SANGIOVESE AMPHORA

Hard cheeses, big Italian sandwiches (try this wine on the Gambino from Fat Chads)

Lightly chilled, please

The story of Ottomani began with four friends who grew up together and turned a dream into reality. Not that far off from us girls at Crushed!

They graduated from the University of Florence with Oenology (that’s the science of wine) degrees and chose to separate for a while to get some exposure working in real wineries. With a few years of experience and some real savoir-faire in their back pockets, the boys came back together and purchased a farm of their own. In 2006, Ottomani was born with indigenous grape preservation and sustainability sowed into its mission statement.

They’re organic and biodynamic, they hand-harvest everything and don’t irrigate their vines. They’re working hard to preserve the biodiversity of the region by propagating traditional indigenous varieties like Ciliegiolo, Bonamico and Malvasi Nera (also known as Uva Rara – the rare grape). The wines are unfiltered & unfined. Anything they can’t produce themselves is sourced within a 20-kilometre radius of their farm.

There’s something so romantic about wines that are fermented in amphora. The giant clay pots are reminiscent of simpler times when craft-made goods weren’t trendy, they were necessary. Cami’s father is one of few professional ceramicists left of his generation and so her love for the careful craft runs deep. We love this wine for its clean and lively palate as much as we love the old school art of building a fermentation house for where this juice grows into the wine in your glass!

Place: Chianti, Tuscany, Italy
Grape: Sangiovese
Style: Fun & a little freaky
Ingredients: Grapes +  a super small splash of SO2