Cantina Meraviglia: Ambitious architecture and attentive winemaking

Imagine the setting for a winery and what picture springs to mind? The bucolic beauty of rolling farmland? The majestic sweep of a river valley? A garagiste’s urban workshop beneath a railway arch?

How about a more unusual setting, like an abandoned quarry? That’s exactly where Alejandro Bulgheroni Family Vineyards (ABFV) built Cantina Meraviglia, a new home for its Tenuta Meraviglia and Tenuta Le Colonne brands.

That was until Argentinian entrepreneur and engineer Alejandro Bulgheroni breathed fresh life into the area. Bulgheroni has deep Italian roots; his grandfather emigrated from Como to Argentina in 1873.

His ABFV Italia project began investing in Tuscany in 2012 at Dievole, a historic Chianti Classico estate, before expanding to Poggio Landi and Podere Brizio in Montalcino, and finally Bolgheri’s Tenuta Meraviglia and Tenuta Le Colonne in 2015.

Mr Bulghero — Argentinian entrepreneur and engineer Alejandro Bulgheroni.

Wines rooted in their landscape

Cantina Meraviglia spans three levels, with gravity-fed production reducing its energy consumption and environmental impact, while providing space for the label’s signature large barrels for ageing.

Yet there’s far more to Cantina Meraviglia than architecture and engineering. The winery is designed to handle grapes from individual plots, allowing winemakers to capture the expressions from each parcel of land in their finished wines.

Those nuances from individual sites are evident across the two estates. Tenuta Meraviglia sits in the highest points of the foothills at 150 metres above sea level, where 31 hectares of Cabernet Franc and 3ha of Vermentino look west towards the sea.

Here, the vines’ roots dive into the deep Vulcanite di San Vincenzo volcanic soils, unique to the area and resting upon a base of limestone and marine marl. The result is wines like Vigna Pianali, made from 100% Cabernet Franc and limited to only 3,000 bottles each year.

As the foothills give way to the sea, Tenuta Le Colonne – Meraviglia’s sister estate – stretches across 61ha, from the volcanic rock of the hillside to the sandy Sabbie Rosse della Val di Gori soils of the coastal plain.

Attracting global attention

Wines produced from those terroirs are turning heads internationally. The 2020 Tenuta Meraviglia Maestro di Cava Bolgheri Superiore scored 97 points at the Decanter World Wine Awards and took home a Best in Show trophy.

Judges praised its leather and fruity aromas, along with its mellow tannins, balanced acidity, and intense palate: ‘It is a luxurious glassful of red, but it contrives to be fresh and appetising, too.’

Thanks to the new Cantina Meraviglia, the reputation of ABFV’s Bolgheri wines looks poised to hit fresh heights, built on its firm foundations of volcanic soil, Cabernet Franc grapes, and aging in large barrels.