Since the beginning the goal was a higher wine’s quality. Sergio Monti and his son Ivo, both autodidacts, constantly experimented in the cellar and in the vineyard with older and newer techniques published in the sector’s scientific papers. They also red treatises about viticulture and oenology and attended the formation classes at the University of Bordeaux’s oenology faculty. Ivo also attended the inter-professional center of Beaune so that he could understand the secret of their exceptional white wines. The fierce selection in the vineyard is the fundament on which the good results in the cellar are built upon. The less is produced and the older the vineyard becomes, the more will the wine be rich with polyphenols and aromatic substances. This assures a stable product in the long term. The discipline and respect for the harvest are the keys to a good vintage: protecting nature, embracing the methods that make it possible to minimize intervention following the climatic conditions and exclude a series of products that are bad for the environment. This all brings a benefit to the future generations, which wine is all about, also granting an ecologic sustainability. The less the product (first the grapes, than the must and finally the wine) is mechanically mistreated the more the integrity of what nature gave us is guaranteed.

The most important part is the vintage: if the grapes are picked too soon, the flavours will be green, herbal, of not yet mature fruits; if they are picked too late the grapes will be over mature, with a flat taste, a "cooked" flavor, not balanced by the freshness given by the right acidity. That means that the vines are controlled one by one, fee by fee, to monitor the evolution of the maturation. For this purpose 200 grapes per fee are regularly taken. The average weight, how they look (the texture of  pulp and skin, the color of grapeseed), the taste of the grapes, the analysis of acidity and sugars, in relation to the climatic conditions: these are all fundamental parameters to determine the day of the harvest in the respective fee.

During the harvest each imperfection is eliminated and so only the best of what the vineyard offers is brought into the cellar. Every time that something mechanical is put into work on the wine, like pumps or filters, the wine becomes poorer. That’s the reason why Cantina Monti tries to minimize this kind of interactions. Each decantation is carried out using the force of gravity, this is possible thanks to the elevators that can lift vats and barriques on 4 levels. The vats have wheels to move them directly under the press or on the elevators. Not even during the fermentation phase there is any use of pumps. The stirring is done with rakes every 4 hours, even at night.

For the red wines, fermentation temperatures are established thanks to water-thermic-controlled tubs that don’t get over 30° C. When the fermentation is over the process is inverted and the mass is brought to 24°C ca to obtain a better maceration. The maceration is never too long: the red wines of Cantina Monti are full-bodied, structured and full of aromas, but we try to avoid the extraction of aggressive tannins which might be astringents. The complex structure is supported by soft tannins, mature and well fused, which leave space to deepness and finesse. All this is freshened by intense fruity aromas. The wine is then left to refine in barriques for over a year. By osmosis, through the pores in the texture of the oak barrel’s pores, 10% of the water contained in the wine evaporates into the air. It is a long and natural concentration process which does not alter the integrity of the wine. If it’s done mechanically the same concentration would be obtained but the wine would be brutalized. Another advantage of the secular use of the barriques is the micro oxygenation. The penetration of oxygen is so slow and microscopic that the molecules, instead of oxidizing the wine, combine with the billions red wine molecules. This creates more complex and structured molecules in a natural polymerization process. This features of the barrique give birth to a wine that is chemically different from the same wine bred in containers of tin, glass, inox, epoxy fibers or else. This gives the wine a higher stability exalting his features. Obviously not only the good tastes are exalted, even a little flaw, that is barely noticeable, if concentrated, can become invasive. Only the wines that come from quality grapes, with a low vineyard yield and perfectly ripe can survive and improve at the effect of the barrique, generating big emotions. The wines of Cantina Monti are made for the aging, but have the benefit to be enjoyable as soon as they are bottled. We believe that wine, even if structured, rich and complex, has to be a pleasure for the palate: firm, muscular and tonic, but also soft, full, deep, fine and delicate... such as a beautiful woman. Some great wines are technically perfect, but are stern, aggressive and hard, making it difficult to finish the second glass. The best way to enjoy our wine is to invite two friends for dinner, send them both home and only then open the bottle!

For the white wine we apply the same rule of low yield and a winemaking that focuses on the maximum valorization of high quality grapes. The average vintage doesn’t surpass the half kilo per square meter, which represents less than the half of the production allowed for first class white wine. Instead of being pressed directly in the press, the grapes are press-destemmed, like for the reds, and the must is left macerating with the peel at low temperatures (3°C ca). This peel-cryo-maceration makes it possible for the skin to transmit the typicality of the vine and the finer fruited aromas into the must, preventing meanwhile a spontaneous fermentation. Each couple of ours the must has to be tasted so that the right moment for the raking and the pressing can be determined. Balance is important: if the aroma’s extraction goes on for too long the must can become salty and later bitter and this flaw will remain in the wine. The must ferments go directly in barriqueand rest there for ca 6 months on fine dregs, without ever being decanted. This ancient system of Bourgogne expects a series of batonnages of decreasing frequency. The goal is to stir the wine and put the dregs in suspension again. For the white wine the goal is a product that becomes better with time, that releases secondary aromas after 3-4 years. When it’s young it bursts freshness, with fruity, floral and even mineral aromas, which persist in the mouth for a long time. With aging it develops secondary aromas such as butter, hazelnut and some spices.

In 1972 after an accident during a walk in the mountains, following the advice of his doctor, Sergio Monti went back to Cademario, where is family was rooted since 1498. He began doing some outdoor works and bought a pair of scissors to free a little abandoned farm house from brambles. Soon enough the "calling of the earth" had the best of him and so, once he finished fixing the house, he begun to think about the restoration of the vineyard's rows. In 1976 the first bottle of wine saw the light.

Until 1978 in the Ronchi there were no road and no electricity and only the water source granted the start of the wine production. It was necessary to go up and down to the village and bring everything up on the shoulders. Sergio dived into the research of an higher quality wine. He enlarged the vineyards and experimented with new vines. He began a collaboration with the federal office of agronomic research. His sons Delio and Ivo where involved from the start in his profound passion, followed by their childhood friend Giovanni Cavalieri, who’s now responsible of the vineyards. There were many years of brave experiments in the cellar and in the vineyard, supported by a constant academic formation. It’s a period while the wine evolved, becoming more than just merely a food that supplied the missing calories on the bare dinner table of the rural world. It became a product that creates emotions and is tasted for the pleasure of meditation and conviviality. To Sergio

it became clear right away that to produce such a nectar it’s necessary to leave few bunches on each stump. From his position as president of  Federviti and of the assembly of Swiss vine growers, he was able to ferry the Ticino’s wine scenario into this delicate change of mentality. There were not few times in which he had to deal with the wine growers, who challenged his opinion about cutting still green grapes, to thin the production. Throughout the years Delio Monti took care of the development of new wine cellars and the new spaces for the production. It was very important to him to harmoniously integrate landscape and cellar. Delio realized the wine’s labels and took care of every graphic, architectonic and artistic aspect of the Cantina Monti. His tenacity and perseverance contributed in many ways to the excellence that today is recognized to Ticino’s wines. In all these years of steady evolution Cantina Monti has never stopped experimenting and daring with new systems that focus on the pursuit of a product that makes it possible for the earth to share his song.