Ampeleia - 'Bianco di Ampeleia' - Trebbiano, Malvasia, Ansonica - Tuscany, IT - 2022

Satellite's Hot Take

This wine is both a dedication to an ancient style and a modern, more elegant take on that tradition. It's something new in its own rite but reflects a love and respect of the lands in western, coastal tuscay - this wine, as with so many from Ampeleia - cuts a new path that's actually not new - just a reflection of old techniques and styles rediscovered... and that are much more precious and natural to the place than so many modern monster wines. Lightly aromatic, elegantly textured, nothing out of place, nothing *too much* just right. Elisabetta Foradori just makes great wines.

Notes from the Winery/Importer

Through Bianco di Ampeleia we can express the identity of our territory in a different way than the red wines.

We wanted to recover the tradition of co-planted vineyards, where different varieties live together in the same vineyard and become a single wine. This is what our Bianco speaks of: of how harmony can be created through diversity.

The Bianco vineyards were grafted by selecting wood from an old vineyard close to the estate, choosing the healthiest and most well balanced plants. Here Trebbiano is the predominant grape, sharing rows with Malvasia Bianca and Ansonica.

With each passing year, co-planting gives a more rounded and elegant Bianco. Brief maceration produces a colour tending towards golden, sapidity and acidity go hand in hand, accompanying the succession of tropical fruit, citrus, camomile and rosemary. A true gastronomic white perfect with any food. Have fun pairing it!

Appellation: IGT Toscana bianco
Grape varieties: Trebbiano, Malvasia, Ansonica.
Training system: guyot
Alcohol content: 10.5% vol
Altitude: from 300 to 550 m/asl
Harvest period: 2nd-4th week of September
Yield/ha: 55 hl
Ageing: 6 months in concrete tanks
Vinification notes: maceration on the skins for 2 days
First vintage: 2016

Bottles produced: 25,000

In Ampeleia, the force of the Upper Maremma region of Tuscany encounters the sea breeze, giving rise to delicate and elegant wines; this is the power of harmony. Our wines speak of a territory formed of highs and lows, of history and innovation, of asperity and love.

Our root is Cabernet Franc. From the very first pressing we understood that it had an undeveloped potential. Cabernet Franc is the grape variety that best expresses the identity of our territory.

The Mediterranean essence of this hinterland inspired us to recover its ancient grape variety par excellence, Alicante Nero, which lives in symbiosis with other varieties less well known to the ears of locals, but which are truly expressed here: Carignano and Mourvèdre.

Notes on the Producer

Ampeleia was established in 2002, the year in which Marco Tait, young and impulsive at the time, answered the call of the current owners, Elisabetta Foradori and Giovanni Podini, to take charge of the first harvest, without being fully aware of what he was getting involved in. Marco, fresh out of oenology and viticulture school, had been enchanted by the call of the Maremma and he and Elisabetta had known each other for a while.
However, Ampeleia had been conceived by three friends two years earlier, at an altitude of 2153 metres in the Comici mountain refuge in the Dolomites. It was during the winter of 2000 that Elisabetta, Giovanni and Thomas had the idea for creating Ampeleia. They wanted to farm in a place that was beautiful but out of the ordinary, away from the stereotypes around which the world of wine revolves.
For the following two years they travelled far and wide throughout Italy lin search of that ideal place, which they came across one spring day in Roccatederighi. An exhilarating discovery, a place to take your breath away, with vineyards and a terroir with incredible potential. This is it, Ampeleia will be born here. However, as we all know, saying is one thing, doing is another, and in this case the "doing" was hectares of land to be tilled, vines to be planted, grapes to be harvested.
They started straight away because the land cannot wait. Marco was persuaded by their dream at a stand at Vinitaly and travelled to the Upper Maremma, convinced he would only be there for a few weeks during the grape harvest but instead he began to put down roots in Roccatederighi.
With the impulsiveness and courage of his twenty years, he took over the management of the vineyards and cellar, starting with a few concrete tanks and the six hectares inherited from the former owner planted with different red grape varieties. His instinct led him immediately to focus on Cabernet Franc and he started to impulsively plant it, but without exaggerating, as Ampeleia's goal has always been excellence.
These were years of discoveries, such as the decision to focus on biodynamics, or to find friends of Cabernet Franc, even better if they were local. This was the start of the return to the Mediterranean variety par excellence, the other native of the Upper Maremma, Alicante Nero.
Ampeleia, conceived in the mountains, like a rolling snowball has grown over the years. New vineyards, the arrival of animals and young people from different corners of Italy, to dream together with Marco.
Today Ampeleia covers over 120 hectares of land, 35 of which are vineyards. The rest is woodland, arable land and our olive grove. We also have a small vegetable garden and our animals have reared their families here.
In Ampeleia, the force of the Upper Maremma region of Tuscany encounters the sea breeze, giving rise to delicate and elegant wines; this is the power of harmony. Our wines speak of a territory formed of highs and lows, of history and innovation, of asperity and love.
Our root is Cabernet Franc. From the very first pressing we understood that it had an undeveloped potential. Cabernet Franc is the grape variety that best expresses the identity of our territory.
The Mediterranean essence of this hinterland inspired us to recover its ancient grape variety par excellence, Alicante Nero, which lives in symbiosis with other varieties less well known to the ears of locals, but which are truly expressed here: Carignano and Mourvèdre.