At Montenidoli the best bunches of Sangiovese are vinified separately, with a long maceration on the skins. Each year the Tonelleries Taransaud sets aside the new barriques in which the wine matures and stabilizes; it's bottled unfiltered to maintain its intense, powerful personality intact.

It's called Sono Montenidoli because it represents the spirit of the land, the hills overlooking San Gimignano and facing Chianti Classico: I am what I am.

It saw the light in 1971, and in 1975 Luigi Veronelli praised it at length in one of his first wine reviews. In 1979 Krista Klauke called Sono Montenidoli "one of the Paladins of the Italian Wine Renaissance," in Alles Uber Wein. In 1988 Horst Dhom selected 60 great Italian reds, including Sono Montenidoli, for Frankfurter Allgemeine. In 1999 Der Feinschmecker ranked Sono Montenidoli among the hundred best wines in the world.

Food-Wine Pairings: All the more complex meat dishes, including furred game such as hare, boar, mountain goat and venison. Aged and piquant cheeses including pecorino di fossa, Parmigiano, Gorgonzola, and Stilton. Desserts made from chocolate or dried fruit.

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