2016 Isole e Olena Cepparello Toscana IGT Magnum (1.5 L) Magnum

In the early 1970s, a 20-year-old Paolo De Marchi left Piedmont for Tuscany, where he would soon begin rebuilding his family’s estate, Isole e Olena. By the early 1990s, De Marchi had not only transformed the Sangiovese vines of Isole, but authored what would become one of Italy’s greatest reds — Cepparello.

When a 20-year-old Paolo de Marchi walked away from studying the law, engineering or architecture, and instead drove an old Fiat from Torino to the Tuscan hills, few had any idea of the viticultural transformation that was about to take place at Isole e Olena. 

Over the course of the next 40 years, De Marchi completely reshaped Isole. While indigenous, old-vine Canaiolo was largely left in place, when necessary, Paolo’s crew ripped out much of the Sangiovese he’d inherited. The clones were overly productive. The plants carried so much fruit that clusters invariably shrouded others, making for uneven ripening and underripe acidic Sangiovese. Little by little, De Marchi led the charge in Classico, rethinking, truly re-imagining Sangiovese.

In the early 1990s, along with neighbors like Fontodi and Fèlsina, the most brilliant winegrower Tuscany has ever known spearheaded a clonal research project with the help of the enology department at the University of Torino. Named Chianti Classico 2000, the researchers experimented with dozens of Sangiovese clones, identifying a handful that were particularly low-yielding, capable of spiking concentration without sacrificing a bit of gripping Tuscan backbone.

The wine that has defined Paolo’s career, of course, is Cepparello, a pure Sangiovese drawn from the oldest vines on the property, now blended with clusters drawn from the Chianti Classico 2000 clones. Since the early 1990s, when Cepparello really came into its own, De Marchi has steadily raised the bar.