MOSCADELLO DI MONTALCINO DOC Mocali

As Moscadello, it has become a niche of excellence

It is an ancient wine that has then qualified the area of production of Montalcino before the explosion of Sangiovese and Brunello. For centuries Montalcino has been the home of Moscadello, of which we can estimate the productive, qualitative and notoriety expansion already starting from the Renaissance period. It is probably due to the Moscati family, even if strongly typified at the territorial level. In the early 16th century it was one of the favorite wines of St Lacerenzo, official wine bottler of Pope Paolo 3rd. The Poet Francesco Redi in his work "Bacco in Toscana" dedicated to the wines of the Grand Duchy in 1685, called Moscadello: "leggiadretto", "divino" and "Moscadelletto". Documents from the Vatican secret archive tell that the sharecroppers of the Abbey of St Antimo produced Moscadello in 1591. In the early 17th century it was confirmed that Pope Urban 8th appreciated it for "his vigor and taste".In short, an extremely appreciated wine of great quality that characterized the native provenance of Montalcino and this is always found throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Unfortunately, the devastating effects of Fillosera, Oidio and Peronospera, between the end of '700 and throughout the first half of the 800, devastated the production of Moscadello. After the discovery of the technique of grafting European vines on rootstocks of American origin, the land was dedicated to Sangiovese for the production of Chianti, Brunello and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. However, Moscadello did not disappear completely and gradually reduced to become an oenological curiosity produced in small quantities of high quality. To keep the production alive, only a dozen great local producers were reduced, including the Azienda Agricola Mocali.