Monica Raspi hadn’t planned to be a winemaker. She was a veterinarian and had no training in viticulture or winemaking. But her heart spoke to her. When Monica’s mother announced her retirement from Pomona in 2005, Monica could not accept that the land she was so attached to, where many fond memories of her late father and childhood were created would be sold and no longer part of the family. In 2007, Monica closed her veterinarian clinic, picked up an enology book and started her adventure in making Chianti Classico taking over the family business. She calls it “one of the craziest and most wonderful decisions” she has ever made. Since then, she has taken the family estate from simple local winery to one of Chianti Classico’s finest small estates. Trained as a veterinarian, Monica views the vineyard like a living being – it needs to be balanced and healthy to produce good fruit and good wine. In 2008, she ignored the advice of a consulting enologist to spray pesticides. Since 2012 their six hectares of land and wines have been certified organic. There are three sites on the estate sitting at 350 metres above sea level. Pomona is peppered with olive trees and surrounded by woods with a stream on the lower side that helps in mitigating high temperatures. Pomona is located in Castellina, Tuscany, one of the three original regions that made up Chianti. It was founded in 1890 when Monica’s grandfather purchased the estate with a small terracotta factory and converted it into a farm. The land was abandoned in the 1950’s until 1982 when Monica’s parents recovered two old vineyards and started making wine. The Chiantis produced here lovely and reasonably priced. Alessandro Masnaghetti in his brilliant book Chianti Classico: The Atlas of the Vineyards and UGAs cited Pomona as a small family owned estate that “rightly enjoy(s) fame among enthusiasts”. We are thrilled to introduce these wines to Western Canada.