Ampeleia, 2019 'Ampeleia' IGT Toscana Cabernet Franc
From the Greek, ampelos meaning vine, Ampeleia was born out of Elisabetta Foradori's desire to showcase the unique terroirs of the hills of Alta Maremma. After a few years of searching, she and her partners found the ideal site from which to launch the project, an old established vineyard near the village of Roccatederighi that was planted with primarily Cabernet Franc. From their first vintage, 2002, they brought on Trentino-native Marco Tait, who spent his formative years working at the Foradori estate in Trentino, to manage Ampeleia's vineyards and winemaking, and with this first vintage Marco knew instantly that there was something special about these 7 parcels of old Cabernet Franc vines and that this grape was destined to be the heart and soul of Ampeleia's story. So with the 2002 vintage, this wine 'Ampeleia' was born, and today remains the estate's flagship wine and highest expression of their wine range. Today, the estate spans 120 hectares, with about 35 hectares of vines planted across four vineyard sites, and they now have a total of about 8 hectares of Cabernet Franc vines, nearly a quarter of their vineyards. One of Ampeleia's the guiding philosophies is biodynamics, and their vineyards have been farmed biodynamically since the beginning and they received certification in 2009.
So today's wine takes us to Maremma, which is a rather large region that spans the entirety of the province of Grosseto in southern Tuscany stretching 100km from north to south and it is about 50km wide from east to west. It is bordered to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and to the northeast by the Colline Metallifere and the southeast by the Mount Amiata massif, and the viticultural area has an extremely varied topography with elevations ranging anywhere from around 10 to 20m above sea level closer to the coast to 400 to 600m above sea level in the foothills.
The climate overall would be considered Mediterranean, with coastal areas experiencing slightly cooler summers because of the sea's influence, the inland plains at lower elevations hotter temperatures in the summer, and then as you move east and up in elevation the climate has a bit more continentality with summers and winters being cooler overall compared to areas along the coast. The region overall receives a moderate amount of precipitation annually, about 600 to 800mm, with the coast generally being drier and precipitation increasing as you move into the hillsides and at higher elevations.
In terms of soils, the region has identified about 8 different broad groups of soils, ranging from lighter alluvial soils, to calcareous clays, stony schistous in some hillside areas, and even pockets of soils of volcanic origin in some places.
Now across this large area, with a wide variability in elevations, aspects, microclimates, precipitation, and soils, perhaps it does not come as a surprise that there are a lot of different grape varieties planted across Maremma and site selection is quite critical. That said, of the 9100 hectares under vine in the Grosseto province, Sangiovese is the most planted variety with about 3800ha, but Cabernet Franc being a "traditional" variety of Tuscany does play an important part of the region's viticulture being the 5th most planted red variety overall with about 320 hectares under vine.
Now, Ampeleia and their vineyards are located in the Alta Maremma, which is the in the northern part of the region, and more specifically in the Colline Metallifere Grossetane, which is one of Maremma's 5 official sub-zones. We're about 30km east of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the region of Bolgheri is about 40km to the northwest. There are a few key influences that moderate the Mediterranean conditions here in the Colline Metallifere Grossetane and the Alta Maremma, which make it one of the coolest parts of Maremma. Firstly, we have the strong influence of the Tyrrhenian Sea, which helps to moderate temperatures. There are also constant cooling breezes funnelling down from various river valleys that weave their way through the region. In addition to these cooling breezes, we also have elevation on our side, which ranges from around 200m to 500m above sea level, so altitude gives a good diurnal range in temperatures, so warm days and cool nights. Finally, the area receives a relatively high amount of rainfall, upwards 1000mm of rainfall per year. And in terms of soils, this area is dominated by mostly calcareous clays and marls, which have very good water holding capacity.
This wine is coming a single vineyard site, the estate's La Rocca Vineyard in the village of Roccatederighi. The is a 12 hectare vineyard that was originally planted by a Swiss couple back in the 1980s, with a nod to the super Tuscans of the era they planted Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese. Today, from these original plantings, it is the Cabernet Franc, which represents about the majority of the plantings, about 4 hectares, and a tiny less than 1ha parcel of Merlot, remain. A testament to how well Cabernet Franc has adapted to this particular vineyard and area.
The vineyard is shaped like natural amphitheatre with south-southwest exposure at about 500-550m above sea level, helping to to receive both the benefit of the breezes from the sea as well as the cooler conditions that prevail at higher elevations. In terms of soils, the vineyard is has very rich calcareous clay soils that are relatively shallow, and the topsoil and subsoil are quite stony with a mix of schistous stones and palombini limestone stones. The Cabernet Franc was planted in the early 1980s, as I mentioned, with clone 214 and they were planted at a relatively high density, about 8000 vines per hectare. In terms of viticultural practices, the vineyard is farmed biodynamically, with cover crops and biodynamic preparations used. They will also perform shoot thinning and green harvesting throughout, and they also use a technique of canopy managements that I've noted other Cabernet Franc producers that farm biodynamically in the Loire and other regions, which is wrapping the top of the canopy around an additional wire, rather than clipping or hedging, the concept being that the excess leaves help with ripening by being a vehicle for photosynthesis rather than the sun ripening the fruit in a more direct sense.
In terms of winemaking, the fruit is all hand-harvest, and mostly destemmed and crushed, leaving about 10% whole cluster. The fermentation takes place in larger concrete vats with indigenous yeast without temperature control, and the fermentation temperature reaches a maximum of about 28C. The total time on skins is about 20 days, and they will do just one pump over per day during that time. It is a combination of the free run wine and some press wine, and the wine is racked only once, before it is aged first in a combination of mostly concrete, about 80%, and the 20% is aged in large 5000L oak foudres for about 6 months, they then blend these two and age everything in concrete for another 6 months, before bottling. Finally, the wine ages in bottle about 2 years prior to release.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Ampeleia
Appellation: IGT Toscana
Region: Maremma
Sub-region: Colline Metallifere Grossetane (Alta Maremma)
Municipality: Roccatederighi
Vineyard: La Rocca
Soils: Shallow calcareous-clay with schistous stones and palombini limestone stones throughout
Alcohol: 13.0%
