Wojciech Bońkowski
Master of Wine

Brunello depression

Montalcino – formerly one of Italy’s most prestigious wine locations – has become an evil place with plenty of bad energy and hidden agendas. No wonder many wines taste completely charmless, including from the newly released 2006 vintages. Expectations were high but many wines are disappointing. Click to find out which aren’t.

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Losing breath

Is Chianti becoming Italy’s Roussillon? Sounds absurd but a string of recent hot vintages such as 2007 is driving alcohol levels higher than ever. I don’t enjoy Chianti at 15%. Luckily there’s an amount of very good – and refreshing – 2008s too. Click to find out the best ones out of 80 tasted.

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The wines of Mannucci Droandi

I received this nice box of samples from the Mannucci Droandi estate in Chianti, after a nice exchange of e-mails with owner Roberto Giulio Droandi. This 30-hectare property in Caposelvi hit the headlines recently with its wines from experimental grape varieties that were recovered from a pool of ancient clones in a programme with the Istituto Sperimentale per la Viticoltura in Arezzo, under the umbrella name of Chianti Classico 2000.
Chianti, we all know it, is made from the Sangiovese grape, and Sangiovese’s ups and downs as a variety define the critical history of Chianti and its Tuscan siblings: Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. And as we all know as well, there are some subsidiary grapes customarily blended into Sangiovese according to the Chianti ‘recipe’ worked out by Bettino Ricasoli in the 1860s: Canaiolo, and the white Malvasia del Chianti (as well as Trebbiano Toscano which is a later, and less happy, addition to the recipe). Hardcore Chianti fanatics might well remember some of the more obscure additive to Sangiovese, such as Colorino, Ciliegiolo, Malvasia Nera and Mammolo (some of these are seeing a minor renaissance and are occasionally made as varietals).

Well, as we learn from the Chianti Classico 2000 programme, it’s not the whole story. Historically – i.e. in pre-phylloxera and pre-scientific replanting times in the early 1800s and 1700s – there were far, far more varieties grown in Chianti, and Sangiovese was anything but dominant in the vineyards. The plantings were universally mixed and a single harvest was operated where all varieties were picked and then pressed and vinified together. This traditional system persists in some areas of Germany and Austria where it is known as gemischter Satz whereas in France or Italy, the complantation has been largely abandoned. Italians have a term for a blend of grapes made in the vineyard and vinified together: uvaggio.

Now here are some of the excitingly obscure name of historical Chianti varieties that were examined with the CC2000 study:

Albano, Cascarella, Lugliola, Malvasia Bianca Lunga, Orpicchio, Perugino, Salamanna, San Colombano, Trebbiano Dorato, Vermentino Bianco, Zuccaccio (these are all white) and Aleatico, Canaiolo, Colorino del Valdarno, Foglia Tonda, Formicone Bonamico, Grossolano, Lacrima del Valdarno, Mammolo Nero (in several subvarieties including Primaticcio, Piccolo, Sgrigliolante) Mammola Tonda, Morellino, Passerina, Primofiore, Pugnitello, Rossone.

Before you smile asking ‘who on earth needs all these obscure useless grapes’, it is worth remembering that many grapes that were on the verge of extinction just a decade or two ago are now firmly established as some of the world’s most exciting. (Viognier is one example).

 Vineyards in Ceppeto. © Mannucci Droandi.

The best-known of these revived Chianti grape varieties is Pugnitello, the best-known version of which is bottled by the large estate of San Felice. It’s an impressive wine showing Pugnitello as grape with massive colour, great concentration, powerful structure coupled with very sensual fruit. My only criticism is that it is very unlike Chianti as we know, much the opposite of Sangiovese, and so its possible use in a Chianti blend is problematic.

Mannucci Droandi, meanwhile, are offering varietal bottlings of other obscure historical grapes. The Barsaglina 2007 is a wine of some body and extract, quite tannic on end (I wonder how much of this derived from wood, of which there’s obviously been a little), rich but restrained and structured – which perhaps sums up the Chianti terroir somehow. The colour is moderately deep and the bouquet is modest: a little reductive and animal at first, with some bright red berries underneath. The fruit register and highish acidity are in fact Sangiovese-reminiscent, though the fierce tannins are not. Made in a rustic, challenging, not very elegant style, but surely with interest, though it’s hard to see exactly what this would contribute to a Chianti blend. The Foglia Tonda 2007 is altogether a better wine, with a cleaner and deeper aroma and a more balanced palate where the tannins are more integrated; there is some wood support but better digested than the Barsaglina above. An attractive wine with broad, assertive fruit and very good concentration, smoother and easier than a comparably sized Sangiovese (indicating Foglia Tonda as a softening and perhaps enriching grape in the blend). 

 The Ceppeto property. © Mannucci Droandi.


Yet the most excitement comes with the regular, Sangiovese-based Mannucci Droandi bottlings. The Chianti Colli Aretini 2007 (coming from the historical core of the estate, the Campolucci vineyard located outside the Chianti Classico zone) is a typical Chianti with strong acids and mineral tannins, and plenty of seriousness too: most of Colli Aretini wines are for immediate drinking while this, aged in oak, can easily wait 4 or 5 years. Good impressions too for the Chianti Classico Ceppeto 2006 (Ceppeto is the name of a different, recently acquired property), riper and broader than the Colli Aretini, structured and tight and still somewhat dominated by the oak and extract, but with good fruit, length and potential. The Chianti Classico Ceppeto Riserva 2006 basically continues along the same lines, extractive and powerful with a tight mineral kernel wrapped in semi-intense crisp cherry. I’ve retasted these 2006s recently in Tuscany and they are evolving quite well (if slowly). Really distinctive and engaging stuff for a winery that only started bottling in 1998. 

Tuscan winter.

Disclaimer
Source of wines: samples sent by the winery.
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Agony and ecstasy

2005 is by no means a bad vintage for Tuscany, but in Montalcino almost everything has been done to make it worse than it could have been.

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Vino Nobile: overdone, underwhelming

The Tuscan disease: overextraction is ruining Vino Nobile.

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Vernaccia: white Tuscany

I traditionally spend the third week of February in Tuscany, invited alongside other writers and wine buyers by the consorzios for Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino who make the new vintages available for tasting.

Vernaccia tasting at the modern art gallery in San Gimignano.

It’s an intense time of hectic tasting, crisp acidity and crunchy tannins. Sangiovese is a fantasting grape but it’s easy to overdose. So it’s really delightful that this year I’ve started the Tuscan immersion by the preview tasting of Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Tuscany’s premier white wine.

Vernaccia has the laudable habit of spicing up its Anteprima with a comparative tasting with a famous French wine appellation. Past editions have featured Chablis, Sancerre and Hermitage, and this year it was Pouilly-Fuissé. Such comparisons have a limited direct relevance but they’re a good occasion to taste some proper French wines (something I must do more often) and look at Vernaccia in a broader context.

The Vernaccia consorzio president Letizia Cesani with Philippe Valette
and Fabio Montrasi (of Château des Rontets).
It was actually a brave move on Vernaccia’s side, as the comparison surely showcased some of the appellation’s inherent problems. The major one, for me, was a lack of stylistic homogeneity and a clear direction. It’s especially evident in the Riserva bottlings. New oak, used oak, large oak; oak fermentation, stainless steel fermentation, skin contact, lees contact; ageing in oak, in concrete, in bottle: I’ve tasted over 25 Riservas without quite understanding where they should be going. The best examples, such as Giovanni Panizzi’s 2002 and 2006 (see also my earlier article here), or La Lastra’s 2002 and 2001, or Mattia Barzaghi’s Cassandra 2007, are wine of compelling substance and potential, but many others are just coarse and excessive with no sense of harmony.
In the end it was a more consistent showing for the basic Vernaccias (and the odd single vineyard selection), many of which provide a happy reflection of San Gimignano’s sandy-clay terroir: unaromatic and sometimes low on fruit but with vivid salty, bitterish mineral notes on the palate, Vernaccia is one of Italy’s most distinctive white flavours. Highlights included Vincenzo Cesani, La Mormoraia, Mattia Barzaghi, and Cappella di Sant’Andrea, athough it should also be said there was a large amount of bland industrial-tasting wine that does nothing to enhance Vernaccia’s reputation.

The wine was better preserved than the label.

The Pouilly-Fuissé team was restricted to three estates, but they provided some very exciting drinking. I found Guffens-Heynen’s wines built around oak, but they’re real masterpieces of oak vinification and the Mâcon-Pierreclos 1er Jus de Chavigne 2006 is one heck of a vibrant, structured, mineral Chardonnay, and the Pouilly-Fuissé Deuxième Tri 1993 was impressively preserved for its age.

Yet in a way the more stimulating wines came from Domaine Valette, including a bold no-sulphur (there’s only 8mg added at bottling) Viré-Clessé 2006 and 2003 that was slow to open but revealed an intriguing herby-medicinal minerality and a wide panorama of salty notes; it’s really thoroughly recommended for 16€. And Château des Rontets offered three very solid bottling of Pouilly-Fuissé: the Les Birbettes, from 80-year-old vines, is extractive, deep, majestic and impressive. We were surely looking at the elite of Pouilly-Fuissé but they surely showed a level of consistency, concentration and depth that is beyond the reach of Vernaccia di San Gimignano, for the moment. Reasons? I’d identify a long consolidated tradition of wine production in Burgundy, but also a stronger emphasis on vineyard management, and importantly, yields: yields are always relative and should be taken with a grain of salt but a Vernaccia producer is happy to produce 50-60hl/ha with a planting density of 4–5000 vines/ha while the Burgundian standard at 10K vines/ha is closer to 30–40hl. That’s three times less than in Tuscany. 

This trip to Tuscany
(flights, hotels, meals and transfers) was paid for by the consorzios of
Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and
Brunello di Montalcino.
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Le Pupille Saffredi 2006

Fattoria Le Pupille is one of the leading estates in the coastal Tuscan region of Maremma, and its flagship Bordeaux bottling Saffredi is arguably Maremma’s best wine outside of Bolgheri. Or so the international press seems to agree, showering it with praise in every vintage. Recent ones have been as successful as ever, with the 2004 ‘the best Saffredi ever made’ (this exact phrase comes up with 50% Google hits on this wine) and 2006 looking just as promising: it got RP96 and WS94, whatever it’s worth. 
 
Le Pupille also have a very efficient marketing team that made sure samples of the 2006 Saffredi reached all the right tasting tables (see e.g. Simon Woods). Yours truly was delighted to be on the list and assess this little fellow for your benefit.
 
Made of 25-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon, some Merlot and splashes of Syrah and the local Alicante (an offspring of Grenache), it has 14% alc. and sees 75% new oak. The oak must be very expensive and carefully selected here, for it makes its impact very clear from the beginning to the end. The dominant feeling is of richness, fatness, ripeness, abundance, luxury; the bouquet of this wine is that of a fat wallet and being able to buy whatever you like. There’s also quite some herby, bell-peppery, minty Cabernet–Merlot character on the nose, and a core of fleshy cherry fruit that has a Tuscan feel to it. So while a little disjointed and somewhat notional the nose at this stage the 2006 Saffredi can be said to mix terroir, grape variety and élevage in (more or less) happy proportions. 
 
Flavourwise, to say this wine is tight is to say little. The concentration is almost soupy and aromatically it is a little breathless from the oak and extract at the moment. Yet there are hints of that extra character that distinguishes a great wine from a merely very good one. The ripeness is controlled and there is not one moment of jamminess; the toasted oak flavour is quick to recede on the palate; the tannins are very present but never exactly overpowering, subtly but firmly controlled. And while it’s obviously way too early to open this big ‘potential’ wine, time in the glass and in the decanter is pretty quick to soften this into a fruitier, cherry-laden, only subtly oaky mouthful of ripe Mediterranean Cabernet. It’s all very, very good, like a brilliantly engineered sports car or an expensive watch; there is very little to criticise on the technical front.
 
Is there on the ‘emotional’ front? I’ve voiced my skepticism about the use of French grapes in Tuscany before, and while it’s obvious there are some world-class Cabernets and Merlots here, they never quite convey a sense of place and uniqueness as Sangiovese-based Tuscan reds can and should. Saffredi is „simply put, stunning juice” (quote from the Wine Advocate) but could equally well come from Lazio, Campania, Veneto or even Spain or Greece. After all, planting Cab and Merlot on a good soil and an exposed site, manicuring the vines and ageing in 1000-€ barrels is, when you have the guts and means, the easiest thing. I like to define such wines as ‘invented’. Saffredi is purely the fruit of its owner’s, Elisabetta Geppetti, two decades of determination. It shows top-notch quality of fruit and is really a supremely designed wine. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not a very emotional wine for me, lacking what I look for in a Tuscan red, and coming across as a little soulless.
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Apenninic wine

Rúfina is a town east of Florence that produces, on just 750 ha of vineyards, a red wine from the Sangiovese grape that is labelled Chianti Rúfina. Like many Italian appellations it invites journalists to come and taste through the new vintages and so I’m in Florence to report for you on the 2007, 2008 and other trivia.
Rúfina is a zone with many assets. It is well located on the Western slopes of the Apennines, rather high by Tuscan standards (some vineyards up the 650m mark) on very good dolomitic soils. On paper, in a good sunny vintage with a prolonged autumn (Sangiovese’s favourite conditions) it should produce an exciting medium-bodied red wine with good structure, minerality and considerable ageing potential.
Yet it rarely does. The level of bad wines here – oxidised, reduced, vinegarish, dirty – is the same as everywhere else but there’s a surprisingly high proportion of average stuff: not downright bad but just devoid of any character. Or perhaps it’s not so surprising after all when you look at the figures: on 750 ha of vines there are just 23 bottlers operating (the similarly sized DOCG Barbaresco in Piedmont has 10 times that). Rúfina is dominated by large industrial players and there isn’t enough competition between the small estates to guarantee a steady increase in quality. Viticulture in many places is still primitive.
Rúfina has two world-known names: Frescobaldi and Selvapiana. The former are producing – besides an ocean of every conceivable Tuscan wine from Chianti to Ornellaia – two definitely engaging Rúfina bottlings, Nipozzano and Montesodi, which however are so much Bordeaux-styled that in a comparative tasting, anyone would pick them out of a bunch of Rúfina Sangioveses. The 1985 and 2007 Montesodis I’ve tasted over the last two days are very serious wines with considerable concentration and a fine design to the tannins but the blueberry register is so un-Tuscan. Selvapiana, on the other hand, remains a benchmark for its 1960s and 1970s Riservas – last year I’ve had a superlative tasting of the 1965, 1970, 1979 and 1982 that were second to no other Tuscan wine – but it seems to have changed its course considerably over the last years. In 2006 and 2007 the flagship bottling, Bucerchiale, is tasting puzzlingly modern and international with big extract and lavish oak notes; the finely poised structure of Rúfina is there but it remains to be seen whether it can rise to proficiency again from underneath the oak. Given Selvapiana’s track record I trust it will. The 2004 Bucerchiale is very good indeed, too.
On the side of uncompromised tradition there is really a single name: Cológnole, belonging to the same family that used to own the well-known Chianti brand of Spalletti. From an impressive estate of 700 ha in the highest crus of the appellation come structured, ungiving, mineral, majestic wines that need a long time in bottle, though the 2007 Riserva del Don is approachable now and, by a margin, my best Rúfina of this very good vintage.
There are some other dynamic estates including the modern-oriented Lavacchio and Castello del Trebbio, whose owner Stefano Casadei is doing some impressive work in the vineyards and whose Riserva Lastricato has been consistently good in 2006 and 2007, with fair weight, balanced oak and very good potential. I’ve also been happy with Fattoria di Grignano that is a bit more traditional-oriented, especially with its basic Chianti Rúfina that’s perhaps the most consistent of the bunch.
From the other 16 estates that I’ve tasted this year and last, the impressions are mixed but 2008 Chianti Rúfina from Frascole, Il Pozzo, Il Lago and Dreolino are recommended, as well as the 2007 Riservas from Travignoli, Fratelli Bellini and Il Capitano. These estates are still rather inconsistent in quality but they remain a good source of reasonably terroir-driven, continental-profiled, structured, mineral, ageworthy wine. In your diet of Chianti Classico, do make room for Rúfina from time to time. It’s well worth a detour.
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The wines of Tenute Folonari

The Polish wine magazine WINO where I’m one of the editors recently published a special edition on Chianti, summarising a four-day visit in situ (read about it here) and a number of tastings both in Italy and Poland. Soon afterwards I was contacted by fellow Italian writer Stefania Vinciguerra, now also Export & PR Manager for Tenute Ambrogio e Giovanni Folonari, who offered to send some wines for review to complete the latter series of articles. Who am I to turn down an offer to taste some good Sangiovese?
Ambrogio Folonari was manager for the large wine company of Ruffino where among others, he contributed to the creation of Cabreo, one of the early ‘supertuscans’. In 2000 he left Ruffino to create his own group of estates in several subregions of Tuscany. Here I look at four of these.
Toscana Cabreo Il Borgo 2006
This is a classic Tuscan label with a long record of enthusiastic reception since the mid-1980s, historically one of the early Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blends aged in small French oak. In 2000 the 46-hectare Cabreo estate in Greve remained with the Folonari family when they left Ruffino, and the bottling’s style was continued. While there’s no doubt this Franco-Italian Concorde can produce outstanding results (Querciabella’s Camartina is perhaps the top example), in recent years the concept has lost much of its appeal as its stylistic limitations became obvious. The best wines of Tuscany are Sangiovese wines that manage to combine perfume, elegance, minerality, freshness and longevity into a package full of allure. Ageing in much new oak and, especially, adding Cabernet Sauvignon with its imposing tannic presence and heavier texture inevitably compromises elegance and freshness. Increased structure and longevity is not, in my opinion and that of many Italian writers, worth the sacrifice. Sangiovese is a capricious and delicate grape and even 10% Cabernet can seriously inhibit the Tuscan grape’s personality.
This lengthy introduction is to explain my prejudice and, generally, the limited interest I have in such blends. That being said, Cabreo Il Borgo 2006 is obviously a good wine. Not such a very dark colour for 30% Cab, it is sweeter and pushier in style than the other wines here, with notes of blueberries and blackberries, but not over the top and in fact attractively perfumed with a flowery allure after airing. Quality of fruit is very good indeed and on a purely sensual level the blend works well, though it’s hardly very deep at this stage and suffers a bit from lower acidity. It’s in the mid-palate texture and on the mildly overextracted, rigidly tannic finish that the 18-month small oak regime (30% new barrels) is showing somewhat contradictory with the natural expression of Sangiovese. Yet this develops well with air and with the track record it has, I’m confident it’ll drink better in two or three years: it retains a certain evening-dress elegance of Sangiovese to be worth your (and my) while.
Tenuta di Nozzole Chianti Classico 2006
2006 is a ripe, round, wonderfully fruity vintage that I’ve greatly enjoyed in the Chianti normale (non-riserva) bottlings. This wine is consistent with the excellent vintage, and is honestly traditional in style. Showing a transparent medium ruby colour that’s typical of Sangiovese, the first impressions are good. Ripeness is fine and there’s already a mere hint of maturity (stewed plums; macerated cherries). Although this is only aged in traditional Tuscan large 3000-liter casks (botti) there’s a bit of roasted coffee in the background. A medium-bodied wine showing the ripeness and warmth of the vintage on palate. Flavours centering on Sangiovese red fruit. Good length, firm finish with some natural grapey tannins and freshness. By all means this is a serious wine, well-made and balanced if perhaps not so adventurous.
Fattoria di Gracciano Svetoni
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Torcalvano 2001
It’s natural for a Tuscan collection of wine estates to include on in Montepulciano too, but the Fattoria di Gracciano Svetoni has been mildly underperfoming over the last few years compared to Nozzole or La Fuga. The style is similarly traditional: the Vino Nobile and the Riserva are both based on 100% Sangiovese (locally: Prugnolo Gentile) and aged in large oak. This 2001 is a good surprise. Clearly evolved and slowly maturing now, the nose shows reasonable complexity with an autumnal bouquet of dry leaves, mixed spices (anise?) and meat, plus an initial whiff of classic ageing Sangiovese almondiness. On the palate this is really rather classic in style, again mildly meaty, unfruity, herby and almondy. Acidity is subdued but balances the whole. All in all this is rather light in body now and showing a certain limitation of this bottling but I like the unforced, classic profile. This is à point now or even a year or two past prime, so drink up.
Tenuta La Fuga
Brunello di Montalcino 2001
La Fuga is located in the warmer parts of the Brunello DOCG, south-west of the town itself with a strong Mediterranean climatic influence. Unlike many of its neighbours in this sub-zone, however, the style of La Fuga has consistently been one of balance, integration and elegance rather than sheer power and record ripeness, and in recent vintages I have repeatedly placed their wine among my top 15 or 20 Brunellos. The basic Brunello sees 3 years of large oak and though tasted in the same vintage as the above Nobile, is considerably more youthful and tight, showing the ripeness advantage of Montalcino in a similarly restrained, ‘reformed traditional’ style. Ripe cherries and berries with a hint of aged Brunello herby tautness, ripe balanced tannins in a wine of good mouthfeel and structure. Can continue to age for another 5 years perhaps. This is really very convincing. With airing the restraint gives way to a bit more meaty, almost marmitey power. Really an excellent wine, and excellent value too at the 30–35€ it retails for in Italy.
Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Le Due Sorelle 2001
I don’t often get to taste this Riserva which sees no less than 5 years in cask. It’s the least obvious wine on this tasting. Initially, despite the denser and less evolved (though still transparent) colour than the Brunello normale above, I found it a little light and simple, if fruit-focused with some nice volume and weight. There was also a certain weakness from mid-palate on and a mildly diluted finish bringing no expected climax. Then with airing there’s substantial improvement with the whole gaining a proper riserva dimension while keeping a good traditional Sangiovese elegance here. It’s obviously a little (old-)woody and in a very classic Brunello style, with no aromatic fireworks. At 50–55€ it’s not so much competitive against the normale here but likely to improve with further ageing.
It has been a happy tasting. In the universe of Tuscan wine Folonari is a biggish brand, though one with a qualitative image, focusing as it does on single estates and ‘premium’ wines. What I found most comforting here was the unashamedly traditional style of the Chianti, Nobile and Brunellos. Respect for tradition, quality and fair pricing sound like a happy combination.
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New releases from Ampeleia

I took advantage of a spell of cooler weather to taste the new releases from the Ampeleia winery in coastal Tuscany. This interesting project operates since 2002 in, well, almost the middle of nowhere: it’s located a bit outside the zone of Morellino di Scansano, in ancient Etruscan territory. It’s really remote here, with the first town of any importance more than 20 km away. There are more wild boars and hare than humans; vines grow alongside olive trees (the local oil belongs, in my humble opinion, to the very best in Italy) on poor, rocky, volcanic soils.

The mind behind the project is Elisabetta Foradori, outstanding vigneronne from Trentino in northern Italy. So it’s no wonder the wines show a technical mastery, especially in their balanced extraction and deft use of oak. More importantly, however, the estate itself is really interesting. It consists of three blocks with an altitude ranging from 150 to 600 m. Combined with a fairly complex varietal composition – Sangiovese and Cabernet Franc dominate but there are bits of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Marselan and Alicante (an ancient vine from the Maremma, usually associated with Grenache, and probably brought to these coasts during the Aragon rule of the western Mediterranean) – this allows for a balanced estate wine, avoiding the extremes of high-acid austerity (a danger in the higher-grown Sangioveses) and unstructured high-alcohol fruitiness (when Languedoc varieties are grown on low altitudes). It’s an example of reinterpreted (or man-made, if you prefer) terroir. Italians have a very good term: vino d’autore.

I’ve followed this project since inception, and have been impressed by how quickly it reached an excellent cruising speed. The third vintage of Ampeleia – 2004 – already is a brilliant wine, deep, mineral, brooding, fruity and structured at the same time, with plenty of interest. (It’s an excellent vintage to breech now). Here I’ve had a look at the Ampeleia 2005. Dominated by 50% Cabernet Franc and aged in 40% new oak, it’s currently going through a dumb phase (in fact it was more expressive a year ago upon release) but there’s no denying the excellent quality of fruit. Although Sangiovese makes up only 30% of the blend, it’s quite present with a bitter cherry profile, and good sustaining minerality. There’s also quite some richness and concentration, and a distinctive pink-flowery scent that I find Ampeleia’s true hallmark. Tannins are ripe and acidity is not very high, confirming the Mediterranean architecture of this. My bottles will remain in the cellar for a few more years while I finish the 2004s. At around 25€, Ampeleia is really affordable compared to some more famous labels from the Maremma.

I’ve also tasted the second vintage of Ampeleia’s new ‘second-label’ wine, Kepos 2007. Upon release, I didn’t quite like the 2006, finding it excessively rich, a little flabby and macerative. This vintage is considerably better. It’s medium-bodied with a lovely transparent colour and a blissful nose of tulips and peonies, followed by impeccably clean raspberries and a juicy, clean, vibrant palate. Very good length, too. It’s best slightly chilled and enjoyed straight after opening with no excessive airing. I’ve also opened a bottle of the 2006 vintage to see its evolution, which I must say is for the better. I’ve been a little harsh to this wine in its youth. It’s not all that overripe today, if less flowery, more peppery and alcoholic than the 2007, and also more tannic. It’s ripe but not overripe, oaky but not overoaked, fruity but not ridiculous, soft but not flabby, and another well-vinified wine with plenty of content and seriousness. Kepos is also reasonably priced at around 16€. Based on the five ‘Mediterranean’ varieties (with no Sangiovese or Cabernet Franc), I wonder how its introduction will influence the blend of the main Ampeleia label.

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