Antinori Le Mortelle

The Le Mortelle estate is located in the Tuscan Maremma near the town of Castiglione della Pescaia. It was once part of a even larger property called La Badiola, important enough to be already identified on the maps of Grand Duke Leopoldo II of Tuscany in the 19th century. The Hapsburg Lorraine rulers of the Grand Duchy, by draining the marshy and malaria-ridden area around Grosseto, the local capital, wished to make their La Badiola and Alberese estates model properties for the raising of cattle.

The estate has belonged to the Antinori family since 1999, and it has worked both on the vineyards and the new cellars with the firm conviction that the area, at the time just emerging into prominence in the overall panorama if Italian wine, had a very significant potential for the production of high quality wine. The family also believed that here the finest characteristics of the terroir and the varieties to be planted could fully find an excellent expression.

Mortella is the name of the wild myrrh which characterizes this coastal area of Tuscany and is the symbol of the property: it also derives its name from this fragrant Mediterranean shrub.

270 overall hectares (675 total acres), 160 of which (400 acres) planted to vineyards. There are, in addition, 15 hectares (37 acres) of organically cultivated fruit orchards, (peaches, plums, apricots, pears, and blueberries) along with two artificial lakes, the larger of which covers a surface of six hectares (15 acres). The property is surrounded by low hills covered by olive groves and woods.

The 160 hectares of vineyards are planted principally to Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese in addition to more recently added white grape varieties such as Ansonica and Viognier. The soil, of medium consistence, sandy and loamy, is prevalently composed of clay and silica and is, in certain parts of the estate, somewhat rocky.

The climate is the typical one of the coast of the Tyrrhenian sea: warm and dry with sea breezes which mitigate winter cold and both refresh excessive summer heat and reduce rainfall.
The lake within the estate’s confines and the Diaccia Botrona nature oasis, home to ducks, coots, and many other feathered species, contribute to mitigate and regulate the dry climate of the area.

At Le Mortelle ecological sustainability means the systematic and organized maintenance of traditional practices, namely attention to recycling and the careful use of raw materials, working methods which personify the essential spirit of the estate.

One example is the desire to continue the direct sale of the fruit, marmalade, and jam produced from the property’s organic agriculture in order to maintain the historic destination – to visitors and passers-by -  of the estate’s crops. The property cultivates various types of blueberries, pears, apricots, plums, and peaches.

The new cellar of Le Mortelle is located atop  a low hill which overlooks the property. The cellar is, in large part, underground in order to minimize its impact on the environment and was constructed using natural materials, taking maximum advantage of the rocks below ground to regulate cellar temperatures.

The structure, cylindrical and largely underground, is laid out on three levels: within its spaces all of the various phases of the production of the wines – from the arrival of the grapes to their fermentation and aging, the stocking of the wine and the aging in small oak barrels – takes place.

This particular architectural form allows the most efficient use of the finest technology for the production of wine: the entire production cycle, in fact, takes place utilizing gravity flow methods and equipment to move the wine from upper to lower levels. The process starts with the arrival of the grapes at ground level, continues with the fermentation at the intermediate level, and concludes with the aging of the wine in the parts of the cellars deepest below ground.