The farm is at C.s. Pian di Conati 52, near Sovana in the Grosseto district of southern Tuscany. It sits about five kilometres from Pitigliano and seven from Sovana. Leave the SP46 road between the two towns at the second kilometre and follow the estate signs; the last 2.2 kilometres are partly on a dirt track.

Can I visit and taste?

Yes. Six visits can be booked on the estate's own site. Five are sit-down tastings of four to six wines, running an hour to an hour and a half. The sixth is a self-guided walk with an audio guide that finishes with three glasses. You can also ring +39 0564 614218 or write to info@sassotondo.it and arrange it directly. Either way, book ahead: the farm is small and nobody is waiting at a door.

Each tasting has a theme. One goes through five Ciliegiolo wines, one through five whites, one through the wines that come off the volcanic ground, and one is a first look at four. Two of them come with biscuits. You can buy bottles at the estate afterwards.

What is tufo, and why does it matter here?

Tufo is the soft rock left behind by the volcano that made Lake Bolsena, just to the east. The vines are rooted in it, the villages around are cut out of it, and the Sassotondo cellar is dug fourteen metres down into a cliff of it. Wines grown on it tend to taste salty and peppery rather than soft and round.

Are the wines organic?

Yes. The farm has been certified organic since 1994, three years before it sold its first bottle, and the vineyards have been worked biodynamically since 2007. The estate is also a member of FIVI, the Italian association of growers who bottle their own wine rather than sell the grapes on.

Which wine is Sassotondo known for?

Ciliegiolo, an old Maremma grape. Their best-known bottle is San Lorenzo, from the old vineyard that faces Pitigliano. They bottle several separate Ciliegiolo wines beside it, among them Poggio Pinzo and Monte Calvo.

Sassotondo

Sassotondo is a small organic estate in southern Tuscany, in the volcanic hills between Pitigliano and Sovana. Carla Benini and Edoardo Ventimiglia arrived in 1990 to a single vineyard and a house in poor repair. Their first bottle came in 1997. The estate is named after a big round stone lying in one of its fields. Ciliegiolo is the grape they are known for. Six tastings can be booked, the cheapest at twenty euros.

Tuscany
5 wines
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About Sassotondo

Carla Benini was an agronomist from Trento, worn down by aeroplanes and office work. Edoardo Ventimiglia made documentary films in Rome, in a small studio his family had kept for years, and his grandfather had been Hitchcock's first cameraman. They came here in 1990 and slowly lost interest in their old jobs. The land had been left to itself, the house was in a bad way, and the vines covered about one and a half football pitches. Their first wine came out of the mended cellar in 1997.

Everything here is made of the same rock. Tufo is the soft stone the Bolsena volcano left behind, and it shapes the whole place. The vines grow on it, the houses are cut from it, and the cellar is dug into a cliff of it. The room at the back, where the barrels stand, is fourteen metres underground and thirty metres from the door, so it keeps its own cool and damp all year. In one of the fields lies the round stone the estate is named after.

The farm runs to about a hundred football pitches. Only seventeen of them are vineyard. Ciliegiolo leads the reds, with Sangiovese, Teroldego and Merlot behind it, and the whites are Trebbiano, Greco and Sauvignon. The land has been certified organic since 1994, three years before the first bottle went out, and the vineyards have been worked biodynamically since 2007.

Ciliegiolo is an old Maremma grape, and the pair believe San Lorenzo, the vineyard that looks across at Pitigliano, is where it does best. Their vines were chosen plant by plant from that one field, picked for loose bunches and thick skins. Young, the wine tastes of fruit and ground white pepper. With age it turns smooth and spicy. They bottle several separate Ciliegiolo wines, among them San Lorenzo, Poggio Pinzo and Monte Calvo.

Visits are small and easy to arrange. Six are on offer: five sit-down tastings of four to six wines, and a self-guided walk with an audio guide that ends with three glasses. The estate sits five kilometres from Pitigliano, near the Vie Cave, the sunken lanes the Etruscans cut down into the rock.

Editorial · ItalianWines.co.uk

Plate I · TUSCANY

Sassotondo on the Tuscany wine atlas

C.s. Pian di Conati 52, Sovana, 58010 Sorano (GR)

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Visit & Experiences

6 bookable experiences at Sassotondo

6 tastings, checked by our editors. From €20.

1 hour €20 per person

Walk the estate at your own pace with an audio guide that tells its story, then sit down to three wines. One hour. The only visit here you take without a guide, and the cheapest way in.

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sassotondo.it/en/index.html

C.s. Pian di Conati 52, Sovana, 58010 Sorano (GR)

+39 0564 614218

[email protected]

What Sassotondo makes

Sassotondo's current bottle selection is led by Toscana IGT. The clearest grape signal comes from Ciliegiolo and Greco.

Denominations

IGT From £15.99

Toscana

Tuscany

Multiple varieties permitted

3 wines in stock

Explore Toscana

Key grapes

Greco is the structured, smoky white of Campania.

Region Tuscany

Appellation Toscana IGT

Acidity

Body

Explore Greco

Teroldego is the dark, velvety red grape of the Campo Rotaliano, a gravel plain in Trentino where the Noce meets the Adige.

Region Tuscany

Appellation Toscana IGT

Tannin

Body

Explore Teroldego

Common questions

The farm is at C.s. Pian di Conati 52, near Sovana in the Grosseto district of southern Tuscany. It sits about five kilometres from Pitigliano and seven from Sovana. Leave the SP46 road between the two towns at the second kilometre and follow the estate signs; the last 2.2 kilometres are partly on a dirt track.
Yes. Six visits can be booked on the estate's own site. Five are sit-down tastings of four to six wines, running an hour to an hour and a half. The sixth is a self-guided walk with an audio guide that finishes with three glasses. You can also ring +39 0564 614218 or write to [email protected] and arrange it directly. Either way, book ahead: the farm is small and nobody is waiting at a door.
Each tasting has a theme. One goes through five Ciliegiolo wines, one through five whites, one through the wines that come off the volcanic ground, and one is a first look at four. Two of them come with biscuits. You can buy bottles at the estate afterwards.
Tufo is the soft rock left behind by the volcano that made Lake Bolsena, just to the east. The vines are rooted in it, the villages around are cut out of it, and the Sassotondo cellar is dug fourteen metres down into a cliff of it. Wines grown on it tend to taste salty and peppery rather than soft and round.
Yes. The farm has been certified organic since 1994, three years before it sold its first bottle, and the vineyards have been worked biodynamically since 2007. The estate is also a member of FIVI, the Italian association of growers who bottle their own wine rather than sell the grapes on.
Ciliegiolo, an old Maremma grape. Their best-known bottle is San Lorenzo, from the old vineyard that faces Pitigliano. They bottle several separate Ciliegiolo wines beside it, among them Poggio Pinzo and Monte Calvo.

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