wild west

Getting our toes in the terroir

Agronomist Giovanni Zerini takes us on the long and winding road to the Casetto vineyard in Castellina. It’s beside the oldest cypress grove in Europe, home to a large colony of wild boar who enjoy Sangiovese grapes just as much as humans do, which explains the tight fencing all around the 3ha plot.

The marly limestone soil suits Sangiovese down to the ground, and it has been ploughed to encourage more precious rain to soak in. We’re at 425m elevation, which also plays to the strengths of this late-ripening variety. It needs an extended growing season to reach its full potential.

A small group of independents is invited to explore the estates of Cecchi, a family-owned business, focusing on its properties in Chianti Classico and Maremma

Amphora or wood?

It’s a blend of both

Wineries can be unwieldy affairs as new pieces are bolted on and winemakers start experimenting with novel bits of kit. At Val delle Rose, everything is streamlined and logical, and it looks like an ideal environment for a creative winemaking team to produce their best work.

With Vermentino, fermentation always happens in stainless steel. Juice destined for the Cobalto label also spends time either in new oak or amphorae.

The fruit here is used for Villa Rosa’s Gran Selezione wines, the top echelon of Chianti Classico.

We also stop at the nearby Palagione vineyard, dating back to 1965 and acquired in 2015 when it was in a slightly distressed state. Many of the vines had to be replaced, but the object of the exercise was to preserve the rich genetic heritage of the site, where massal selection has always been a key part of its strength.

Off-road and off piste in Maremma

Maremma, a largely coastal region in the south of Tuscany, doesn’t yet have the same reputation for food and wine as neighbouring areas, but you sense that this won’t be the case for much longer.

Cecchi spotted the potential of the region in 1996 and has gradually increased its initial vineyard holding to its current 100ha.

There’s a faint saline note to some of the wines, especially the Vermentino, and it turns out we aren’t simply imagining the maritime influence. Val delle Rose winemaker Andrea Fioriello says he can often taste the sea spray on the fruit during harvest.

We climb into a Land Rover and jolt our way up to a 150m vantage point. We get a sense of the scale of the landscape and can see what Fioriello means about its touristic credentials. Maremma will doubtless soon be a destination on many Italian wine lovers’ holiday itineraries, but today the wind and rain are beginning to whip in and it’s time to jump back in the car and to explore the winery.

The difference is profound. We try a 2022 sample picked at the beginning of the harvest, ageing in wood, and then an identical wine ageing in amphora. There’s no doubt that the amphora example is purer and zippier than the barrel version, but the wooded wine has more aromatic intensity.

The experiment is repeated with a wine from a different vineyard, this time picked later. Again the amphora example is more precise – Sam Howard of HarperWells would be quite happy to sell it as it is – but you can see why Fioriello wants to blend in some wine from the barrel.

“Sometimes Vermentino can be bitter on the finish,” he says. “The wood balances that bitterness and adds some sweetness.”

Thom Allinson, The Oxford Wine Company

For Allinson, it’s clear that “quality is at the forefront of everything Cecchi produces, be that in the vineyard or winery”. He’s impressed by the way technological progress is being made, but without forgetting tradition and typicity.

On the whole, Chianti is performing well at The Oxford Wine Company, “from the sub£10 DOCG fruity house wine style, through the teens up to super complex £40+ Chianti Classico Gran Selezione … there is something for most people”.

Allinson thinks more education and awareness is needed in the UK about the region’s quality levels. He’s enthusiastic about the new Unità Geografiche Aggiuntive (UGA) system, which recognises 11 new sub-zones in Chianti Classico and will help promote individual terroirs, such as that of Castellina.

But Maremma is also “really exciting”, producing wines of “tremendous quality”.

He says: “Much like with the rest of Cecchi, there is always an eye on tradition and being true to the region’s wines and history, but with innovation in viticulture and vinification due to less strict regional restrictions.”

Hamish Chambers, The Vineking, Surrey

Chambers describes Cecchi as a “forward-looking producer making high-quality wines with fabulous facilities”.

He adds: “I was very impressed with the various expressions of Sangiovese that all showed great character given their locations and price points.

“The Tenuta Alzatura Montefalco reds showed an interesting approach: the softness of the Rosso and the classic tannin of the Sagrantino.

“Both ranges of whites – Vermentino from Maremma, and Trebbiano Spoletino from Montefalco – should be tremendously commercial.”

Chambers accepts that Chianti Classico can be perceived as steady but unspectacular, though the Cecchi visit has persuaded him that the company is “bang up to date”.

“Our job is to make customers aware of the quality that is actually available and that it is indeed exciting,” he says. “Gran Selezione will be a useful tool when the wines are up against Super Tuscans etc.

“The UGAs might gain some traction given that Tuscany is a tourist hotspot. Possibly the individual localities will be picked up by customers who already know the area.”

Sam Howard HarperWells, Norwich

Howard is pleasantly surprised to discover that Cecchi is a “quality, terroir-focused producer”.

He admits: “Prior to the visit, I would have pegged them in the medium/large production of relative entry-level Chianti Classico. What I wasn't expecting was the production from small parcels and such attention to the specific sites within the DOCG.”

He adds: “What impressed me with this approach was the obvious extra effort this takes without it necessarily transferring to the higher, dare I say vanity, pricing you can find elsewhere.”

Chianti Classico is one of the important regions represented on HarperWells’ shelves, enjoying “a great affinity with customers”. But Howard says there’s a danger it can be viewed as simply a provider of “bright, quite austere or slightly dusky oak-aged wines”.

He adds: “Cecchi does very well at avoiding this stereotype and is producing modern wines within a historic and classical DO. Its wines are clearly Chianti Classico, but it’s not so bound by tradition that it is afraid to experiment.”

It was Howard’s first visit to Maremma and, by the sound of it, probably not his last. “It’s a region that I can see us growing,” he says. “If Tuscan whites have had a hard time in the past, I think Maremma might offer up the antidote.

“In a region that could have chosen to go down the Super Tuscan route, it was great to see Cabernet Franc being allowed to show its full potential as a single variety. I was impressed with the early-release La Mora range as an example of this innovation.”