named for the seven medieval bridges crossing the Arno River on the road from Arezzo to Florence—one of which, the Ponte Buriano, is perceptible in the right far background of Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa—the estate has a storied history. But it has been the dedication and savvy of luxury goods entrepreneur Antonio Moretti that has transformed the 750-acre estate into a multifaceted farm property that is today one of Tuscany’s most innovative, quality-driven producers of world-class Super Tuscans.
Tenuta Sette Ponti’s first release was the 1998 vintage Crognolo, named after a wild bush, Cornus, which grows on the estate. The estate’s second release, Oreno, is named after a small river running through the estate.
CHANNELING EXPERTISE
Previously the property of the Princesses Margherita and Cristina Savoia d’Aosta, the core of the Sette Ponti estate was purchased in 1957 as a hunting retreat by architect Alberto Moretti, and is now the family property of Antonio Moretti, his son.
Viticulture is not new to the estate, but winemaking is; the yield of the property’s vineyards was until 1997 sold to various respected Tuscan wine producers. When Moretti decided to produce his own wine on the estate, he knew how to find the expertise he needed and, more important, how to learn from it. Once the decision to transform the vineyards was made, he engaged a team of gifted enologists. After considerable research, he also engaged Gilbert Bouvet, one of France’s most skilled viticulturalists, to source new vines and the appropriate rootstocks for the best clones of Sangiovese. Sette Ponti’s varied soils led Moretti to consulting agronomist Dr. Benedetto d’Anna, who guided preparation of the land for new plantings and creation of drainage channels without disturbing the natural balance of the soil.
THE HILL OF THE WOLF
In 1999, Moretti purchased a second estate. His choice of zone was based on a desire to produce wine in an area capable of great quality, but also a relatively undeveloped one with tremendous potential for growth. He acquired the Azienda Agricola Le Fornace in the Maremma on Tuscany’s southern coast, an area that would soon draw intense interest from several highly regarded producers. The property, in the DOC zone of Morellino di Scansano, was renamed Azienda Agricola Poggio al Lupo, or “Hill of the Wolf.” It covers 115 acres, but at the time of purchase supported only 12 acres of vines, the yield of which was sold in bulk. From the estate’s original Cabernet Sauvignon, Alicante and Sangiovese plantings, established in 1989, the total area under vine has been increased to 37 acres. Of this, 40% is in Sangiovese, 35% in Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% in Alicante and the remainder in Petit Verdot.
A THIRD ESTATE
In 2000, Moretti acquired a third property in the Noto area of Sicily. He named this 250-acre estate Feudo Maccari.
