Tuscan Whisky, Vin Santo, A Flourishing Terroir: Visiting Winestillery

Can't believe it's been over four months since I visited! Takes a while to get round to each distillery when you visit so many…

This really is the kind of distillery where history comes first. How else do you know why someone decided to start making whiskey in the heart of Chianti country?

It all comes down to Enrico Chioccioli Altadonna, who comes from a long-established family of Tuscan vintners and wine consultants. While living in NYC, Enrico saw what was going on there with the craft spirits movement, including the opening of Kings County Distillery . 

While Enrico knew nothing about distillation at that point, he got a job at the distillery and got plenty of experience. He then built on that with oenology studies in Bordeaux, a distilling course, and even studying for the bar back in Italy (which helped Enrico negotiate the laws surrounding distilling in Italy). 

As if all that wasn't enough, Enrico moved to Cognac after only two years back in Italy, working in three French distilleries including massive outfits with 16 stills. As a result of this incredible CV, Enrico perhaps has the most unique skillset in the whiskey world. Classic French wine-making, cognac production, new hipster* distilling in the USA, and the legal framework surrounding distilling…

*my word, not Enrico's

That last part about law was actually a key part in setting up Winestillery. Enrico's studies showed him that a shocking amount of additives are legally permissible to add to many Italian spirits. Pushing back against this laxity, Enrico wanted to showcase terroir in spirits.

His ethos at Winestillery embodies this commitment, drawing on both his family's wine-making history and Italian ingredients/traditions. 'To me', Enrico says, terroir 'is the main way to realize the product… We are severe on the [details of the] production process.'

You can see more detailed explanations on the Winestillery website, in the form of the Grape to Glass Manifesto

The first Winestillery spirits were released in 2019 , including vodka, gin, and vermouth. Enrico is keen to point out that the vermouth here is made with red wine instead of caramel-colored white wine, a practice widespread elsewhere in the industry. Enrico also developed Tuscan Bitters , designed work neat as well as in mixology. 

However, you're here for whiskey, so let's get to that! Whiskey distilling also started here in 2019, and Enrico tried to keep it a secret until February 2024 . Those who knew something about the operation mostly assumed Enrico was making brandy instead, so I was arriving just a matter of weeks after the secret of Winestillery's whiskey - Florentis - was released to the world. 

Details

• Steel mash tuns (10 hectolitres)
• Brewing in 'a classic Scottish way', including sparges
• Filtered wash
• Spontaneous fermentation in clay vessels
• 500L Frilli pot stills
• Shell-and-tube condensers
• No chill filtering

Florentis whiskeys are made in small quantities, using one 500L still (more on that below). When I asked Enrico about how he sees 'Italian whisky' developing, I get a very welcome answer. His whole idea is to contribute to the growing, developing style that is 'Italian whisky'; something distinct, that doesn't replicate whiskey from other countries. 

It all builds on what I had seen at Strada Ferrata , Brennerei Psenner , and Villa de Varda over the previous few days. Together with Winestillery, these Italian distilleries are already showing common trends and the start of a distinctive national style despite (mostly) being very young. Look at Michele Dolzan's ideal of '100% Italian whisky', Strada Ferrata's use of beech-smoked malt, the use of Amarone and grappa casks, a focus on local ingredients…

Back at Winestillery, the first batches of whiskey were made using Italian grain . The plan is to only use Tuscan grain from 2025 onwards - a new maltings opening locally will make this possible.

The water used for this whiskey is reverse-osmosis filtered (as in almost every major distillery), but it's nice to hear Enrico admit that the water source really isn't a big deal . Sure, it's a good quality mountain water source from the Tuscan hills, but beyond that, who cares? You aren't going to taste such subtle differences in the end product!

From the start Florentis is something different. You might expect the first whiskey made here to be a single malt - it's not like Tuscany is known for rye instead, for example. However, Enrico is more creative than that, employing a mashbill which is *only* 90% malted barley . Wheat and rye make up the rest, inspired by Enrico's time in the US. A single malt will apparently be released in the future.

Fermentation is also different here from most whiskey distilleries - in fact, it's unlike anything else I've seen ! Enrico uses open-topped, porous clay vessels, allowing air and natural yeasts to start fermentation. No steel or wood washbacks here - this is an approach lifted directly from local winemaking. 

These massive terracotta amphorae can passively maintain stable temperatures, 'supporting the yeast' (in Enrico's own words) as the wash ferments for 7 to 8 days . The terracotta doesn't add any specific aromas itself, but the result is surely something different from anything else in the whiskey industry.

They distill using a sophisticated, Italian-made Frilli pot still , set up with precise electronic controls. Winestillery's gins are produced using this same still. You can program in temperature curves into it, Enrico explains, in order to customize every moment of distillation. You can also closely monitor the results. 

Under the hood (so to speak), Enrico's pot still has a few tricks up its sleeve. This still is steam-jet heated (rather than using coils), and the still neck contains a small serpentine condenser , where cold water can increase the rate of reflux. The still also has a column attached with its own internal condenser. While not used for whisky, this set-up allows Enrico to effectively extend the refining effect of the column's copper plates almost indefinitely. 

Not only is this a great set-up, it's local: Frilli's factory is only 30 minutes away from the distillery !

Enrico uses a spirit receiver with extra air space at the top to help volatile gases escape . He also claims that it helps him to smell what is happening at any point in the distillation run more easily, helping him judge in turn when to cut the spirit. This is something he picked up from his time in the cognac world.

Aging

Now we get to one of my favorite things about Winestillery, and the final way in which Enrico twists his whiskeys to make them distinctively Italian. There are only two Florentis expressions: one aged in 225L French oak Super Tuscan wine casks, the other in Vin Santo .

Winestillery holds about 200 aging barrels of whiskey at present. When I spy a lone Islay cask in the room, Enrico takes the chance to tell me that no peated whiskey is being made at Winestillery.

Here, the strange laws in Italy surrounding the angels' share rear their ugly head once more. For those who haven't read about my last three Italian distillery visits, you must pay excise on any alcohol lost to the angels' share over 5% per annum . In a land as warm as Tuscany, that is a very easy rate of evaporation to hit or surpass!

Thankfully, Enrico seems to have all that under control - remember that law course? Anyway, enough with the bureaucracy. First, the Tuscan wine casks. These are 225L , made from fine-grained French oak. 

I have to admit, I assumed ' Super Tuscan ' wine was just a brand, meaning 'really good Tuscan wine'. In fact, the term is an exonym, a term created to describe wine which went above/beyond the existing Tuscan wine DOC rules (hence 'super'). So while this is now recognized as a respected category, Super Tuscan wine was actually seen as lower quality when it was first introduced. 

Enrico only fills these casks at 50% ABV , not the 'usual' 63.5% you see in Scotland and elsewhere. This, he tells me, is another idea drawn from cognac production . This reduces how strongly new make spirit draws wine flavor from the cask. Enrico doesn't want the Tuscan wine's rich aromas to overpower the whiskey underneath. He also accomplishes this by wetting the barrels before re-use and using 10 year old casks. This all means that plenty of oak flavor has already been drained from these casks, and the wine flavor develops more slowly in the aging whisky.

Tasting this first whisky, I found a very spicy edge to it! At 48.3% ABV , this Tuscan cask Florentis has a very warming, nutty aroma counterbalanced with something medicinal . A cinnamon-orange tang and rough finish . By the way, 'Super Tuscan' is a trademark registered only for spirits made at Winestillery.

Now, the vin santo expression, aged in old-fashioned 100L carratello and 225L casks. As far as Enrico knows, he is the first to use these casks for whiskey maturation . I haven't seen anything that would prove him wrong on that score!

Something to admit - I had always thought vin santo was “just another” dessert wine, but it turns out to be something very unique and specific. Vin santo ferments in barrels , on and off for years in seasonal cycles as it sits in the roofs of country houses. This process can continue for as much as twenty years ! 

While vin santo can be made in many ways across many parts of Italy, Tuscany is the region best known for it, with several DOCs and even multiple regions for Chianti vin santo. 

Enrico chose vin santo both as a local, unique product and as something to produce a rich, oxidized cask flavor which wasn't “just” sherry . Four years old and bottled at 47.7%, this whiskey really does resemble a beautiful sherried whiskey with notes of figs, chocolate, fresh plum and apricot skin. 

You get deeper sherry-like notes on the finish than the Tuscan wine expression. When Enrico lets me taste a 63%(ish) cask sample of this same whisky, the higher strength highlights a cuberdon aroma and some salinity . Even after days of tasting new whiskeys in Italy, I still haven't seen anything like this!

My overall first impression is simple: both these whiskeys are crazy good ! The strength of these whiskeys is very well-pitched, and the balance of cask vs spirit flavor at their young age is great.