Bibbiano is midway between Florence and Siena, in Castellina. It's a 220 hectare estate with 25 hectares of vines. Half of these were planted in the late 1950s, while the remainder was planted between 2000 and 2005. Here, the landscape is different. It's a smoother panorama, with many fields that you don't really see in the higher parts of Chianti, and enjoys a dry, warm climate. It's a family property that's been in the same hands since 1865. For almost 60 years from 1943 the winemaking was in the hands of the same enologist, Julio Gambelli, who still tastes the wines every year, but since 2001 Stefano Porcinai, a consultant who works with a number of properties, and who had previously worked for the Consorzio for 15 years. How has Stefano changed things? 'The main difference is in the care of the vineyard', explains owner Tommaso Marrocchesi Marzi (above). 'Julio Gambelli (his predecessor) is a great taster and skilled in the winery, but didn't have any particular interest in the vineyard. Stefano was an agronomist before he was an oenologist, so he changed the way the vines are cultivated and opted for lower yields'. One of the features of Bibbiano is that they work with Colorino, a lesser known grape variety of Chianti. It's a teinturier (red-fleshed) variety, and in Autumn the leaves of the vines turn dark red. It's a very old grape typical of this area of Chianti Classico, but while it adds colour to the wines, its otherwise quite neutral in flavour.