Why it matters
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 and vineyards
Where the wines begin
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.
In the cellar
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.
Wines to know
The range in view
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.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
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.