Storia
The historic Fornace di Ridolfo
The estate developed around the Antica Fornace di Ridolfo, an old brick kiln in Castagnoli. The earliest documentary evidence is a sixteenth-century map identifying it as the “Fornace di Ridolfo Zati,” presented as part of the dowry for the marriage of a wealthy Florentine citizen. A separate account dates the surviving kiln to the late fifteenth century and associates it with Messer Ridolfo, then mayor of Florence. The kiln produced bricks used in local houses, churches and parish churches.
The Cantalici family arrives
During the 1970s, Loris Cantalici acquired the parcel containing the historic kiln. It later became a physical link between the agricultural estate, the ageing cellar and the property’s earlier working history.
From agricultural contracting to estate wine
From the mid-1990s, Loris worked with his sons Carlo and Daniele. Their activities began in forestry and subsequently expanded to agricultural work for local growers, including establishing vineyards and olive groves and cultivating the land. This work gave the family practical experience across the vineyards of Chianti Classico.
In 1998, Carlo and Daniele founded their own agricultural business and began making products and wines under their own direction. The legal agricultural entity was named L’Antica Fornace di Ridolfo, commemorating the historic kiln at the property, while the winery trades as Cantina Cantalici.
The family also commissioned its visual identity in 1998. Carlo and Daniele asked their friend, artist Giuliano Ghelli, to create an image that would express their home and their approach to wine. Ghelli painted the kiln set among the Chianti hills and three cypresses, with flames rising into a vine shoot beneath the sun. The painting became the winery’s logo and remains displayed inside the kiln.
Organic conversion
In 2015, the entire grape-growing and winemaking operation was converted to organic production. The change brought vineyard disease prevention, certified natural-origin fertilisers, the exclusion of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers and GMOs, restricted use of certified organic processing aids, and traceability from vineyard to bottle into a single production system.
Recent investment
Under the Tuscany PSR 2014–2020, Measure 4.1.3 and PID 2019, the agricultural company participated in an integrated project that included renovation of the roof of a 1,922 m² building in Gaiole in Chianti, identified cadastrally as Sheet 34, parcel 122, subunit 8. The work related to buildings used for storing primary or processed agricultural products and received FEASR support.
A further cellar-modernisation project was co-financed through the Tuscany PSR 2014–2022, Measure 4.2.1 of GAL Leader Siena, covering investment in the processing, marketing or development of agricultural products.
Terroir
The winery and tasting cellar stand at Castagnoli, approximately 5 km from the centre of Gaiole in Chianti, on a hill overlooking the valley. The vineyards are distributed through the Chianti Classico area around Gaiole in Chianti, Monti, Radda in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga and Vagliagli.
The detailed vineyard roster spans elevations from 296 to 613 m. Lower sites include Fagnano and Monti Nuova, both beginning at 296 m, while Linari reaches 613 m and Il Mondo reaches 611 m. This broad vertical distribution creates distinct high- and lower-hill growing locations.
Technical descriptions across the range place vineyards on hilly, predominantly clay or clay-loam ground rich in coarse mineral material. The named geological components are Alberese and Galestro. Recorded vineyard exposures include south-east, south-west and south-south-west. Individual wine parcels are described between 300 and 550 m, within the wider 296–613 m range of the land roster.
Vinificazione
Organic cultivation has covered the entire operation since 2015. Its stated objectives are to improve the soil’s natural fertility through limited intervention and to encourage plant and animal biodiversity and balanced ecological relationships.
Synthetic fungicides, fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and GMOs are excluded. Vineyard soils receive certified fertilisers of natural origin. Disease management emphasises prevention and close attention throughout the vine’s growth cycle.
When required, insect pressure is managed through mating disruption. Small dispensers release pheromones among the vines during spring, confusing male pests and reducing successful reproduction without relying on conventional synthetic insecticides.
Grapes are harvested manually at the intended level of ripeness. Small crates, including 20 kg crates for several lots, limit crushing and premature juice release. Hand harvesting permits bunch selection and helps fruit reach the winery intact. Selected lots undergo further manual selection, including bunch selection and, for some production, destemming followed by berry sorting.
Traceability extends through every stage from the vineyard to the finished bottle.
Fruit is picked by hand and transported in small crates to protect berry integrity and avoid premature fermentation. Depending on the lot, selected bunches are softly pressed or destemmed before the berries receive a further manual selection.
Stainless steel is the principal fermentation vessel. Red-wine production includes controlled-temperature fermentation and skin maceration, with punch-downs, pump-overs or délestage used according to the lot. Some lots receive pre-fermentation cold maceration. The longest documented red-wine maceration extends to 28–30 days and uses indigenous yeasts. White grapes are softly pressed and fermented in stainless steel; some whites subsequently remain on fine lees.
Rosé production may involve a few hours of cold skin contact, followed by separation, static settling and slow fermentation at low temperature in stainless steel. Sparkling rosé undergoes a second fermentation in small pressurised steel vessels by the Martinotti method and remains on its lees in autoclave for approximately three months before filtration.
Vin Santo production begins with rigorous selection of healthy, ripe, loosely packed bunches. The grapes are hung or laid on racks or trays in ventilated rooms until suitably dried and concentrated. After another selection, they are pressed and transferred to small wooden barrels that are not completely filled and are stored beneath roofs and attics. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts continues through several years of maturation, alternately accelerating and slowing with daily and seasonal temperature changes.
Only restricted quantities of certified organic-origin additives and processing aids are used. Organic traceability is maintained from vineyard to bottle. Many wines mature in the barrel cellar before release; the duration and vessel depend on the individual wine.
Filosofia
Cantina Cantalici presents wine as an extension of family work and stewardship of the Chianti hills. Carlo and Daniele describe themselves as custodians of the property and its history, connecting the working kiln, the vineyards and contemporary wine production rather than treating the estate’s past as separate from its present.
Their approach places manual work at the centre of quality. Hand harvesting is preferred for its precision, its capacity to select bunches and its gentler handling of the fruit, despite requiring more time, people and expense. The guiding idea is that wine should continue to be made “with hands” and with respect for the grapes.
Organic production is framed as an ethical and environmental commitment rather than a passing trend. Its priorities are natural soil fertility, biodiversity, ecological balance, prevention in the vineyard, limited intervention and complete traceability. Quality is also understood as dependent on patience: longer maceration, maturation in wood where appropriate and subsequent stabilisation in bottle are presented as processes whose timing must be respected.
Hospitality and familiarity form another part of the estate’s identity. The historic kiln, cellar, tastings, meetings and events are intended to keep the property connected with people, wine and the surrounding territory.