Conte della Vipera (2024)

About this wine

Conte della Vipera is one of Castello della Sala’s signature whites from Umbria, built on Sauvignon Blanc with Semillon adding a softer, fuller edge. The 2024 vintage shows a fresh, clean style with notes of grapefruit, lime, white peach, and a touch of pineapple. There is also a gentle floral lift that keeps it feeling light on its feet rather than tropical or heavy. The texture is polished and easygoing, with the Semillon giving the wine a little extra breadth through the middle. Its name comes from the historic Conte della Vipera family once tied to the estate, and the label features the small chapel of San Giovanni on the property, which gives the wine a real sense of place. What makes this bottle so appealing is how it brings together Sauvignon Blanc energy and Semillon softness in a way that feels distinctly Italian, bright, composed, and very drinkable.

About the grape

Sauvignon Blanc traces its modern fame to the Loire and Bordeaux regions in France and here at Castello della Sala it is planted on Pliocene calcareous soils rich in marine fossils at roughly 220 to 470 meters above sea level, often trained to pergola or similar systems to preserve acidity and aromatic precision, making it the aromatic backbone of Conte della Vipera. Semillon has its roots in Bordeaux where it is prized for texture and aging ability, and on the Antinori estate it is used in smaller proportion to add softness and mid palate weight, with careful harvest timing to keep its richness in balance. Both varieties are cultivated in the Castello della Sala vineyards with attention to canopy management and selective picking, Sauvignon picked earlier for freshness and Semillon later for ripeness, reflecting the estate practice of blending complementary traits rather than single variety dominance.

Quick facts

• 🏰 The name Conte della Vipera honours the medieval Monaldeschi della Vipera family, the castle’s original owners, not a snakebite story.
• ⛪ The label shows the tiny 13th‑century Cappella di San Giovanni standing on the Castello della Sala estate, a real chapel you can visit on the property.
• 🌍 Its white blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon was created by Antinori at their Castello della Sala as a deliberately non‑local pairing to craft a more cosmopolitan Umbrian white wine.
• 🗓️ Conte della Vipera’s first commercial vintage was 1997, making it a relatively modern classic in Antinori’s centuries‑old portfolio.
• 🐚 The vineyards sit on marine fossil‑rich soils with tiny shell fragments, a geological quirk the estate credits for the wine’s pronounced mineral lift.

Palate profile

Producer

Castello della Sala is a medieval fortress built in 1350 that sits on a rocky promontory near Orvieto in Umbria. The Antinori family purchased the property in 1940 and developed it into a major wine estate with extensive vineyards and restored cellars. In the late 1970s the young enologist Renzo Cotarella began experiments blending Chardonnay with the local Grechetto variety, leading to the creation of Cervaro della Sala in 1985, a white wine notable for barrel aging and malolactic fermentation. Today the estate combines modern winemaking facilities with historic underground aging cellars and manages roughly 229 hectares of vineyards, focused mainly on white varieties and a small plantings of Pinot Noir.