2019 Isole e Olena Cepparello Toscana

Isole e Olena Cepparello is an icon, and the 2019 is the greatest edition of one of Tuscany’s great wines. A 100% Sangiovese that stands with the finest and most collectible reds in Italy, it earned 100 points from The Wine Independent, the new publication run by the former head of the Wine Advocate, Lisa Perrotti-Brown. Advocate also heaped on the praise, touting it as “one of the icon wines of Tuscany” and “a sure candidate for long cellar aging.”

In the early 1970s, 20-year-old Paolo De Marchi left his university studies in Piedmont to go back to Tuscany, where he would soon begin rebuilding Isole e Olena, his family’s estate in the Chianti Classico zone. 

Over the course of the next 40 years, De Marchi completely reshaped the winery. While the indigenous, old-vine Canaiolo was largely left in place, his crew ripped out much of the Sangiovese he’d inherited because the clones were overly productive. The plants carried so much fruit that some clusters shaded others, making for uneven ripening and underripe, acidic Sangiovese.

Little by little, De Marchi led the charge in Chianti Classico, rethinking and reimagining Sangiovese.  He found his best-performing vines and then used their cuttings for new and replacement plantings. It was a process of editing and refinement.

Cepparello has come to define De Marchi’s career. It’s drawn from the oldest and best-exposed vines on the property, now blended with clusters drawn from the Chianti Classico 2000 clones. Since the early 1990s, when this bottling really came into its own, he has steadily raised the bar.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 15.00%
• 1 hour
• Now – 2035
• % Sangiovese
• Serving temperature – 58°
• Cork