Carvaro Della Sala
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 5 to 15 years from the vintage release, though exceptional vintages can continue to develop beautifully for two decades.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Creamy mushroom risotto, roasted veal or poultry, and rich seafood dishes such as seared scallops or lobster.
✨ Technical Specifications
Crafted at the historic Castello della Sala, a 14th-century medieval fortress in Umbria, Cervaro della Sala is one of Italy's most iconic and pioneering white wines. First released with the 1986 vintage by Marchese Piero Antinori and winemaker Renzo Cotarella, it was envisioned as a complex, age-worthy white that could rival the finest Burgundies. The wine is a masterfully structured blend of Chardonnay and the indigenous Grechetto grape, grown in soils rich in marine fossils and clay. The Chardonnay undergoes fermentation and aging on its lees in French oak barriques, imparting rich texture and buttery complexity, while the Grechetto is fermented in stainless steel to preserve its vibrant acidity and mineral freshness. Named after the noble Monaldeschi della Cervara family who once owned the fortress, this wine represents a perfect marriage of international sophistication and Umbrian heritage.
🍾 About the Producer
Marchesi Antinori is one of the world's most storied winemaking dynasties, tracing its commercial viticultural heritage to 1385 when Giovanni di Piero Antinori matriculated into Florence's Arte dei Vinattieri. Spanning twenty-six generations, the family revolutionized modern Italian viticulture under Marchese Piero Antinori and legendary enologist Giacomo Tachis, catalyzing the Super Tuscan revolution with the pioneering release of Tignanello in 1971. Antinori commands an unrivaled tapestry of microclimates across Central Italy, encompassing the galestro and albarese marls of Chianti Classico at Tenuta Tignanello and Badia a Passignano, the maritime gravels of Bolgheri at Guado al Tasso, and the fossiliferous clay-limestone soils of Umbria at Castello della Sala. In the cellar, CEO and chief enologist Renzo Cotarella orchestrates a balance of precision, clonal selection, and judicious French oak barrique maturation. Antinori's benchmark wines—including the Sangiovese-driven Tignanello, the Cabernet-dominated Solaia, and the benchmark Umbrian Chardonnay blend Cervaro della Sala—stand as definitive monuments of Italian winemaking refinement.