From the atlas
Petrolo Società Agricola s.s.
At A Glance
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| Location | Mercatale Valdarno, Bucine, Arezzo, Tuscany |
| Appellation | DOC Val d'Arno di Sopra |
| Owner and winemaker | Luca Sanjust |
| Vineyards | 35 hectares, 250 to 500 metres altitude |
| Key grapes | Merlot (Galatrona), Sangiovese (Bòggina) |
| Wine | Galatrona, single-vineyard Merlot |
| Notable score | Galatrona 2022: 98 points, Wine Enthusiast |
The Producer
Petrolo farms 35 hectares of hill vineyards in the Val d'Arno di Sopra, a DOC in Arezzo province that runs along the southeastern edge of Chianti Classico. Two named vineyards anchor the estate: Bòggina, a Sangiovese parcel planted by Gastone Bazzocchi in 1947, and Galatrona, a Merlot parcel planted in 1990 and the source of Galatrona. Luca Sanjust is owner and winemaker. During the years that Galatrona was taking shape, he worked alongside Denis Durantou, the Pomerol producer who built a reputation on single-vineyard Merlot, and that influence has remained visible in how Galatrona is made and conceived.
The Bazzocchi family acquired the estate in the 1940s, and the family commitment to wine production carried forward with them. The modern estate is small, deliberate, and built around the principle that two parcels, farmed carefully and vinified separately, tell more than a broad range.
Place
Val d'Arno di Sopra occupies the hill country of the upper Arno valley between Florence and Arezzo. In 1716, Cosimo III de' Medici issued an edict naming four wine areas of exceptional quality; Val d'Arno di Sopra was one of them, alongside Chianti, Carmignano, and Pomino. The area did not become a formal DOC until 2011, but the land itself was already producing wine when that classification caught up.
Petrolo's vineyards sit between 250 and 500 metres above sea level, on slopes where altitude delays ripening and preserves acidity. Soils are marl, sandstone, and shale, the same layered geology found across the broader Chianti country. On these soils and at this elevation, Merlot behaves differently from how it reads on flat, warm alluvial ground: the fruit stays focused rather than broad, and tannin stays firm rather than soft. Sangiovese at this altitude retains the natural acidity.
Soil And Site
The mix of marl, sandstone, and shale at Petrolo gives the soils moderate drainage and enough mineral complexity to leave an imprint on the wine. Marl contributes fine-grained texture and some calcium, sandstone drains freely, and shale fractures in ways that push vine roots deep rather than wide. Planting density is around 5,500 vines per hectare, high enough to put the vines in competition for water and nutrients, which drives yields down to between 20 and 25 hectolitres per hectare. At that level, each vine produces very little fruit, and the grapes that do ripen carry concentrated sugars, colour, and aroma compounds. No synthetic fertilizers or chemical pesticides are used. Cut grass from the naturally grassed vineyard floor is left on the soil as compost, and pressed grape skins return to the rows after harvest.
Story
The Bazzocchi family bought Petrolo in the 1940s and maintained the property's long history of wine production. Gastone Bazzocchi planted the Bòggina vineyard to Sangiovese in 1947, less than two years after the end of the war, when the landscape of Tuscany was being rebuilt vineyard by vineyard. Bòggina has been in production ever since.
The more consequential decision came in 1990, when Petrolo planted its first Merlot vines in what would become the Galatrona vineyard. Merlot had no deep regional tradition in the Val d'Arno di Sopra; it was a bet. Luca Sanjust, who came to lead the estate, worked through those formative years alongside Denis Durantou, whose single-vineyard approach to Merlot at Pomerol had shown that the grape could carry extraordinary concentration and individuality when kept to one parcel and farmed with discipline. By 1994, Petrolo harvested its first Galatrona vintage. The estate has been organic in practice for decades, receiving eligibility for formal certification in 2016.
Vineyards And Cellar
The Galatrona vineyard is planted exclusively to Merlot, and the wine is made only from grapes grown in that parcel, with nothing added from elsewhere on the estate. For the 2018 vintage, fermentation took place in small barrels and amphoras, with manual punching down of the skins to integrate the cap and extract colour and tannin without mechanical force. The combination of small vessel fermentation and amphora gives the wine different oxygen exposures during fermentation, which contributes to aromatic complexity and a more layered tannin profile.
The naturally grassed vineyard floor is left intact through the season. After mowing, the cut grass stays on the ground and breaks down as organic matter, supplying the soil with what a conventional operation would add chemically. Pressed skins from the cellar return to the rows between vines. The system closes a loop: what the vineyard produces in excess goes back into the soil.
Wines
Petrolo's range is two named-vineyard lines within the Val d'Arno di Sopra DOC.
Galatrona is the Merlot wine, drawn entirely from the Galatrona vineyard planted in 1990. It is a concentrated, dark-fruited red with firm tannin, made in a style that repays extended cellaring. The 2022 vintage scored 98 points from Wine Enthusiast, and the wine has accumulated a consistent international reputation across multiple vintages. Fermentation in small barrels and amphoras with manual punching down gives the wine a particular kind of tannin: present and gripping in youth, but built to soften over time.
Bòggina is the Sangiovese line, sourced from the vineyard planted by Gastone Bazzocchi in 1947. The wines carry the acidity and grip that old-vine Sangiovese produces at altitude, with red fruit character and a savoury mineral edge. The packet does not confirm the full range of Bòggina labels or their precise cellar treatments, so the complete architecture of that line is not mapped here.
In The Glass
Galatrona opens with dark cherry, plum, and cassis, with undertones of graphite and dark chocolate. The fruit is concentrated rather than jammy, with a density that comes from very low yields on mineral soils. On the palate, firm tannin arrives early and runs through to a long finish, with enough acidity to keep the wine moving. The oak is present but not primary. What remains after the finish is the fruit and the grip, which is where the altitude and the soil make themselves felt.
Bòggina Sangiovese works differently: the grape variety brings higher natural acidity and a drier, more savoury fruit character, with red cherry and dried herb notes rather than the deep plum weight of the Merlot. The two wines read as counterparts from the same hillside, built from different grapes with different ageing trajectories.
A Bottle To Understand It
Galatrona is the right starting point. It is a 100 percent Merlot from a single named vineyard, fermented in small barrels and amphoras, and made in a style that the 2022 Wine Enthusiast score of 98 points has put beyond argument. Pour it from a decanter: the tannin needs air to open. Expect dark cherry and plum on the nose, then a palate where the fruit and tannin arrive together and the finish runs longer than you anticipate. It is not a soft, approachable Merlot. It is a wine built to develop over a decade, which means buying it now and holding it tells you more than opening it young. One bottle makes the estate's position in the Val d'Arno di Sopra immediately clear.
Anecdote
In 1990, Petrolo planted Merlot vines in a parcel it called Galatrona. Merlot was not a natural choice for the Val d'Arno di Sopra, where Sangiovese had been grown on these slopes for generations, and the appellation had not yet been formalised. Luca Sanjust, who was shaping the estate's direction at the time, spent those years working alongside Denis Durantou, the Pomerol producer who had built his own reputation by keeping Merlot to a single vineyard and doing very little to interfere with what the parcel expressed. By 1994, four years after the first vines went into the ground, Petrolo made its first Galatrona. Durantou's method took a decade to establish itself at Pomerol; at Petrolo, the first result came within a single vineyard cycle. The Galatrona vineyard has produced every vintage since without interruption, and the 2022 wine drew 98 points from Wine Enthusiast on a hill where Sangiovese had always been the expected answer.
Final Word
Petrolo is an estate with two distinct answers to the question of what its hill can do: Sangiovese from a plot planted in 1947, and Merlot from a plot planted in 1990. The difference in those dates is the difference between regional tradition and a deliberate choice. Galatrona is where that choice has landed most visibly, but both vineyards are worth understanding as a pair. The Val d'Arno di Sopra was named in a Medici edict three centuries ago; the wines Petrolo makes from it today suggest the land warranted the attention.
Sources
- https://www.petrolo.it/en/
- https://www.petrolo.it/en/the-wine-estate/our-history/
- https://www.petrolo.it/en/the-wine-estate/the-vineyards/
- https://www.petrolo.it/en/the-wine-estate/biodiversity/
- https://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews/italy/tuscany/fattoria-petrolo-galatrona-valdarno-di-sopra-2018-42015/
- https://www.petrolo.it/en/wines/galatrona/
- https://www.wineenthusiast.com/buying-guide/petrolo-2022-galatrona-merlot/
- https://www.wine.com/product/petrolo-galatrona-2022/2196220