Rocca delle Macie Moonlite Chardonnay 2021
Winemaker Notes
For well over 40 years the Zingarelli family has dedicated themselves to Tuscany's Rocca delle Macìe, crafting the finest wines, providing meticulous attention to the vineyards, and championing Chianti Classico DOC. One of the most successful producers of Chianti Classico in the world, Rocca delle Macìe is a family-owned winery with family values.
When the late Italo Zingarelli, a successful film producer best known for his popular spaghetti westerns, bought Rocca delle Macìe in Tuscany's Chianti Classico district in 1973, he embarked on a new career as one of Tuscany's more unlikely wine producers. Working closely with his son Sergio, Zingarelli set about restoring the property that Sergio, together with his wife Daniela and their two children, now call home.
Today, the Zingarelli family, led by Sergio, aims to produce elegant wines that are always expressive of their unique terroir. Sergio, a two-time chairman of the of the Chianti Classico Consorzio, is a strong advocate for the terroir of Chianti Classico and the Sangiovese grape; Rocca delle Macìe is one of the few Tuscan wineries with a DOCG at the very top of their quality pyramid.
One of the most iconic Italian regions for wine, scenery and history, Tuscany is the world’s most important outpost for the Sangiovese grape. Tuscan wine ranges in style from fruity and simple to complex and age-worthy, Sangiovese makes up a significant percentage of plantings here, with the white Trebbiano Toscano coming in second.
Within Tuscany, many esteemed wines have their own respective sub-zones, including Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The climate is Mediterranean and the topography consists mostly of picturesque rolling hills, scattered with vineyards.
Sangiovese at its simplest produces straightforward pizza-friendly Tuscan wines with bright and juicy red fruit, but at its best it shows remarkable complexity and ageability. Top-quality Sangiovese-based wines can be expressive of a range of characteristics such as sour cherry, balsamic, dried herbs, leather, fresh earth, dried flowers, anise and tobacco. Brunello, an exceptionally bold Tuscan wine, expresses well the particularities of vintage variations and is thus popular among collectors. Chianti is associated with tangy and food-friendly dry wines at various price points. A more recent phenomenon as of the 1970s is the “Super Tuscan”—a red wine made from international grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, with or without Sangiovese. These are common in Tuscany’s coastal regions like Bolgheri, Val di Cornia, Carmignano and the island of Elba.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.