Case Basse di Gianfranco Soldera

Gianfranco Soldera's Case Basse is Brunello's most radical and controversial estate — producing wines without any temperature control, selected yeasts, filtration, or pumping. The vineyards (3.5 hectares) are managed as a natural ecosystem with beehives, ponds, and wild plants; soil preparation uses no chemicals. The wines spend 6+ years in large Slavonian oak before release. When Soldera discovered sabotage of his wines in 2012 (10 vintages drained from barrels by a disgruntled employee), the loss became world news.

Soldera is Brunello's supreme cult — a producer whose wines, when they exist, achieve prices that dwarf any other Brunello estate. The extreme approach — natural farming, indigenous yeasts, no technology, very long oak ageing — produces Sangiovese Grosso of extraordinary complexity and longevity. The 2012 sabotage of 62,600 litres of wine was considered a crime against cultural heritage. Soldera remains fiercely independent and refuses any compromise.