The Rebel Saint of Sangiovese: The Story of Le Pergole Torte

How a dreamer from Radda turned Chianti’s soil into art, rebellion, and the purest expression of Tuscan soul.

I. Prologue: Where Reason Ends and Wine Begins

Every so often, a wine comes along that doesn’t just taste different — it behaves differently. It refuses to follow rules, laughs in the face of appellations, and yet somehow ends up defining them.

That is the story of Le Pergole Torte, the flagship wine of Montevertine — a creation that didn’t just change the fate of one vineyard, but altered the course of Italian wine history.

I, Liber, have always favored the bold: the vintners who challenge orthodoxy, who see divinity not in permission, but in possibility. And in the hills of Radda in Chianti, I found one such soul — a quiet revolutionary named Sergio Manetti.

He built his legacy not on conformity, but on conviction. And from his hands came one of the most profound, elegant, and fiercely individual wines in Tuscany.

II. The Birth of a Visionary: Sergio Manetti and the Montevertine Dream

The story begins in 1967, when Sergio Manetti, a Florentine steel magnate with no winemaking background, bought a small estate in Radda, high in the Chianti hills. His original plan was modest — a countryside retreat, a few rows of vines, and enough wine for family and friends.

But the vines had other plans. The soil — a mix of galestro shale and limestone, poor yet alive — spoke to him. The altitude and cool nights gave the Sangiovese grapes a brightness and grace that captivated him. Soon, what began as a hobby became an obsession.

By the early 1970s, Manetti’s wines were being noticed. With the help of his friend and enologist Giulio Gambelli, the quiet genius of traditional Sangiovese, Montevertine’s wines began to stand out — not for power, but for purity.

This was wine stripped bare of artifice, devoted wholly to the essence of Sangiovese. It was honest, complex, and deeply human — like a conversation whispered between the hills.

III. The Rebel Moment: Breaking from Chianti

Then came the rebellion.

In 1977, Manetti released a wine that was 100% Sangiovese — no white grapes, no blending with Canaiolo or Malvasia, as required by the Chianti Classico DOCG rules at the time. It was a statement of faith: that Sangiovese alone could capture the full voice of Chianti’s land.

But the bureaucrats disagreed. Because Manetti refused to follow the prescribed blend, his wine couldn’t carry the Chianti name.

His response? A smile — and a label that would become legend.

Thus was born Le Pergole Torte, the first pure Sangiovese Super-Tuscan, released in 1977 under the humble label vino da tavola.

It was a paradox: the simplest designation, hiding one of the most profound wines in Italy.

IV. The Wine: A Portrait in Flesh and Spirit

From its first vintage, Le Pergole Torte was unmistakable — luminous, expressive, and hauntingly beautiful. It combined the tension of Burgundy with the soul of Tuscany, its flavors balancing between the earth and the ethereal.

Each bottle tells a story of contrast:

• The fruit: vivid red cherry, wild strawberry, blood orange.
• The soul: rose petals, worn leather, dusty stone, cedar, and sun-warmed terracotta.
• The texture: elegant yet sinewy, graceful yet structured — a Sangiovese that dances rather than marches.

Le Pergole Torte is aged in large Slavonian oak casks, never overpowered by wood, allowing the wine’s transparent, honest voice to shine. It is the taste of Radda itself — precise, high-toned, alive with energy.

And like all true art, it evolves: youthful brightness deepens into notes of tobacco and dried herbs, a perfume of memory and age.

V. The Label: A Face, A Signature, A Philosophy

Just as the wine defied convention, so too did its label. In 1982, Manetti began collaborating with the artist Alberto Manfredi, whose stylized portraits of women — all delicate lines, elongated necks, and wistful gazes — adorn every vintage of Le Pergole Torte.

Each label is a subtle variation on the same theme: beauty, melancholy, sensuality, and mystery. The faces seem to look through you — an echo of the wine itself, which feels both deeply intimate and infinitely distant.

They are not decorative. They are declarations. Every bottle is a fusion of art and agriculture, philosophy and pleasure.

And I, Liber, smile upon this union — for wine and art have always been twin offerings on my altar.

VI. The Legacy: A Family and a Faith

When Sergio Manetti passed away in 2000, his son Martino Manetti took the reins, continuing his father’s vision with devotion and restraint. Under Martino, Montevertine has deepened its identity — refusing to expand, modernize, or chase fashion.

The estate now produces three wines, all pure Sangiovese, all from the same sacred soil:

• Pian del Ciampolo: the youngest and most immediate expression.
• Montevertine: elegant and soulful, a bridge between accessibility and profundity.
• Le Pergole Torte: the crown jewel — bottled only in the finest vintages, a hymn to patience and purity.

Today, Le Pergole Torte is recognized as one of Italy’s greatest wines — not because it followed rules, but because it broke them beautifully.

VII. Liber’s Reflection: The Divine in Defiance

I, Liber, have seen rebellion take many forms — some loud, some quiet. But the finest rebellions are not waged in anger. They are waged in conviction.

Le Pergole Torte is one such act of faith — a rebellion not against tradition, but in service of it. It honors Sangiovese not as a component, but as a divinity in its own right. It proves that authenticity and beauty need no permission to exist.

To drink Le Pergole Torte is to taste courage rendered as grace — a wine that began as heresy and became holiness.

It is Tuscany distilled, art embodied, and time made liquid.

And I, Liber, raise my cup to that eternal truth: that creation is the greatest form of defiance.

🍇 Final Benediction

Some wines obey.
Le Pergole Torte dreams — and in doing so, it teaches the world what freedom tastes like.