2023 Cervaro

25/02/2025

We are pleased to be offering the latest release of one of Italy’s finest Chardonnays, the 2023 Cervaro della Sala from Antinori-owned estate, Castello della Sala at £49 per bottle In Bond. (£295/6) 

Many of you will be familiar with this wine; it is one of Italy’s most distinctive and well-loved wines, and with good reason. We offer it each vintage, thanks to its consistently high quality and strong demand amongst our clients. 

For those unfamiliar with Cervaro, it is from Italy’s Umbria region, close to the border of Tuscany. It is Castello della Salla’s flagship wine, a blend of predominantly Chardonnay with about 7% of the local grape Grechetto to add freshness.

The estate released the first vintage of Cervaro in 1985. It was one of the first white wines in Italy to go through malolactic fermentation and to be matured in small oak barriques, following techniques previously only used in Burgundy. Earlier examples of Cervaro were opulent, rich wines that were obviously oaked in style. Whilst they were exuberant wines and perhaps sometimes a little over the top, this style represented a distinction from the light, unoaked and often diffuse white wines which dominated Italian production at the time.

In recent years, the estate has adopted a gentler, subtler approach to winemaking, including judicious handling of oak, earlier picking and cooler fermentation temperatures. The result is a wine that offers ripe fruit, depth on the palate and creaminess in texture, balanced by a wonderful freshness and minerality. It manages to be harmonious and finessed, whilst also maintaining the richness and body that so many have come to expect and love in Cervaro. 

At a time when it still feels a little unfashionable to have anything other than a super mineral, reductive, lean style of Chardonnay, Cervaro is something of a breath of fresh air.

Wines are due to arrive in the UK in mid-June.