Prior to discovering the rugged and ancient hills of Via Cassia in the early 1970s, Wendel Gelpke was a modern design architect working out of Switzerland and specializing in concrete and steel. Quite a departure from what he would become. Fortune gave Gelpke the opportunity to purchase two incredible Tuscan properties: Corzano and the neighboring Paterno (the latter from descendants of none other than Niccolo Machiavelli). Over time, gnarly olive trees were removed from the properties and the land was cleared to make room for vines - thanks to a team of fifty purchased sheep. Trenches were dug and filled with stones to promote drainage for the Sangiovese vines that Gelpke quickly planted. This is a wild and unrelenting expression of Sangiovese, incredibly clean and precise and extremely expressive from start to finish - tons of red fruit (raspberry, bright cherry) and rose pedal, with a complement of soft leather and mild baking spice. The acidity is bright and perfectly integrated while the back end minerality provides perfect framing for the other components.