From the atlas
Tenuta di Carleone
At A Glance
Country: Italy Region: Tuscany Appellation: Chianti Classico DOCG / Toscana IGT Village: Radda in Chianti Grape: Sangiovese (100%) Winemaker: Sean O'Callaghan Owner: Karl Egger Hectares: 6 to 7 Production: Approximately 1,100 cases per year Certifications: Certified organic, biodynamic Key Award: Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri 2025 (Chianti Classico)
The Producer
Sean O'Callaghan arrived at Tenuta di Carleone carrying a nickname he had earned simply by being born: blind in his right eye, he was called Il Guercio by friends in Chianti, which means the one-eyed rascal. The name followed him to Radda in Chianti when Austrian owner Karl Egger invited him to run the vineyards and cellar of a newly acquired property in 2012. O'Callaghan had already made his name at Riecine in Gaiole in Chianti, one of the denomination's founding communes, so moving to Radda was not a leap into the unknown. It was a chance to farm from scratch on his own terms.
The estate covers 6 to 7 hectares, all certified organic or in conversion. Production sits at roughly 1,100 cases a year. The range is built entirely on Sangiovese, with no international varieties and no blending. Two bottles are in production: a Chianti Classico DOCG and the Toscana IGT Il Guercio, which carries O'Callaghan's nickname on the label.
Place
Radda in Chianti is one of the three original communes of the historic Chianti Classico zone, the stretch of Apennine foothills running between Florence to the north and Siena to the south. The zone is defined by altitude and limestone-influenced soils, and Radda sits at the cooler, higher end of the denomination. That elevation matters for Sangiovese: the grape ripens more slowly at height, which preserves the acidity and dark-cherry fruit that distinguish Chianti Classico from the warmer, flatter Sangiovese grown elsewhere in Tuscany. The label Chianti Classico DOCG is reserved for wine from this zone alone, requiring at least 80% Sangiovese and produced under a set of DOCG rules that regulate vineyard yield and ageing time.
The Toscana IGT classification used for Il Guercio operates differently. It covers the whole of Tuscany and imposes fewer restrictions, which makes it the practical label for wines whose winemaking falls outside or alongside the DOCG technical rules. At Carleone, the IGT designation is used for Sangiovese made the way O'Callaghan wants to make it: on skins for four months, partly whole-cluster, aged in cement, and released without fining or filtering.
Soil And Site
The estate property, formerly known as Castiglioni, includes vines, olive groves, wooded hills, rivers, and plains. Radda sits in a cooler and more elevated part of Chianti Classico, and that position shapes the fruit: slower ripening at altitude gives the Sangiovese tighter acidity and more aromatic lift than grapes harvested from lower slopes. The specific vineyard source for Il Guercio has been associated in various accounts with high-elevation sites, though the details are not consistent enough across sources to confirm a single vineyard name or precise altitude.
Story
Karl Egger acquired the ruins of Castiglioni in 2012 and invited O'Callaghan to restore the property and build a wine estate. O'Callaghan had left Riecine with a clear idea of what he wanted to do differently: farm without synthetic inputs, ferment without commercial yeast, and give Sangiovese the time it needs on skins rather than pulling it off early for a cleaner, more approachable style. The choice was deliberate. Biodynamic farming was introduced from the outset, and the cellar philosophy followed: no additives, no fining agents, no filtration.
The estate grew slowly. By 2025, the Chianti Classico received Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri, the guide's top mark and a result that placed Carleone among the denomination's highest-scoring wines for that edition. The recognition did not change the winemaking. The same long macerations continue, the same cement tanks, the same refusal to rush the wine from vat to bottle. A small estate, built across more than a decade, now producing Sangiovese at the slower, more physical end of what Chianti Classico allows.
Vineyards And Cellar
The vineyards are farmed biodynamically and certified organic, which means no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilisers, and the timing of vineyard work is tied to biodynamic calendar principles. Wild-yeast fermentations are the only option: commercial yeast is not used, so each vintage ferments on whatever is naturally present on the grape skins and in the cellar.
Maceration lengths are the most striking commitment in the cellar. Some Sangiovese lots remain on their skins for five to six months, a contact time that extracts tannin, colour, and textural depth in ways that shorter macerations cannot. For Il Guercio, the maceration runs to approximately four months, with a portion of the fruit fermented as whole clusters in cement tanks and open wooden vats. After fermentation, the wine spends twelve months in cement before bottling. Nothing is fined or filtered. What goes into the bottle is what came off the skins.
The effect of cement is worth noting. Unlike oak, cement does not add flavour compounds. It maintains a stable temperature and allows a gentle, slow exchange of oxygen through the vessel walls, which rounds the tannins without masking the fruit or the grape character underneath.
Wines
The range contains two confirmed bottles, both Sangiovese, both from the same certified-organic estate.
Chianti Classico DOCG is the appellation wine. The DOCG rules require at least 80% Sangiovese, and at Carleone the wine is 100% Sangiovese, grown in Radda in Chianti and subject to the denomination's yield and ageing requirements. The 2025 Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri award places this bottle at the top of the denomination's annual ranking. The maceration and cellar approach are not fully documented separately from Il Guercio, but the same minimal-intervention philosophy applies across both wines.
Il Guercio Toscana IGT is 100% Sangiovese, spontaneously fermented with a portion of whole clusters, macerated on skins for approximately four months, then aged for twelve months in cement. Not fined, not filtered. The Toscana IGT label appears because the winemaking sits at the far end of what the DOCG technical framework is built to accommodate: the extended skin contact, the whole clusters, and the long cement ageing put this wine in a category that the IGT classification handles more honestly. The aromas reach from fig and ripe cherry through violet and rose petal to garrigue, raspberry, and spicy tobacco. The mouthfeel is full and round, with ripe acidity and fine tannins that hold the wine together without hardness.
In The Glass
Il Guercio opens with a layered and high-toned aromatic register: fig and ripe cherry first, then violet and rose petal lifting behind them, followed by a thread of garrigue and spicy tobacco. The four months of skin contact and the whole-cluster portion are both present in the nose: the extended maceration builds weight and dark fruit depth, while the whole clusters add a faintly herbal and perfumed dimension that separates this wine from a conventionally made Chianti Classico.
In the mouth, the texture is generous and mouth-filling. The tannins are fine rather than grippy, drawn out over a long maceration rather than extracted by force, and the acidity cuts through the body to keep the wine from feeling heavy. The finish is long, with the tobacco and dark cherry holding together. Professional notes have compared the aromatic register of Il Guercio to Gianfranco Soldera's extended-maceration Brunellos, which places Carleone at the serious, unhurried end of the Sangiovese spectrum.
A Bottle To Understand It
Il Guercio 2022 is the bottle to start with. It is 100% Sangiovese, fermented on skins for four months with a portion of whole clusters, then aged for twelve months in cement tanks. No commercial yeast was used, nothing was added, and the wine was not fined or filtered before bottling. The name on the label is the winemaker's own nickname.
The Chianti Classico holds the appellation designation and the Tre Bicchieri award, but Il Guercio is where O'Callaghan works without the constraints of DOCG rules. Il Guercio is Sangiovese with extended maceration and cement ageing: dark fruit on the nose with lifted violet and tobacco, a full and rounded mouthfeel from the long maceration, and an acid line that keeps the wine from collapsing under its own weight. Start here to understand what this cellar does with Sangiovese when the clock is not running.
Anecdote
Sean O'Callaghan was born blind in his right eye. His friends in Chianti had called him Il Guercio for years, meaning the one-eyed rascal, and the nickname had followed him from his time at Riecine in Gaiole through his move to Radda to work with Karl Egger at Carleone. When the time came to name Il Guercio, a Toscana IGT Sangiovese made with four months of skin contact and no additions, O'Callaghan and Egger put the nickname on the label. The wine is now the estate's most widely recognised bottle, and the name that began as a joke about a physical accident has become the one that appears on the shelves of importers across Europe.
Final Word
Tenuta di Carleone is a small estate doing something specific and unhurried: 100% Sangiovese, biodynamic farming, extended maceration measured in months rather than weeks, cement ageing, and no intervention from vat to bottle. The Chianti Classico has reached the top of the Gambero Rosso table, and Il Guercio sits at the serious, slower end of what Sangiovese can produce in the Apennine foothills between Florence and Siena. Six to seven hectares, roughly 1,100 cases a year, and a winemaker who puts his nickname on the label because it fits.
Sources
- https://hartandcru.com/blogs/grower-stories/tenuta-carleone
- https://stradebianchewines.com/producer/tenuta-di-carleone/
- https://www.candidwines.com/post/carleone-chianti-classico
- https://www.piemont-express.de/en-eu/products/tenuta-di-carleone-il-guercio-2022
- https://www.weibelweine.ch/en/shop/il-guercio-toscana-igt_4130?bottle=&jahr=available&offset=0&sortField=year+ASC
- https://www.superiore.de/en/wine/tuscany-chianti/tenuta-di-carleone/il-guercio-rosso-toscana-igt-2022.html