Exploring Tuscan Wine Country By Fiat Cinquecento – Part 2

[This is the second part of a Tuscan winery exploration. The first part is here.]

Chianti Classico (Continued) –

A pair of us continued zooming around Tuscany in a Fiat 500—cinquecento—the mite that will be a car chase vehicle in the next 2023 Mission Impossible movie. Originally launched in 1957 as a nine feet nine inches long car, it weighs about a quarter of a baby blue whale and was snapped up by Italians during decades after the war, having been designed somewhat in the shape of an egg, with backward opening doors, a rear engine, no hubcaps, a top speed of 53 miles per hour (85 km/h) and able to trundle over the plains of Lombardy or meander along the Puglia coastline getting 50 miles per gallon.

We parked the cinquecento to visit Ipsus (the Cheval Blanc of Chianti Classico?) and tasted purring soft vintages in a rum lit cellar of a medieval borgo building which is begging for Gregorian chant to be piped in. Eighteen separate microvinifications are used to produce 2,400 bottles of wine from 40-year-old vine grapes that are not green pruned and which grow over blue clay and schist. 500-liter steam-toasted oak from eight different coopers is used to age this wine in a rehabilitated structure surrounded by roses as well as cypress and fig trees.

The Ipsus winery is defined by what it is not: weeds are not killed on this land and temperatures are not controlled in the cellar. In a region perforated by tracks of roe deer and wild boar where most vineyards are protected by electric fences, Ipsus has none.

‘Lightness and structure, silky tannins and ripe red fruit and never austerity here,’ said co-owner Giovanni Mazzei as we tasted fluffy wines bulging with cherry and raspberry flavors.

Tasting Notes from Ipsus –

Ipsus. Chianti Classico Gran Selezione. DOCG. 2015. 97+ points.

Delicate, silky wine with cherry and earth aromas. Like sipping clouds. Slight granularity as well as supple tannins. Quite a wonder.

Ipsus. Chianti Classico Gran Selezione. DOCG. 2016. 97 points.

Supple and delicate aromas of cherry, sage, lavender and Amarone. Wispy light with a beautiful mouth feel and taste of cherry pie with—on the finish—slight salinity, cinnamon and pepper.

Ipsus. Chianti Classico Gran Selezione. DOCG. 2018. 97 points.

Deeper and more pronounced aromas than previous vintages, though still light and soaked with cherries, peppermint, as well as some charcoal and raisins. Well-structured in the mouth with supple tannins.

Next we moved on to taste several vintages of Siepi—another Mazzei label that originated in 1992 from Castello di Fonterutoli. Siepi is always a 50/50 blend of Sangiovese and Merlot and ages some 18 months in French oak barrels. The grapes grow on slopes above albarese marl, a limestone soil that drains well. We matched the tasting with a magnificent dinner in the winery’s own village and restaurant of Osteria di Fonterutoli—with plates of wild boat meatballs, pheasant stuffed ravioli and rabbit wrapped in ham (beginning with a glass of 2020 Belguardo Codice Vermentino—splendid).

Tasting Notes from Siepi –

Castello di Fonterutoli. Siepi. Toscana IGT. 2017. 97 points.

This vintage includes complex and attractive aromas of black pepper, brick, cherries and wet granite as well as menthol and orange rind. Flavors of licorice in tension with fruit and brilliant acidity. A non-food or food wine—spicy and easy drinking. Juicy and beautiful and as complex as a layer cake.

Castello di Fonterutoli. Siepi. 2019. Toscana IGT. 96 points.

Perfumed with florals and herbs—rose, lilac, lavender and some eucalyptus. Beautifully balanced acidity in the mouth, with flavors of red fruit. Subtle tannins, superbly balanced, gorgeously perfumed.

Castello di Fonterutoli. Siepi 2020. Toscana IGT. 97+ points.

A happy medley of luscious aromas of red and black cherries, black berries and black pepper as well as some menthol. Superbly balanced tannins in the mouth with rich and luscious red and black fruit. Complex yet light. Somewhat ethereal and easy drinking.

Maremma –

The next day, a winemaker friend and I slipped into gear and motored south to the Tuscan region of Maremma. This windy, hauntingly beautiful landscape includes long stretches of open space, rolling hills, dotted woodlands, shiny wild shorelines, sweet warm winds and the odd cluster of grazing white cows—or, vacca Maremma.

The story of the winery Fattoria Le Pupille is a story of a plucky woman—Elisabetta Geppetti—who at a young age ‘abandoned the university halls for the vineyards and winery,’ and associated with qualified wine professionals to learn her craft. Elisabetta began her work in 1978, taking reigns from her father-in-law who had made wine from Trebbiano grapes. She shucked tradition to ignite rebirth of the ancient Etruscan land of Maremma—once a densely packed pool of Roman and Greek glitterati before it transformed to a chunk of Medieval malarial marsh and bandit laden badlands. First, Elisabetta’s daughter Clara Gentili expanded the company’s public relations, and then son Ettore suddenly blazed onto the scene in recent years as a masterful wine maker, supplanting previous consulting enologists. As always, quality sets Saffredi wine alight—a thread of inky dark suppleness, a juicy and sometimes spicy treasure from an ancient, misty land reborn.

‘Here on the coast we can make a sexier Sangiovese,” Ettore said. ‘The beauty of that grape is it gives a different wine depending on where it comes from.’

They also make a beautiful Syrah as well as Petit Manseng—some Rhone and Jurançon transplanted to Tuscany.

‘Syrah is the variety of the future here along the coast,’ said Ettore. ‘The variety likes to suffer and gives great grapes, and sometimes amazing wines.’

Their Syrah’s hefty aromas include herbaceousness, chalk, teak as well as treacle and brownies, sage and rosemary. It has lambent, persistent, affable acidity, and is supple and rounded in the mouth with good balance and flavors of mushrooms, raspberries and oxtail and some eucalyptus on the finish. Trying pairing it with a quinoa, balsamic and black pepper salad. And their Sol Alto Toscana Bianco passito sweet wine is made from Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Petit Manseng. Bright, light, easy drinking and because only 2,000 bottles are produced.

Tasting Notes from Fattoria Le Pupille –

Fattoria Le Pupille. Saffredi. Toscana IGT. 2019. 97 points.

A 70/26/4 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Petit Verdot. Rich red cherry and raspberry aromas—a bucket of red fruit and even orange rind. Balanced in the mouth, with flavors that include some molasses and oranges/mandarins on the finish. Complexity emerges after five minutes in the glass with herbs—sage and tarragon—as well as black fruit giving way to red fruit. Elegant tannins in this layer cake similar to a complex and soft Saint-Èmilion.

Fattoria Le Pupille. Saffredi. Toscana IGT. 2014. 96 – 97 points.

From an accessible vintage of Saffredi comes this beautifully ripe fruit in a 60/20/20 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Petit Verdot. Complex aromas include gunflint and morels, oranges, leather and Amarone. Good tannic shoulders in this elegant wine with a hint of salt and malt balls on the finish.

Fattoria Le Pupille. Piemme. Toscana Bianco. IGT. 2019. 97+ points.

Limoncello and Vin Constance on the nose; clean fresh aromas from this 100% Petit Manseng. Only 1,800 bottles produced for 2022. ‘Smells like pine forests on the Tuscan coast, with resin,’ added Ettore.

[Part 3 moves to Tenuta di Ghizzano outside Pisa, and to Torre A Cona outside of Florence.]